Pet Sematary

Plot synopsis:
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 steak knife on the kitchen table. The screen blacks out as Rachel stabs him while Louis screams.

Tags: psychological, gothic, murder, cult, violence, horror, flashback, suspenseful

Review:
Mary Lambert does a great job with this film and manages to bring across King's creepy story pretty well.
This scary and rather gory adaptation of Stephen King's great novel features outstanding central performances by Dale Midkiff,Fred Gwynne(who sadly died few years ago)and Denise Crosby and some really gruesome gore effects.Director Mary Lambert has a wonderful sense of  visual style,and manages to make this one of the few  versions of King's work that is not only worth seeing,but genuinely unnerving.The depiction of the zombie child Gage(Miko Hughes-later in "New Nightmare")is equally noteworthy,as what could easily have been a laughable character  is made menacing and spooky.As for the people,who think that this one isn't scary-watch it alone in the dark(eventually with your squeamish girlfriend)and I guarantee you that "Pet Sematary" will creep you out.Some horror movies like this one or "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" shouldn't be watched in group.Recommended for horror fans!.
In the trivia section for Pet Sematary, it mentions that George Romero (director of two Stephen King stories, Creepshow and The Dark Half) was set to direct and then pulled out.
One wonders what he would've brought to the film, as the director Mary Lambert, while not really a bad director, doesn't really bring that much imagination to this adaptation of King's novel, of which he wrote the screenplay.
There are of course some very effective, grotesquely surreal scenes (mainly involving the sister Zelda, likely more of a creep-out for kids if they see the film), and the casting in some of the roles is dead-perfect.
But something feels missing at times, some sort of style that could correspond with the unmistakably King-like atmosphere, which is in this case about as morbid as you're going to get without incestuous cannibals rising from the graves being thrown in (who knows if he'll save that for his final novel...) As mentioned though, some of the casting is terrific, notably Miko Hughes as Gage Creed, the little boy who goes from being one of the cutest little kids this side of an 80's horror movie, to being a little monster (I say that as a compliment, of course, especially in scenes brandishing a certain scalpel).
But there are some other flaws though in the other casting; Dale Midkiff is good, not great, as the conflicted, disturbed father figure Creed, and his daughter Ellie is played by an actress that just didn't work for me at all.In terms of setting up some chilling set-pieces, only a couple really stand-out: a certain plot-thickening moment (not to spoil, it does involve a cool Ramones song), and the first visit to the pet sematary (the bigger one), including the sort of mystical overtones King had in the Shining.
Jud tells Louis Creed that when you bury a human being (or any kind of pet) up in the burial ground, they would come back to life.
Pet Sematary delivers great scares, some pretty good acting, first rate plot, and mesmerizing make-up.
Once upon a time, Stephen King novels and short stories were adapted to the screen and told by top notch directors using A-list actors.
Mary Lambert created several stylish music videos for Madonna, but I'm afraid her direction on Pet Semetary shows her inexperience.Dale Midkiff, familiar for his appearances in cinematic and episodic television, mumbles and drawls his way through a very poorly drawn character.Denise Crosby, the wife/mother, is a favorite of mine from Star Trek - The Next Generation (Tasha Yar).
A couple of days later, Church returns, alive, but from hell.This movie was one of two horror movies that could actually scare me, aside from "The Exorcist." The greatest performance would ever be Zelda, Rachel's sister with spinal meningitis, or Victor Pascow, a ghost who tries to help the Creeds from making the mistake of bringing back things from the dead.The music in this movie plays an extravagant part.
However, when the family cat is hit by a truck, Louis doesn't want his daughter pained about the death of the cat she loves and Judd knows this, so he tales Louis beyond the 'Pet Sematary' to an old American Indian burial ground and miraculously the cat is revived, but it is not the same old friendly cat...
Dark as dark can be, surprising non-hollywood ending, terrifying atmosphere, amazing book adaptation, outstanding cast, educational (don't play with afterlife), in short - everything an excellent horror should be...My favorite horror movie, straight 10+..
The Creed family formed by the father , a successful doctor named Louis Creed (Dale Midkiff) , mother (Denise Crosby) and two sons has moved to a little community, at Maine place , but shortly after they move , their son is murdered by a great truck that thunder pass near his newly purchased rural home .
The father learns by a neighbor (Fred Gwynne) that there is a graveyard where you can bury your loved ones , and then he plans come back to life his kid ; as he attempts to revive his three-years-old little boy with the magical resurrecting qualities of an Indian burial ground .
I am a fairly big fan of most of the films that have been based on Stephen King's books - this one rates as one of the scariest and most memorable.I have just finished rewatching it for about the tenth time and I still find it heart-wrenching as well as scary.The scene where Gage is on a sure collision course with the monster truck is one which stands out.
