Pet Sematary (film)

Pet Sematary
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Mary Lambert
Produced by	Richard P. Rubinstein
Screenplay by	Stephen King
Based on	Pet Sematary  by Stephen King
Starring	Dale Midkiff Fred Gwynne Denise Crosby Brad Greenquist Miko Hughes Blaze Berdahl Susan Blommaert
Music by	Elliot Goldenthal
Cinematography	Peter Stein
Editing by	Daniel P. Hanley Mike Hill
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	April 21, 1989 (1989-04-21)
Running time	103 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$11.5 million
Box office	$57,469,179

Pet Sematary (sometimes referred to as Stephen King's Pet Sematary) is a 1989 American horror film adaptation of Stephen King's novel of the same name. Directed by Mary Lambert and written by King, the film features Dale Midkiff as Louis Creed, Denise Crosby as Rachel Creed, Blaze Berdahl as Ellie Creed, Miko Hughes as Gage Creed, and Fred Gwynne as Jud Crandall. Andrew Hubatsek was cast for Zelda's role. Author King has a cameo as a minister.

A sequel, Pet Sematary Two, was released which was met with less financial and critical success.

Plot

The Creed family moves from Chicago to the small town of Ludlow, Maine. They end up befriending their elderly neighbor, Jud Crandell, who takes them to the isolated pet cemetery (misspelled "Sematary") behind the Creeds' new home.

Later, Louis Creed is working at the University of Maine when a young student named Victor Pascow is brought in with severe injuries from a car accident. The young man dies, but not before warning Louis (by name) of the pet cemetery. That night, in what is seemingly a dream, Victor visits Louis, warning him about the burial ground beyond the pet cemetery. Louis wakes up to find his feet covered in dirt.

Church, a cat owned by Louis' daughter Ellie, is killed by a truck on the road in front of their house while Rachel, Ellie and Gage are in Chicago. Jud takes Louis to an ancient Micmac Indian burial ground, the "real cemetery", to bury the cat. Louis asks if a person was ever buried in the grounds. Jud replies, "Christ on His throne, no. And whoever would?" Church comes back that night, but an evil shell of himself, attacking Louis and smelling of death.

Sometime later, Louis' young son Gage is killed by a truck on the same road. Louis considers burying Gage in the burial grounds. Jud tries to dissuade him from doing so, telling him about a young man from town, Timmy Baterman, who died in service during World War II. Timmy's father, Bill, placed his son's corpse into the Micmac burial ground, only to have it reanimate and terrify the townsfolk. Jud and three of his friends tried burning down the house with the son in it, but Bill was attacked by Timmy and they both perished in the fire.

Rachel begs Louis to go with her and Ellie to Chicago, but he declines. Louis heads to the cemetery Gage is buried in, intending to exhume his son's body. He is met at the graveyard by Pascow, who warns him not to proceed.

On the flight, Ellie has a nightmare, stating that "Paxcow" warned her that Louis is going to do something really bad, and that he is trying to help because Louis tried to save his life. Rachel realizes who her daughter is talking about and calls Jud after Louis does not answer the phone. She asks if he has seen Louis, and then tells him she is returning. Jud warns her not to, but she has already hung up.

Louis takes his son's corpse to the Micmac burial ground. Pascow's spirit unsuccessfully tries to stop Louis. Louis returns home, exhausted from his activities. Gage later arrives and enters his father's room, removing a scalpel from one of his bags. Gage enters Jud's house and kills Jud while Church watches.

Rachel arrives home, hearing something that sounds like her late sister, Zelda, calling her name, then Gage's laughter. Rachel enters Jud's house and finds Gage in an upstairs bedroom. Gage tells her he brought her something and shows her Louis' scalpel. Rachel hugs her son in disbelief and is murdered.

Louis wakes up to find Gage's muddy footprints on the floor, his doctor's bag open and his scalpel gone. He receives a call from Gage saying, "Come play with me daddy! First I played with Jud, and then I played with mommy. We had an awful good time. Now I want to play wiff yewww."

Preparing shots of morphine, Louis heads to Jud's house, running into Church once more. He distracts the cat with a raw steak, then kills him with a shot of morphine. He heads into the house, once more taunted by Gage. Louis searches the house only to have Rachel's corpse fall from the attic, hanged by her neck. Gage attacks his father, but Louis injects the boy with a morphine shot, killing him. Louis soaks the house in kerosene and sets it on fire, carrying his wife's body out. Pascow watches, and tells Louis he is sorry, and not to bury Rachel in the same place. Louis replies that he waited too long with Gage, and that it will work with his wife because she just died. Louis walks through Pascow, who vanishes screaming.

At home, Louis plays solitaire while he waits. At midnight, Rachel comes through the kitchen door. She coos "Darling..." and the two embrace kissing as it is revealed that her face is ravaged and oozing cranial fluid. Rachel reaches for a knife on the kitchen table. The screen blacks out as Rachel stabs him while Louis screams.

Cast

• Dale Midkiff as Louis Creed
• Fred Gwynne as Jud Crandall
• Denise Crosby as Rachel Creed
• Brad Greenquist as Victor Pascow
• Michael Lombard as Irwin Goldman
• Miko Hughes as Gage Creed
• Blaze Berdahl as Ellie Creed
• Susan Blommaert as Missy Dandridge
• Mara Clark as Marcy Charlton
• Kavi Raz as Steve Masterton
• Mary Louise Wilson as Dory Goldman
• Andrew Hubatsek as Zelda
• Lisa Stathoplos as Jud's mother
• Stephen King as Minister
• Chuck Courtney as Bill Baterman
• Peter Stader as Timmy Baterman

Music

Main article: Pet Sematary (soundtrack)

The film's score was written by Elliot Goldenthal. The film features two songs by the Ramones, one of Stephen King's favorite bands: "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" appears in a scene, and "Pet Sematary", a new track written specially for the movie, plays over the credits.

The song "Pet Sematary" became one of the Ramones' biggest charting hits, reaching number four on the Billboard 'Modern Rock Tracks' list, despite being, in the words of AMG, "reviled by most of the band's hardcore fans".

Reception

Pet Sematary received mixed reviews, garnering a 50% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, while it managed a positive 64% rating from audiences. The film grossed $57 million in North America.

Fangoria magazine had exclusive coverage of the filming of Stephen King's Pet Sematary. Their correspondent, Rod Labbe, visited the set twice: in October 1988 (at Bangor, Maine's Mount Hope Cemetery) and in November 1988 (Ellsworth, Maine). His articles were published in the February, April and June 1989 editions of Fangoria. Labbe and Pet Sematary also had the cover story in Gorezone, July 1989, an interview with the film's director, Mary Lambert.

Labbe wrote a two-part Pet Sematary retrospective for Fangoria that will appear in 2013. He also interviewed Brad Greenquist, who played Victor Pascow, and it will run alongside the article.

Remake

Matthew Greenberg began writing the screenplay for a remake of the film in March 2010. It will be produced by Steven Schneider for Paramount Pictures.

External links

• Pet Sematary at the Internet Movie Database
• Pet Sematary at Box Office Mojo
• Pet Sematary at Rotten Tomatoes