''Pet Sematary'' (sometimes referred to as ''Stephen King's Pet Sematary'') is a 1989 American
supernatural horror film
Supernatural horror film is a film genre that combines aspects of horror film and supernatural film. Supernatural occurrences in such films often include ghosts and demons, and many supernatural horror films have elements of religion. Common theme ...
and the first
adaptation of
Stephen King's
1983 novel of the same name. Directed by
Mary Lambert and written by King, it stars
Dale Midkiff
Dale Alan Midkiff (born July 1, 1959) is an American actor, best known for playing Louis Creed in the horror film ''Pet Sematary'' (1989) and Captain Darien Lambert in the TV series ''Time Trax''.
Career
Midkiff acted in off-Broadway plays lik ...
,
Denise Crosby
Denise Michelle Crosby is an American actress and model known for portraying Security Chief Tasha Yar mainly in season one of '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', and Yar's daughter, the half-Romulan Commander Sela, in subsequent seasons. She ...
,
Blaze Berdahl,
Fred Gwynne
Frederick Hubbard Gwynne (July 10, 1926 – July 2, 1993) was an American actor, artist and author widely known for his roles in the 1960s television sitcoms ''Car 54, Where Are You?'' as Francis Muldoon and as Herman Munster in ''The Munsters'' ...
, and
Miko Hughes
Miko John Hughes (born February 22, 1986) is an American actor known for his film roles as a child, such as Gage Creed in ''Pet Sematary'' (1989), ''Kindergarten Cop'' (1990), ''Apollo 13'' (1995), ''Spawn'' (1997), '' Mercury Rising'' (1998), ...
as
Gage Creed
Gage William Creed is a fictional character created by Stephen King who is the primary antagonist of his 1983 novel ''Pet Sematary''. In the novel, Gage is an innocent child who is killed by a speeding tanker truck accidentally. Gage's grieving f ...
. The title is a
sensational spelling
Sensational spelling is the deliberate spelling of a word in a non-standard way for special effect.
Branding
Sensational spellings are common in advertising and product placement. In particular, brand names such as Krispy Kreme Doughnuts (''c ...
of "
pet cemetery
A pet cemetery is a cemetery for pets.
History
Many human cultures burial, buried animal remains. For example, the Ancient Egyptians Mummy, mummified and buried cats, which they considered deity, deities, and Ashkelon dog cemetery, the lar ...
".
The film was released on April 21, 1989, and grossed $89.5 million at the box office on a budget of $11.5 million. A sequel, ''
Pet Sematary Two'', was released in 1992 and a
second film adaptation was released in 2019.
Plot
The Creed family—Louis, Rachel, their children Ellie and
Gage
Gage may refer to:
Measurement
* Gage is a variant spelling of the word ''gauge''
*Stream gauge, aka Stream gage, a site along a stream where flow measurements are made
People
* Gage (surname)
*Gage Golightly (born 1993), American actress
Plac ...
, and their pet cat Church—move from
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
to rural
Ludlow, Maine
Ludlow is a town in Aroostook County, Maine, United States. The population was 434 at the 2020 census.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which is land and is water. The northernmost po ...
, after Louis accepts a job as a physician with the
University of Maine
The University of Maine (UMaine or UMO) is a public land-grant research university in Orono, Maine. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the flagship university of the University of Maine System. It is classifie ...
. They befriend their neighbor Jud Crandall, who takes them to an isolated
pet cemetery
A pet cemetery is a cemetery for pets.
History
Many human cultures burial, buried animal remains. For example, the Ancient Egyptians Mummy, mummified and buried cats, which they considered deity, deities, and Ashkelon dog cemetery, the lar ...
(misspelled "sematary") in the forest behind the Creeds' new home.
Louis encounters Victor Pascow, a
jogger
Jogging is a form of trotting or running at a slow or leisurely pace. The main intention is to increase physical fitness with less stress on the body than from faster running but more than walking, or to maintain a steady speed for longer periods ...
who is mortally injured after being hit by a truck. He warns Louis about the pet sematary before dying, calling Louis by name though they have never met. That night, Pascow appears to Louis as a ghost and leads him to the sematary, warning him not to cross the barrier because the ground beyond is "sour". Louis awakens, assuming it was a dream, but notices his feet are covered in dirt.