Pet Sematary is my single favorite King book with The Shining and Carrie being numbers 2 and 3 respectively, both of which were made into real winners of films, but this one is a steaming pile.
When he's in top form he really shines, but when he's having an off period, well, he writes screenplays like "Pet Sematary." Maybe the novel was better.In this flick we are introduced to Louis and Rachel Creed (Dale Midkiff and Denise Crosby), the east coast's, maybe even the world's stupidest, most irresponsible and neglectful parents/pet owners.
Anyway, long story short, after their daughter Ellie's pet cat Church gets run over by truck, helpful Jud tells Louis (in confidence) to accompany him to the conveniently located local Indian burial ground (hey, didn't the idiots in `Poltergeist' have one of these literally damned things underfoot also?).
I won't spoil the rest of the fun (?), but suffice it to say these Indian burial grounds are a real pain in the ass for the unlucky schmucks who mess with them.All this, plus a flashback or two featuring Rachel's Amanda Plummer-like dead sister Zelda (played by a guy) who croaked of spinal meningitis, some visits to Louis by this Casper the friendly, recently departed college kid ghost and you've got what is at best an unintentionally funny comedy film.
Pet Sematary is a late-eighties adaptation of Stephen King's horror novel, and King himself wrote the screenplay for the film.
The main plot concerns an ancient Micmac Indian burial ground close by, which has the power to make the dead living again, albeit as horrible zombies.In my opinion, Stephen King movies usually works very well as mini-series because the characters are more fleshed out and their inner lives are explored more thoroughly.
There's no time for this here though, so the characters feels a bit hollow and we don't get to know them all that well.Relative unknown Dale Midkiff and Denise Crosby lead the pretty anonymous cast, the best acting performance of the movie is Fred Gwynne as old-timer Jud Crandall.Overall, this plays pretty much like a standard horror flick, more or less, with average acting but with a better-than-average script and it builds tension well.
Another in a long line of comic book creep shows by Stephen King presents a typical American family (mom, dad, two cute kids) whose new house in rural New England adjoins an Indian burial ground where nothing stays buried.
Moving to a new home in the Maine countryside, a man finds a special burial ground behind his house and tries to use it to save his family only for things to take a wrong turn when the returned beings aren't the way they were before.A rather curious affair, as this one's reputation tends to make it far better than it really is and seems to have gotten by based on rather dubious merits.
Rather, taking Pet Sematary at face value, it's a good story: young doctor and family move to Maine, meet a wizened neighbour, but then get into trouble because the ground is sour.
She should've been frigid, but they have two children....Stephen King stories, like the films of Harold Ramis, often suffer from the same debilitating problem: unraveling, cheesy plot and/or effects at the end.
When his young son gets killed by a truck, Louis dares to break the barrier once more.Director Mary Lambert doesn't have quite the vision to bring some style to this Stephen King story.
Glad he did because it provides a very solid grounding for horror and deals with the very real horrors of overwhelming grief.The film gets the tonal flows right, the family dynamic is neatly pitched in readiness for what is to come later, the house and the titular Pet Sematary of the title are eerie personified, and Fred Gwynne is on hand for a sage old characterisation.
After the death of the family cat, the doctor's neighbor lets him in on a secret: there is a sacred Indian burial ground where buried pets come back to life.
We all know that burying things in the sacred ground will bring them back to life, and that's without even having to see this film.There is much good to say about this one: an amazing talent in Gage Creed, the little boy.
Howard Maxford is considerably more critical (as usual -- he is the most negative horror critic I know) and says it is "over-extended" and could have made a good half hour of television.Stephen King has made some good films and some bad ones (how much this is his fault or the fault of the directors is debatable).
Stephen King is my all time favourite horror author, I love all of his books that I have read, Pet Sematary is one of them.I thought they did well with the film.
I understand because it would make the film 5 days long.I also realised that made the film a lot more graphic than the book.Stephen King did an excellent job writing the book and doing the screenplay, Mary Lambert did well at directing the film.They make a good team together..
Homeowners Dale Midkiff and Denise Crosby discover, much to their chagrin, that things buried in an Indian burial ground behind their property will return to life in this exceedingly lame adaptation of perhaps Stephen King's most chilling bestseller.
You want a good horror from Stephen King, try 'The Dead Zone' or 'The Shining'.
When Louis comes face-to-face with tragedy, he learns of a mysterious place beyond the pet cemetery, an old Mic Mac burial ground that holds mysterious powers.The biggest problem is easy to pinpoint: Screenplay by Stephen King.
We have the Creed daughter experiencing psychic visions (it wouldn't be a bad Stephen King movie without those), a friendly ghost that tries to influence Louis, back story between Louis and Rachel's father, Rachel's tragic past and family drama time.
That sounds like a good idea, but when you don't care about the characters, it's impossible for the film to be effective.I really wanted to give this movie a shot, but I found so many things that bothered me about it.
