Pet Sematary (1989 film)

The Creed family—Louis, Rachel, and their children Ellie and Gage—move from Chicago to rural Ludlow, Maine, after Louis accepts a job as a physician with the University of Maine. They befriend their neighbor Jud Crandall, who takes them to an isolated pet cemetery (misspelled "sematary") in the forest behind the Creeds' new home.

Louis encounters Victor Pascow, a jogger who has been mortally injured by a truck. He warns Louis about the pet sematary before dying, calling Louis by name although 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 while the family is gone, Ellie's cat Church—named after Winston Churchill—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 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, and 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. Rachel has to be sedated before she can sleep that night. Ellie, too, is shattered by her brother's death; she hopes aloud that God will let Gage come back to them. (King's novel made references to the resurrection of Lazarus, although such is not mentioned in the film.)

At Gage's funeral, Rachel's father Irwin—who has never approved of Louis—blames and curses him for the child's death. He attacks Louis with his fists and knocks him into Gage's casket, which falls over. As Louis fights back murderously, several men struggle to break it up...while the rest of the Creed and Goldman families look on in shock.

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. 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. 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. He warns the girl that her father is about to do something terrible. Rachel, unnerved by her daughter's dream, calls home. Instead she reaches Jud, who tells her Louis is not home. She decides to return to Maine, much to Jud's alarm.

That night, Gage returns home and steals a scalpel from his father's bag. He taunts Jud before slashing his Achilles tendon and his mouth. Then he bites Jud's throat, killing him. Rachel returns home and is lured into Jud's house by the voice and specter of her dead sister Zelda. Suddenly, Zelda's image and voice fade away; in their place, Rachel finds the scalpel-wielding Gage. In shock and disbelief, Rachel reaches down to hug her son, who 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 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 corpse hanged 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 from the fire. Pascow appears and warns Louis not to "make it worse". Yet the grief-stricken Louis believes that, because Rachel was not dead as long as Gage was, burying her "will work this time". Pascow cries out in frustration and vanishes as Louis passes through him.

At midnight that night, Rachel returns to Louis. As the couple embrace, Rachel takes a large knife from the counter and slays Louis, who screams as the film cuts to black.

• Dale Midkiff as Louis Creed
• Fred Gwynne as Jud Crandall
  • Matthew August Ferrell as Jud (child)
  • Richard Collier as Young Jud
• Denise Crosby as Rachel Goldman-Creed
  • Elizabeth Ureneck as Rachel (child)
• Miko Hughes as Gage Creed
• Blaze Berdahl as Ellen "Ellie" Creed
• Brad Greenquist as Victor Pascow
• Michael Lombard as Irwin Goldman
• Susan Blommaert as Missy Dandridge
• Kavi Raz as Steve Masterton
• Mary Louise Wilson as Dory Goldman
• Andrew Hubatsek as Zelda Goldman
• Stephen King as Minister
• Chuck Courtney as Bill Baterman

The film's score was written by Elliot Goldenthal.[14] 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 picture, plays over the credits.[15][16]

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".[17]

Lambert was better known for her work directing music videos, especially those for Madonna including "Like a Prayer" and "Material Girl". 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.[8]

The Los Angeles Times wrote that the film "defied the critics and opened at blockbuster levels".[18] The film grossed $57 million in the United States.[19]

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 51% of 35 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 5.42/10. 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."[20] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 38 out of 100 based on 12 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[21] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B.[22]

Variety called it "undead schlock dulled by a slasher-film mentality".[1] Vincent Canby of The New York Times 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".[23] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film zero stars out of four and called it "sickening."[24] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Lambert goes for strong, succinct images and never stops to worry whether there's a lack of credibility or motivation."[25]

Richard Harrington of The Washington Post called it "bland, clichéd, cheap".[26] Harrington criticized Gage's actions as disturbing and the climax as "an ugly payoff to an inept setup".[26] Philip Strick of The Monthly Film Bulletin 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."[27]

Film historian Leonard Maltin 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." [28]

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."[29] At Dread Central, Steve Barton rated it 4/5 stars and called it one of the best King adaptations;[30] Jason Jenkins rated it 3.5/5 stars and called it "one of the better King adaptations of the period".[31]

It was released on DVD by Paramount Home Entertainment on April 14, 2003. "Collector's Edition". Pet Sematary was a best-selling VHS upon release.[32] Paramount released it on DVD in 2006 and on Blu-ray in 2012.[31] Pet Sematary was released on 4K UHD Blu-ray on March 26, 2019.[33]

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• Pet Sematary at IMDb
• Pet Semetary at AllMovie
• Pet Sematary at Box Office Mojo
• Pet Sematary at Rotten Tomatoes