Pet Sematary (1989)

What I Knew
Full disclosure: I've seen the first like 30 minutes of this movie before. Denise Crosby (Lt. Yar!!!!) is in it. Its based on the Stephen King book Pet Sematary, which I've read. A family pet gets buried in an indian burial ground, comes back wrong. Some more plot stuff I'm not sure I want to spoil up front. Its my favorite King book, for whatever that's worth, and the beginning of the film seemed competent. Friday part 7-esque in execution, ironically enough also the director (Mary Lambert) went on to direct Mega Python vs Gatoroid for who else but Asylum. Also there's that rad Ramones song.

What I Got
Our film opens in the titular pet cemetery, a panning shot of graves with little kids reading poems about dead pets over top of it. Pretty long credit sequence. All of these pet headstones have jokes on them. The cemetary itself is several concentric circles of graves. Sign above the entrance cutely mispelled in child's handwriting, "Pet Sematary."
We cut to some trucks driving dangerously fast in front of a house with a For Sale-Sold sign in the yard. A station wagon pulls up, bearing a bumper sticker declaring it the car of a doctor. Lt. Yar, her husband, and their daughter climb out. The daughter, age like five I guess? i dont know im bad with kids' ages, runs to the tire swing dangerously close to the road. As Lt. Yar gets the second child, a male boy like two years old i guess, out of the car, the daughter spots a path into the woods from the tire swing. As she tells her parents about it, the branch snaps and she falls to the ground. Yar and Husband run over to check on her, leaving the toddler to his own devices. He is drawn to the family cat in the back of the car. The toddler wanders into the road while his parents arent paying attention. He is narrowly saved from a hurtling truck by a neighbor. His name is Jud. The doctor husband is named Louis Creed. Jud warns the family that there are many trucks and they are dangerous. The daughter's name is Ellen. Louis is going to be the new doctor at the college, Jud hears. Jud tells the family that he'll lead them up the path into the woods when they get settled down in a few weeks.
Nightfalls on the Creed home. The kids are asleep, Ellie sleeping with the cat. I think I remember his name being Church. Outside, Louis is intrigued by the Path. As he contemplates it, a cat jumps out of a tree at him. He says its Church! Well, now, thats strange.
Louis heads across the street to Jud's house. The two men sit on the porch and crack open some brewskis. They lament the trucks. Jud says the trucks caused the path into the woods because the path leads to a pet cemetery. The road "uses up loads of animals." Ellie's cat is named Winston Churchill. Jud says that Louis should get Church fixed so he doesnt wander into the road.
The next day I presume, Louis is unpacking and says goodbye to their housekeeper, Missy. Missy isn't married. She makes sure to tell Lt. Yar that. Later on, Jud and the Creeds decide to walk on back into the woods, to the cemetery. There are a ton of graves in there. Jud says the cemetery is a good thing and Yar flips out because kids should never learn about death apparently. Jud buried his dog Spot in the cemetary in 1924. He explains what a graveyard really is to Ellie, he says its a place where the dead speak. She recoils in terror. He says they speak through the gravestones, a place where the dead can rest.
That night, Ellie is worried about Church dying and going to the pet cemetery. She's coming to terms with death by talking about it with her father. Ellie expresses hate towards god for allowing death into the world and holding sway over mortals. Louis and his wife send Ellie to bed. Church curls up next to her.
Morning. Breakfast. Toddler throws a bunch of food at Ellie. Ellie is scared of starting at her new school and she doesn't want church to "get his nuts cut." Louis and Yar think thats hilarious. So do I. Louis calms her down and promises Church will be fine. Louis is taking Church to get neutered. There are two main characters that they have not named yet, the wife and the toddler. Outside, Louis has a conversation with the housekeeper Missy. Missy has a stomachache, Louis offers to give her a check up, she says it'll pass.
At the school where Louis works, some kid got hit by a truck. They are dragging him into Louis' office, brains all hanging out. Louis calls for an ambulance but I think the kid is already dead. Louis shuts his eyes. But the kid opens his eyes and grabs Louis' shoulder. "The soil of a man's heart is stonier, Louis," the kid says. "I'll come to you." Louis is scared and doesnt know how the kid knew his name. He is freaked. The kid dies for reals.