"Pet Sematary" is not; overall it's a big mess and you might remember it being scary and disturbing but that's only because you're remembering a few key scary scenes, which come at the very end of the movie and are actually better taken out of context.
that one horrifying scene with zelda goddamn....enough said that scene can give the most toughest movie watcher nightmares for eternity.I mean judd's words ," you know louis sometimes dead is better" those words are like very chilling.the whole scene with gage dying was very upsetting yes he has lost someone he truly loves and judd telling him about the burial ground.
he lost his mind and had to bring little gage back wow very awesome film sad to hear about Fredd G's Death he was an awesome actor and yes HE PLAYED THE PART VERY GOOD IN THIS MOVIE..
You will need it when you try to figure out why anybody would put money into a project like this one.One of Stephen King's best books has been turned into one of the three worst adaptations of all times.
From the premise and the fact that the author, Stephen King, was working on the screenplay, this reviewer expected something a little better than the average horror film.
However, judging from the results of the film, this reviewer is not excited to read it."Pet Sematary" is based on the novel written by Stephen King.
There are such bone-chilling moments, especially at the movie's climax, that make this one of the best Stephen King adaptations of all time.
Pet Sematary told us a story of secret burial ground hidden in the backyard of a newly moved young family of Dr.Louis Creed, that soon become a forbidden fruit when he knows that a buried body can be resurrected there.This film actually quite lovable to me.
If you're a fan of Stephen King's work then Pet Sematary is a must watch.
"Stephen King's very scary horror story about a different cemetery is more scarier than I expected.".
Directed by Mary Lambert, this 1989 adaptation of the 1983 novel is scarier than you think.This specific Stephen King story involves around Dr. Louis Creed (Dale Midkiff) who moves into a new house with his family.
However, they come back to life in bad way.Pet Sematary is very scary, but the story is written in a complex tone by Stephen King himself.
The R-rating to this movie is understandable.Pet Sematary has a good story to it, but it is disturbing.
Believe it or not, occasionally someone succeeds to adapt Stephen King story in a good movie.
I finally got around to watch this after seeing it being broadcasted in TV almost every month as a kid, everyone I know has seen this movie and for a while I felt like I needed to see it all the way through, it turned out to be better than I remember (I had only seen parts of it on TV) but its still nothing special.Its somewhat well made, its quite charming, and the atmosphere really sucks you into the film and gets you in the right mood to enjoy it, that's probably why I gave it a good rating, its enjoyable to watch but in retrospect its not really all that great, it could fall apart very fast if you think about it too much.I like that it has enough balls to show things that you wouldn't usually see in a mainstream horror movie at the time.
The acting isn't always the best, the characters could be a bit annoying, many things happen in a very convenient way just to get the story going, I don't think this movie knows what it wants to be, its tone its kind of confusing at times and the ending its pretty crappy.
I actually thought the scary characters in the film were more scary than they were in the book.One of Kings better film adaptations (apart from stand by me & the green mile)Definitely worth a watch for horror fans!7.5 out of 10.
Few horror experiences can compare with reading Stephen King's Pet Sematary for the first time.
Naturally, it would be quite difficult to fully capture the novel's full terror in a film, but with the help of Stephen King's faithful screenplay and competent direction and acting, Pet Sematary is as scary an adaptation as we could possibly want.Pet Sematary is a relentlessly brutal horror story about a close, loving family whose world is gradually torn apart in the most devastating and horrible manner imaginable.
With consideration that I have not read the book, I felt Pet Sematary was a better than average horror movie.
i would say that the graphic in it is not as good as Sleepwalkers though, yet another Stephen King film about creature like vampires that are afraid of cats who are also very strong creatures that can rip you apart.
I've read many books by Stephen King but none of them are quite as dark as Pet Semetary.
Being a Stephen King fan and a horror film fan, I would like to recommend this film to anyone who genuinely wants to see a scary film.
However, when they made the movie, I have to admit that it was the only "horror" film that I have seen in my life besides The Exorcist and The Night Of The Living Dead that really scared and disturbed me.
All the horror and evil and the nightmarish quality of Stephen King's book comes thru in this film!
But we don't watch horror films for the acting, and what drives this movie is a really disturbing plot.
But don't expect too much horror, neither the books or movies by Stephen King does a very good job scaring you.
It's not nice to read it, but it's not particulary scary either.But Pet Sematary is a fairly good movie after all..
I never read the book, and am normally NEVER frightened by Stephen King movies, but this one seemed to have just the right balance to keep me terrified even years later.........
And this is only the beginning.Based on the book by Stephen King, "Pet Sematary" still stands out as one of the spookiest films ever made, in my opinion.
But if you can handle all the gore and creepiness, this is a rather good horror movie, with an interesting story.One more thing.