During
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden ...
while the family is gone, Church is run down on the highway. Realizing Ellie will be devastated, Jud takes Louis beyond the pet sematary and deep into the woods, where they reach an ancient
Miꞌkmaq
The Mi'kmaq (also ''Mi'gmaq'', ''Lnu'', ''Miꞌkmaw'' or ''Miꞌgmaw''; ; ) are a First Nations people of the Northeastern Woodlands, indigenous to the areas of Canada's Atlantic Provinces and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec as well as the nort ...
burial ground. Jud instructs Louis to bury the cat and warns him not to tell anyone about what they have done. The next day a reanimated Church returns to the house. He now stinks, moves sluggishly, his eyes glow gold and he is vicious toward Louis. Jud explains that as a boy he revived his pet dog and that although the cat might be different, it will save Ellie the grief of losing her pet.
Sometime later, Gage is killed by a truck along the same highway. Jud anticipates that Louis is considering burying his son in the Miꞌkmaq ground, although Louis denies it. Jud believes that introducing Louis to the ritual ground aroused the malevolent forces present there, which caused Gage's death. He tells him the story of a local named Bill Baterman who buried his son Timmy in the Miꞌkmaq ground after he was killed in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. Timmy returned as a malevolent zombie, terrifying the townsfolk. A group of men including Jud tried destroying Timmy by lighting the Baterman house on fire, only for Bill to perish with his son. Jud insists that the burial ground is evil and Louis must not bury his son there.
After the funeral, Rachel and Ellie leave for Chicago while Louis remains home, ostensibly to take care of loose ends. Despite Pascow and Jud's warnings, Louis
exhumes his son's body and buries him at the ritual site. In Chicago, Pascow appears to Ellie in a dream and warns her that Louis is about to do something terrible. Rachel is unnerved by her daughter's dream but can only reach Jud when she calls, who tells her Louis is not home. She decides to return to Maine, much to Jud's alarm.
That night, a reanimated Gage returns home and steals a
scalpel
A scalpel, lancet, or bistoury is a small and extremely sharp bladed instrument used for surgery, anatomical dissection, podiatry and various arts and crafts (either called a hobby knife or an X-acto knife.). Scalpels may be single-use dispos ...
from his father's bag. He taunts Jud before slashing his
Achilles tendon
The Achilles tendon or heel cord, also known as the calcaneal tendon, is a tendon at the back of the lower leg, and is the thickest in the human body. It serves to attach the plantaris, gastrocnemius (calf) and soleus muscles to the calcaneus ( ...
and his mouth, before biting his throat, killing him. Rachel returns home and is lured into Jud's house by the voice and specter of her dead sister Zelda, only to discover that she is actually seeing Gage, holding a scalpel. In shock and disbelief, Rachel reaches down to hug her son and he kills her.
Waking up from his sleep, Louis notices Gage's muddy footprints in the house and discovers his scalpel is missing. Receiving a phone call from Gage that he has "played" with Jud and Mommy, he fills three syringes with
morphine
Morphine is a strong opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin in poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as a pain medication, and is also commonly used recreationally, or to make other illicit opioids. T ...
and heads to Jud's house. Encountering Church, he kills the cat with an injection before entering the house. Gage taunts him further and Louis is startled by Rachel's body hanging from the attic before Gage attacks him.
After a brief battle, Louis overpowers Gage and injects him with the morphine syringe. He then lights Jud's house on fire, leaving it to burn as he carries Rachel's body to the burial ground. Pascow appears and warns Louis not to "make it worse", but Louis, grief-stricken to the point of insanity, believes that he waited too long when he buried Gage, but burying Rachel "will work this time" because she had died just hours ago.
That night, Rachel returns to Louis and the couple embrace. Rachel takes a large knife from the counter, before Louis screams.