Night. Louis is asleep in his bed with his wife. Crickets are really really loud in rural Maine I guess. Louis is woke by the kid who had his brains smashed out. "Come on Doc," he calls, "We've got places to go." and then vanishes. Louis tries to shake the image from his head, but the kid appears again, this time closer and warns Louis that he better follow. As Louis follows the kid down into the basement, the kid says that he just wants to help Louis, like Louis tried to help him. Louis says that its just a bad dream, but the kid says that its not a dream!
Louis follows the dead kid outside and down the forest path towards the cemetery. At the cemetery, the kid repeats Jud's words that the cemetery is where the dead speak. The kid then tells the Doc not to go on further down the path, to where the dead walk. A blue light shines from the woods. The kid floats away. "The ground beyond is sour." The kid vanishes and Louis awakes in his bed.
BUT HIS FEET ARE ALL MUDDY!
At his office at the school, Louis is going through his files. The kid's name was Victor Pascow. Later, back at home, Louis is playing with his kids. The wife is going away with the kids for thanksgiving but her dad has disinvited Louis. He is going to stay at the new house by himself with Church.
Later, Jud calls up Louis. He's found a dead cat on his lawn and thinks it might be Church. Louis heads out to inspect it, but its sure Church. They load the rigored cat into a plastic bag. Louis says he'll bury the cat in the morning. The wife's name is Rachel! Jud says there's a better way.
Jud and Louis head into the pet cemetery. Jud says they're not going to bury the cat in the cemetery, but beyond it. In order to get beyond the cemetery you have to cross a deadfall. Jud says he's buried a thing or two beyond the deadfall and knows all the places to step. Louis starts to cross after Jud, but loses his step and tumbles down the deadfall. He's unharmed but rattled. The two men and the dead cat keep walking. They near their destination when they start hearing noises. It turns out to be just a loon, according to Jud, who also seems rattled. They keep going and it appears that they are climbing a mountain now. They hit the summit at reach a Micmac indian burial ground. Jud says he brought Louis there to bury the cat. Louis asks why and Jud says he has his reasons. He says that Louis has to bury the cat himself, because "each buries his own." Louis starts to dig. Hours later, as the sun sets, Louis finally gets deep enough to bury Church. They cover the grave and return home where Louis' phone is ringing. Jud warns Louis not to tell Rachel or Ellie about what they did tonight. Louis asks what exactly they did do. Jud says that they did a secret thing. Jud says that the soil of a man's heart is stonier, just like what the kid Victor said before he died. Jud goes home.
Louis calls up Rachel's dad's house and talks to Ellie. Ellie asks how Church is and Louis lies, just like Jud said to. She makes Louis feel very guilty by being attached to the cat. The toddler boy's name is Gage. Gage Creed.
The next day, Louis is out raking leaves in the yard. He rakes a very small pile, gets bored, gives up. He goes to put his rake back in the cellar when he sees a monster! No, its just Church. What. Louis fixes Church a bowl of food so he can get close to the cat. It appears to be Church for real. He stinks like death and appears to have crawled his way out of the grave. Church claws at Louis' face and runs off.
At Jud's house, Louis is trying to rationalize Church being alive again, but Jud reassures him that the cat was for sure dead. Louis thinks he's going crazy. Jud says that "the ragman," a half Micmac dude, told him about the burial ground. Jud buried his dog Spot out in the burial ground, but he wasn't alone when the dog came back the next day. His mother was there too, could see the dog's fatal wounds and smell the death on him. Spot came back wrong. Jud tells Louis that he wants to protect Ellie from death so he told him to bury Church up there. Louis asks if anyone has ever buried a person up there and Jud freaks out, knocking his beer bottles off the table. He says no.
Later, Louis fills his bathtub and climbs in. Louis bathes himself. As he relaxes in the bath, Church throws a bloody rat at him. Church is sitting watch over the tub, a real evil glint in his eyes. Louis kicks him out of the bathroom.
The next morning, Louis meets Rachel, Ellie, and Gage at the airport. Ellie asks him if Church is dead, because she had a dream that Church died and Louis and Jud buried him in the pet cemetery. Louis says thats a silly dream. They all head home.
