Pet Sematary

This article is about Stephen King's horror novel. For other meanings, see Pet cemetery.

The film

Pet Sematary was made into a movie in 1989, starring Dale Midkiff as Louis, Fred Gwynne as Jud, Denise Crosby as Rachel. A man, Andrew Hubatsek, was chosen for Zelda's role because the filmmakers could not find a woman bony enough to portray the terminally-ill girl 3. This film was the first adaptation of a Stephen King novel to include his name in its title. Stephen King wrote the screenplay himself, having become frustrated with how his novels were represented in film adaptations, and appears briefly in the film as a minister at a funeral.

Related Topics:
Dale Midkiff - Fred Gwynne - Denise Crosby - Andrew Hubatsek

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The movie is more faithful to the story line and structure than is common for novel-to-movie adaptations in the horror genre. Even so, several plot elements — such as Louis's troubled relationship with his in-laws and his sorrow after Gage's death — were either combined, truncated or dropped due to the limitations of a movie-length script. The repeated line from the book about "Oz the Great and Terrible" is removed and replaced by repeated appearances of Pastow and Zelda.

Related Topics:
Structure - Plot elements

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There was also a not-quite-so-successful sequel, Pet Sematary 2.

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