Cast
*
Dale Midkiff
Dale Alan Midkiff (born July 1, 1959) is an American actor, best known for playing Louis Creed in the horror film ''Pet Sematary'' (1989) and Captain Darien Lambert in the TV series ''Time Trax''.
Career
Midkiff acted in off-Broadway plays lik ...
as Louis Creed
*
Fred Gwynne
Frederick Hubbard Gwynne (July 10, 1926 – July 2, 1993) was an American actor, artist and author widely known for his roles in the 1960s television sitcoms ''Car 54, Where Are You?'' as Francis Muldoon and as Herman Munster in ''The Munsters'' ...
as Jud Crandall
** Matthew August Ferrell as Jud (child)
** Richard Collier as Young Jud
*
Denise Crosby
Denise Michelle Crosby is an American actress and model known for portraying Security Chief Tasha Yar mainly in season one of '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', and Yar's daughter, the half-Romulan Commander Sela, in subsequent seasons. She ...
as Rachel Goldman-Creed
** Elizabeth Ureneck as Rachel (child)
*
Miko Hughes
Miko John Hughes (born February 22, 1986) is an American actor known for his film roles as a child, such as Gage Creed in ''Pet Sematary'' (1989), ''Kindergarten Cop'' (1990), ''Apollo 13'' (1995), ''Spawn'' (1997), '' Mercury Rising'' (1998), ...
as
Gage Creed
Gage William Creed is a fictional character created by Stephen King who is the primary antagonist of his 1983 novel ''Pet Sematary''. In the novel, Gage is an innocent child who is killed by a speeding tanker truck accidentally. Gage's grieving f ...
*
Blaze Berdahl as Ellen "Ellie" Creed
*
Brad Greenquist as Victor Pascow
*
Michael Lombard
Michael Lombard born Michael LaBombarda (August 8, 1934 - August 13, 2020) was an American actor. His parents, both from Giovinazzo, Bari, Italy, emigrated to America and settled in Gravesend, Brooklyn. In 1977, he was nominated for a Drama Desk ...
as Irwin Goldman
*
Susan Blommaert as Missy Dandridge
*
Kavi Raz
Kavi Raz (born 1 January 1953) is an Indian-born British actor, writer, director and producer. Born in Punjab, Raz left India at a young age for the United Kingdom, where he grew up.
Biography
Raz attended university in the San Francisco Bay ar ...
as Steve Masterton
*
Mary Louise Wilson
Mary Louise Wilson (born November 12, 1931) is an American actress, singer, and comedian.
In a career that has spanned more than 50 years, she has appeared in a number of plays, films and television shows. Wilson's most notable work includes a ...
as Dory Goldman
*
Andrew Hubatsek as Zelda Goldman
*
Stephen King as Minister
*
Chuck Courtney as Bill Baterman
Production
Development
The film rights were sold to
George A. Romero
George Andrew Romero (; February 4, 1940 – July 16, 2017) was an American-Canadian filmmaker, writer, editor and actor. His ''Night of the Living Dead'' series of films about an imagined zombie apocalypse began with the 1968 film of the ...
in 1984 for $10,000. King had previously declined several other offers for a film adaptation. Romero eventually had to pull out of the production, as he was busy with ''
Monkey Shines''. Development executive
Lindsay Doran
Lindsay Doran (c. 1949) is an American film producer and studio executive who has worked on such films as '' This Is Spinal Tap'', ''Ferris Bueller's Day Off'', ''Sense and Sensibility'', '' Stranger Than Fiction'', and ''Nanny McPhee''.
Early ...
loved the finished script and advocated for it to be made at
Embassy Pictures and then at
Paramount Pictures, after she became vice president of production there in 1985. She was told each time that there was no more demand for Stephen King films after the slew of adaptations from his novels released in the early 80's.
It was only during the
1988 Writers Guild of America strike The 1988 Writers Guild of America strike was a strike action taken by members of both the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) and the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) against major United States television and film studios represented by the ...
that Paramount reconsidered because the studio was facing a possible shortage of new productions for 1989 release. Stephen King's script for ''Pet Sematary'' was finished and ready to go, so Doran was given the greenlight to obtain the rights for Paramount and start production.