At home, Ellie notices Church smells bad and asks if she can shampoo the cat. She is not allowed to shampoo the cat but Louis offers to take the cat to a groomer.
Missy writes a note that says that she's sorry she has cancer. She hangs herself in the basement.
Stephen King plays the minister at Missy's funeral at the human graveyard, not the pet cemetery. Louis, Ellie, and Jud are at the funeral. Rachel is throwing up because she is having a hard time dealing with Missy's death. Jud asks Louis why god would take a good someone like Missy while letting an old geezer like him live. Louis says that "god sees the truth, but waits." Jud asks Louis how his cat is. Louis says its Ellie's cat. Jud replies that its Louis' cat now. This is an effective scene.
That night, Ellie asks Louie if Missy went to heaven. Louis is explaining different religion's afterlives to Ellie. Ellie asks him what he believes, and Louis says that he has faith in an afterlife. This makes Rachel cry. Later on, Louis is reading in bed when Rachel comes in. Rachel is scared of death and apologizes for being rude. Her sister Zelda died of spinal meningitis. Her family treated her like a dirty secret and hid her in a bedroom, waiting for her to die. Rachel was home alone with her when Zelda died. Rachel was afraid that her parents were going to accuse her of murder because she hated her sister. Rachel was relieved when Zelda finally died and has felt guilty about it for years! Louis says her parents were dicks for leaving her alone with Zelda and goes to get her a valium.
A truck starts driving down the road listening to Sheena is a Punk Rocker. That is my all time favorite Ramones song. Meanwhile, the Creeds and Jud are having a picnic. Louis is teaching Gage how to fly a kite. Sheena is a Punk Rocker is such a great song, holy cow. Gage takes off flying the kite on his own, without Louis. Gage dropped the kite string and Ellie yells "What a numb shit!" Rachel and Louis turn and pay attention to her while Gage runs towards the street. They notice him in the street too late. And the truck notices him too late. Louis starts screaming, Gage is dead.
Louis is going through a scrapbook of Gabe's pictures. Jud is there too. Rachel took a bunch of valium and went to sleep. Ellie can't sleep and comes downstairs to join Louis and Jud. Ellie has a picture of her and Gage. Ellie demands that god bring Gage back to life. Jud says that god can't do that. Louis looks down. Ellie bursts into tears. Jud tells Louis to take care of Ellie, who is crying in the other room, but Louis ignores him.
At Gage's funeral, Rachel's dad accuses Louis murdering Gage and attacks him. They start to fight and flip the coffin over.
That night, Louis puts Ellie to sleep. Ellie asks if god could bring Gage back to life if she has enough faith. Louis says that yes, god can in fact bring Gage back to life. In Louis' bedroom, Rachel is passed out with crazy cat Church sitting on her chest. He growls at Louis, Louis grabs him and throws him violently from the room. Downstairs, Jud comes in and lets Church out. Louis comes down and tells Jud he just wants to go to bed. Jud says that Louis is thinking things he ought not be thinking. Jud claims responsibility for killing Gage and tells him not to go and put his son in the indian burial ground. Jud says he lied about no one having been buried in the burial ground.
Timmy Baterman was killed on his way home from WWII. His father buried the boy up in the burial ground before he learned the truth: that sometimes death is better. Whatever lives in the ground beyond the cemetery ain't human. Timmy stalked the town, but only one girl said he had to be put down as an abomination. The men of the town, including Jud, decided to go to the Batermans and put the boy down. Timmy's dad refuses to let them re-kill the boy, so they set the house on fire, killing the whole Baterman family. The indians stopped using the burial ground because it was so evil, so Louis shouldn't use it either. Jud reveals that the burial ground caused Gage to die, so it could have a new host.
The next day, the Creeds and Rachel's parents are at the airport. It looks like Rachel and the kids are going home to Chicago, leaving Louis there alone again. Ellie says she doesnt want to go to Chicago because she had another nightmare. This one, however, was about Louis, and Gage, and Victor Pascow, the dead kid from before. Rachel's dad apologizes for starting a fight at the funeral. The men shake hands and make up. Ellie begs Louis to come along, but Louis is staying behind for three days. Ellie makes Louis swear that everything is going to be alright. Bad thoughts are rattling around in Louis' head.
On his way home from the airport, Louis breaks into a human graveyard with a canvas bag and a shovel. He heads to Gage's grave. He has a little soliloquy which is interrupted by Pascow. He reminds Louis that the ground is sour. Louis says he's okay with re-killing his son if he does come back wrong and its not like Rachel and Ellie have to know.
Ellie wakes from a dream in Chicago. She says that Pascow said that Louis is going to do a bad thing. Pascow is a good ghost who warns her about things. Rachel tells Ellie there's no such thing as ghosts. Ellie asks Rachel to call Louis and ensure everything is alright. As Rachel goes to call Louis, she remembers where she heard the name Pascow before. The dead boy from earlier! How could ellie know about that!
Meanwhile, Louis starts digging. The phone rings in an empty house. Rachel is pacing before a super symbolic portrait of a cat and a toddler. There's no answer so Rachel calls Jud. She asks Jud if he's seen Louis. He hasn't seen him so Rachel says she's coming home. Jud warns her not to do that, but she's coming anyway.
Louis is still digging. A cop car rolls up and shines its searchlight across the graves. Louis hides in the deep hole he's dug and the cop drives away. Louis starts laughing, he outsmarted the police. Back at his house, Jud moves his beers out to the porch to keep watch for Louis. At the graveyard, Louis has dug up Gage's coffin and pulls the toddler corpse out. Louis starts rocking the body in his arms, embracing the dead thing, and promising that everything will be alright. He stuffs it in the canvas sack.
In Chicago, Rachel has a panic attack. All the paintings on the wall go crooked and she finds herself in the back bedroom where Zelda died. Zelda is there again, near death, threatening to kill her. "Gage and I will get you, for letting us die." Rachel wakes up on a plane on her way back to the house. Pascow watches over her. She hurries through the terminal to catch the connecting flight. She misses it but Pascow stops the plane from taking off so she can board.
Louis starts to take the walk into the woods with Gage's body. He crosses through the cemetery and over the deadfall. The blue light and the screaming Jud wrote off as a loon earlier resume. Trees begin to collapse in front of Louis to block his path.
At the airport, Rachel is trying to rent a car. The Budget Rental Lady says they have nothing but Pascow whispers that there's an Aries K with a scratch. The lady offers Rachel an Aries K with a scratch. Rachel resumes her trip with her guardian ghost with her.
Louis continues his trek. As he climbs a face flies at him out of a pile of rocks but he dismisses it as his imagination. He makes it to the burial ground and starts to dig.
Rachel is driving unsafely on the slick new england roads. Her front tire blows and she swerves into a ditch. It is almost as if two supernatural forces are at work. Pascow on the side of good and something in the burial ground on the side of evil. Pascow warns Rachel that "it" is trying to stop her. She looks around for where the voice is coming from but comes up empty.
Louis has buried his son in the sour earth and heads back down the path to his house. When he gets there, he finds Church in the garage. He throws down his tools, goes inside, and collapses on his bed. Back at the burial ground, a child's hand crawls its way out of the dirt.
Rachel hitches a ride on one of the gas tankers that always drive by the house.
The latch pops on the Creed's front door and a muddy child accompanied by a cat walk in. The child makes its way to Louis' medicine bag where he finds a scalpel. Church has wandered off down the path.
Jud wakes up from his ill-timed sleep to see that Louis is back at his house. He heads over and sees muddy child's footprints all over. Child's laughter draws him into the sitting room. "Let's play hide and go seek," says  Gage from a distance. Jud heads upstairs, calling Gage's name. More laughter draws Jud into a guest bedroom. Jud pulls out a knife and starts checking room. Oh he's in his house, not the Creeds'. He's in his own bedroom and so is Gage. Jud bends down to check under his bed when Church startles him from behind. Jud lifts his head to look at the cat as Gage slices his achilles tendon. Gage comes out from under the bed, scowls, and gives Jud a chelsea smile. He then bites into Jud's neck and tears out his throat. Jud dies.