King, who had final say on the choice of a director, met with the studio's first choice of
Mary Lambert. She impressed him with her enthusiasm for his novels and her commitment to stay faithful to his source material, which secured her the job.
The original cut of the film delivered to Paramount's executives was judged to be too long, so excess footage had to be removed. The original ending scene was more ambiguous: it showed only the undead Rachel entering the kitchen where Louis is playing
solitaire, leaving his fate uncertain.
Although Lambert called this the "more spooky, sad... tragic" ending, because the audience knows "it's not going to be what he wants. She's not coming back as his wife", the studio decided it was too tame and at their request it was re-shot to be more graphic.
Rachel's appearance was made far more gruesome with special prosthetic effects, and she kills Louis at the end as alluded to in his screams when the film cuts to black.
Casting
Initially, Paramount executives wanted a pair of twins to play the role of Gage, like those chosen to play Ellie, which was the more cost-effective option. However, Lambert was very impressed with three-year-old
Miko Hughes
Miko John Hughes (born February 22, 1986) is an American actor known for his film roles as a child, such as Gage Creed in ''Pet Sematary'' (1989), ''Kindergarten Cop'' (1990), ''Apollo 13'' (1995), ''Spawn'' (1997), '' Mercury Rising'' (1998), ...
, who she felt was a natural talent despite his young age, so she lobbied the studio to accept her choice. She also faced resistance from executives over her choice to cast
Fred Gwynne
Frederick Hubbard Gwynne (July 10, 1926 – July 2, 1993) was an American actor, artist and author widely known for his roles in the 1960s television sitcoms ''Car 54, Where Are You?'' as Francis Muldoon and as Herman Munster in ''The Munsters'' ...
, whom the studio believed audiences would not take seriously because of his fame as
Herman Munster
Herman Munster is a fictional character in the CBS sitcom '' The Munsters'', originally played by Fred Gwynne. The patriarch of the Munster household, Herman is one of Frankenstein’s monsters, created in a lab in Germany in the nineteenth ...
.
After first auditioning girls for the role of Zelda, Lambert changed course and ended up casting
Andrew Hubatsek in the role, because she felt having a grown man playing the role of a teenage girl deformed by
spinal meningitis
Meningitis is acute or chronic inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, collectively called the meninges. The most common symptoms are fever, headache, and neck stiffness. Other symptoms include confusion o ...
made the character more frightening.
Filming
As stipulated by King when selling the rights, ''Pet Sematary'' was shot in Maine where the story was set and King himself wrote the screenplay.
Production was based in
Ellsworth and auditions held at
The Grand The Grand may refer to:
Buildings Official names
* The Grand (Calgary), a theatre in Alberta, Canada
*The Grand (Ellsworth, Maine), an arts center in Maine, U.S.
* The Grand Doubletree, condominium and hotel skyscraper in Miami, U.S.
* The Grand C ...
theater, where several hundred locals auditioned to be extras or for small spoken roles.
King himself was very involved in the filming process, consulting with Lambert frequently on her ideas for the story and any deviations from the script she wished to make.
The house used for the Creeds' home is a private residence near
Hancock Hancock may refer to:
Places in the United States
* Hancock, Iowa
* Hancock, Maine
* Hancock, Maryland
* Hancock, Massachusetts
* Hancock, Michigan
* Hancock, Minnesota
* Hancock, Missouri
* Hancock, New Hampshire
** Hancock (CDP), New Hampshir ...
, while Jud's house across the street was actually a facade constructed around an existing house that was insulated with fireproof material so that the mock-up could be burned around it. The interiors of the Creed house were recreated on a soundstage in Ellsworth, while the interiors of Jud's house were built inside the Bangor Arsenal.
The approach to the Miꞌkmaq burial ground was filmed at an abandoned granite quarry on
Mount Desert Island
Mount Desert Island (MDI; french: Île des Monts Déserts) in Hancock County, Maine, is the largest island off the coast of Maine. With an area of it is the 52nd-largest island in the United States, the sixth-largest island in the contiguous ...
in
Acadia National Park
Acadia National Park is an American national park located along the mid-section of the Maine coast, southwest of Bar Harbor. The park preserves about half of Mount Desert Island, part of the Isle au Haut, the tip of the Schoodic Peninsula, an ...
, while a hilltop near
Sedgwick was the site of the Miꞌkmaq ground itself.
Other locations included a forest near Ellsworth for the pet cemetery,
Mount Hope Cemetery in
Bangor for the graveyard scenes, and Ellsworth Town Hall, which stood in for the hospital of the
University of Maine, Orono
The University of Maine (UMaine or UMO) is a public land-grant research university in Orono, Maine. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the flagship university of the University of Maine System. It is classified ...
.
Music
The film's score was written by
Elliot Goldenthal
Elliot Goldenthal (born May 2, 1954) is an American composer of contemporary classical music and film and theatrical scores. A student of Aaron Copland and John Corigliano, he is best known for his distinctive style and ability to blend various ...
. The film features two songs by the
Ramones, one of Stephen King's favorite bands: "
Sheena Is a Punk Rocker
"Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" is a song by American punk rock band Ramones, released in 1977 through Sire Records. Written by front man and lead vocalist Joey Ramone it appears on the band's third studio album '' Rocket to Russia'' (1977). The song ...
" appears in a scene, and "
Pet Sematary
''Pet Sematary'' is a 1983 horror novel by American writer Stephen King. The novel was nominated for a World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1984, and adapted into two films: one in 1989 and another in 2019. In November 2013, PS Publishing r ...
", a new track written specially for the picture, plays over the credits.
The song "Pet Sematary" became one of the Ramones' biggest charting hits, reaching number four on ''Billboard''s "Modern Rock Tracks" list, despite being, in the words of AMG, "reviled by most of the band's hardcore fans".
Lambert was better known for her work directing music videos, especially those for
Madonna including "
Like a Prayer" and "
Material Girl
"Material Girl" is a song recorded by American singer Madonna for her second studio album, '' Like a Virgin'' (1984). It was released on November 30, 1984, by the Sire label as the second single from ''Like a Virgin''. It also appears slightly ...
". Through her work in the music industry she was friends with the
Ramones. She approached them about recording a song for the film and they agreed to write and perform "Pet Sematary", which is featured in the closing credits.
Release
The ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' wrote that the film "defied the critics and opened at blockbuster levels".
The film grossed $57 million in the United States.
Reception
Critical reception
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, a
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
, reports that 53% of 36 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 5.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "''Pet Sematary'' is a bruising horror flick that wears its quirks on its sleeves, to the detriment of its scare factor." On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, the film has a weighted average score of 38 out of 100 based on 12 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by
CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B".
''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' called it "undead schlock dulled by a slasher-film mentality".
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...
of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' wrote that the film "has some effectively ghoulish moments" but "fails mostly because it doesn't trust the audience to do any of the work".
Gene Siskel of the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...
'' gave the film zero stars out of four and called it "sickening."
Kevin Thomas of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' wrote, "Lambert goes for strong, succinct images and never stops to worry whether there's a lack of credibility or motivation."
Richard Harrington of ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' called it "bland, clichéd, cheap".
Harrington criticized Gage's actions as disturbing and the climax as "an ugly payoff to an inept setup".
[ Philip Strick of '']The Monthly Film Bulletin
''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991, when it merged with ''Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with a ...
'' wrote, "The family feuds and loyalties which lend some coherence to the novel and justify its punchline ... are simply plundered for their shock effect en route to the final bloodletting. Emaciated, then, rather than enhanced by its adaptation, ''Pet Semetary'' as a movie is nevertheless strikingly well-told."
Film historian Leonard Maltin
Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fi ...
called the picture a "BOMB" (his lowest possible rating) and declared, "Despite being a box-office smash, this picture's contempt for its audience should be obvious even to undiscriminating moviegoers...Still, vastly superior to its sequel."