Rachel's trucker drops her off in front of the Creed house. Pascow tells her that he's not allowed to come any further. As Rachel moves towards the house, she hears Zelda's voice calling her name. Church sneaks up behind her and startles her, his paws soaked in blood. She heads towards Jud's house, calling his name. Inside, she starts to hear deep moaning that leads her up the stairs. The moans start intoning "Rachel." She follows them into Jud's bedroom where she finds Zelda. Zelda threatens to break Rachel's back. Zelda morphs into Gage who is wearing a little lord fauntleroy costume. Rachel is shocked, even as Gage holds out  a scalpel and threatens her with it she, elated, snatches him up. He stabs and the scene cuts to him being hit by the truck again. Rachel screams and her screams wake Louis up across the street.
Its morning now and Louis sees Gage's bloody footprints all over his house. Louis then notices his scalpel missing. He knows something has gone wrong. Gage begins to laugh from somewhere in the house. The phone rings. It's Rachel's dad, asking if Rachel made it alright. Louis lies and tells her dad that she made it alright and Rachel is just asleep. Her dad tells Louis that Ellie had a nightmare last night that Rachel was dead. Louis hangs up. The phone rings again, Louis picks up the receiver. He yells at Rachel's dad that he doesnt have time to talk, but it's Gage on the other end of the line. He tells Louis that he's at Jud's house. He played with Jud, and he played with Mommy, now its time for him to play with Louis. Louis loads up a syringe with a whole bunch of something.
Church is standing watch over Jud's house. Louis throws a steak out for Church to eat. Church starts to eat up when Louis grabs him by the nape and pumps the cat full of whatever was in the syringe. The cat immediately goes limp. Dead again. Louis screams, "Be dead!"
Inside the house, everything looks wrong. All the furniture is melted and a weird green something is growing on all the walls. Louis calls out for Gage, asking him what he's done. Louis finds a bloody high-heeled shoe on the stairs. As he bends to pick it up, Gage releases the illusion and the house returns to normal. He invites Louis to come upstairs. Louis pulls out his syringe and offers to play.
Louis heads to the bathroom where he finds a bloody shower curtain. Nothing behind it. He heads to a bedroom where he finds the attic staircase broken. Jud's knife and Rachel's purse are lying in the center of Jud's bedroom. Louis walks over to the bed and bends down to check beneath it just like Jud did, but all he finds beneath it is Jud's corpse.
Louis heads down the other end of the hall when suddenly Rachel's body drops out the attic, hanged from a rope by Gage. Gage hops down and tackles his father, knocking the syringe from his hand. Gage starts carving at Louis' chest and arm. Louis manages to pull Gage off and throw him across the room. He pulls another syringe from his pocket and goes to embrace his son. As the two draw close, he stabs him with the syringe and injects the dead boy. The boy starts to cry. "No fair," Gage repeats as he stumbles away and finally collapses.
Louis goes and gets a can of gasoline and starts soaking Jud's house with it. He lights a match and sets the bodies of Jud and Gage alight. He carries Rachel from the house. On the lawn he encounters Pascow. Pascow tells Louis not to make it worse. Louis tells Pascow that the reason Gage came back wrong was because he waited to long, now he has a fresh body in Rachel so everything will be okay. He walks through Pascow and heads down the path towards the cemetery as Jud's house burns in the background.
Later, Louis returns to his house. He sits on his kitchen floor and shuffles a deck of cards. A church bell tolls in the distance as he deals a game of solitaire. He lays the cards down and a woman's bloody hand opens the kitchen door. Rachel walks in right at midnight, pus pouring from her empty eye socket. They embrace and kiss. Rachel grabs a knife. Cut to black. Louis screams.
Pet Sematary.
How I Felt
That totally owned. So great. Second best King adaptation I've seen, after The Shining of course. Performances were uneven and child actors are always hit or miss, usually miss, but the script was pretty good and the direction was spot on. The makeup was real neat. Just a real good movie, wow. Wasn't expecting that. Also the two best Ramones songs were in it.
Sequel?
There's a sequel starring Edward Furlong that's supposed to be just real terrible. Prob gonna watch it anyway. Also, there's a remake by the guy who did 1481 apparently in preproduction. Can't imagine that being any good. I should probably watch all the other Stephen King films i havent seen that are on Netflix. There are a ton of them.