Bloody Disgusting rated it 4.5/5 stars and wrote, "The plot alone would make for a scary movie, but by injecting excellent atmosphere, capable acting and generally nightmarish scenes, ''Pet Sematary'' is a truly effective horror flick and well worth the price of admission." At Dread Central, Steve Barton rated it 4/5 stars and called it one of the best King adaptations; Jason Jenkins rated it 3.5/5 stars and called it "one of the better King adaptations of the period".[
]
Box office
The film grossed $57.5 million in the United States and $32 million internationally for a worldwide total of $89.5 million.
Home media
''Pet Sematary'' was a top-renting VHS upon release. Paramount released it on DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
in 2006 and on Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...
in 2012. ''Pet Sematary'' was released on 4K UHD Blu-ray on March 26, 2019.
Legacy
Sequel
A sequel, '' Pet Sematary Two'', was released in 1992 to poor reviews and a disappointing box office. Although it references the events of the first film, the sequel focused on all-new characters.
Documentary
A documentary, '' Unearthed & Untold: The Path to Pet Sematary'', premiered in September 2014, and was released in January 2017.
''Pet Sematary'' was ranked #16 on IFC's list of the best Stephen King film and television adaptations, and also placed at 16 on ''Rolling Stone''s Top 30 King adaptations.
2019 film
There was intermittent buzz about a possible adaptation of ''Pet Sematary''. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (born 5 December 1967) is a Spanish film director, script writer, and producer. He directed '' Intacto'' and ''28 Weeks Later'', the sequel to Danny Boyle's ''28 Days Later''. His film ''Esposados'' was nominated for the Aca ...
was announced to direct an adaptation in October 2013, but nothing came of it.
In August 2017, the brother-sister team behind the 2017 adaptation of Stephen King's '' It'', Andy
Andy may refer to:
People
* Andy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
* Horace Andy (born 1951), Jamaican roots reggae songwriter and singer born Horace Hinds
* Katja Andy (1907–2013), German-American pianist and pi ...
and Barbara Muschietti
Bárbara Muschietti (born December 22, 1971) is an Argentine film producer and screenwriter, best known for producing the 2013 horror film ''Mama'' and the 2017 and 2019 adaptations of Stephen King's '' It'', all of which were directed by her bro ...
, told the ''Toronto Sun
The ''Toronto Sun'' is an English-language tabloid format, tabloid newspaper published daily in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The newspaper is one of several ''Sun'' tabloids published by Postmedia Network. The newspaper's offices is located at Pos ...
'' that they hoped to adapt ''Pet Sematary'' after the sequel of ''It''. Again, there was no further action.
Finally, in December 2017 Paramount Pictures announced that it was remaking the film, with Jeff Buhler penning the script and Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer set to direct. The new adaptation stars Jason Clarke
Jason Clarke (born 17 July 1969) is an Australian actor. He has appeared in many TV series, and is known for playing Tommy Caffee on the television series '' Brotherhood''. He has also appeared in many films, often as an antagonist. His film r ...
and Amy Seimetz
Amy Lynne Seimetz is an American actress and filmmaker. She has appeared in several productions, including AMC's '' The Killing'', HBO's ''Family Tree'', and films like '' Upstream Color'', '' Alien: Covenant'', ''Pet Sematary'', and ''No Sudde ...
as Louis and Rachel Creed, with John Lithgow appearing as Jud Crandall. The movie began filming in Montreal, Canada
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...
, in June 2018 and was released on April 5, 2019.
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{Authority control
1989 films
1989 horror films
American ghost films
American supernatural horror films
American zombie films
Films set in cemeteries
Films about cats
Films about children
Films about child death
Films about death
Films about families
Films based on American horror novels
Films based on works by Stephen King
Films directed by Mary Lambert
Films scored by Elliot Goldenthal
Films set in Chicago
Films set in Maine
Films shot in Maine
Paramount Pictures films
Resurrection in film
Films with screenplays by Stephen King
Pet Sematary
1980s English-language films
1980s American films