(1989)

Submitted by Evan B

Pooper:
Louis resurrects Ellie after her death and she comes back evil. Ellie kills Jed, kills and resurrects Rachel, and then the pair kill and resurrect Louis. The film ends with the resurrected trio approaching Gage (with the likely intent to add him to their undead family).

Long Ending:
The Creed family – dad Louis (Jason Clarke), mom Rachel (Amy Seimentz), young daughter Ellie (Jeté Laurence), toddler son Gage (Hugo and Lucas Lavoie), and pet cat Church (short for Winston Churchill) – move to the Maine countryside so that Louis can spend more time with his family. Ellie meets and befriends their elderly widowed neighbor Jud (John Lithgow), who has lived there his entire life. They learn that there is a “pet sematary” on their property, where the local kids bury their deceased pets. The woods beyond the pet sematary are blocked off by a large deadfall.

Louis, who works at the local college health center, witnesses a tragedy. A college student named Pascow is hit by a car and dies while Louis tries to keep him alive. Pascow’s spirit visits Louis and tells him, as thanks for trying to save his life, not to journey beyond the pet sematary. The incident causes Ellie to inquire about a death. Rachel prefers not to talk about death due to a traumatic experience in her past. While a young girl, Rachel was left to watch her ill and deformed sister Zelda. Despite being told not to do so, Rachel sends Zelda’s supper to her using a broken dumb waiter. When Zelda goes to get her dinner, she falls into the dumb waiter and is sent plummeting to her death.

One night, Louis and Jud find Church dead on the side of the road, having been run over by the trucks that pass on the major roadway running by Louis’ house. Jud, allegedly motivated by his desire to spare Ellie’s feelings, takes Louis and the corpse of Church beyond the deadfall and into the woods. The woods are home to a supernatural force. Louis buries Church in an ancient burial ground in the woods at Jud’s urging. The next day, a resurrected Church returns home. Though alive, Church exhibits aggressive behavior and murderous impulses (killing and eating small critters). Jud explains that the locals know of the burial ground beyond the pet sematary, but that nothing has ever come back the same (he also says that he believes anyone who visits the burial ground is compelled by evil forces to introduce it to others). Louis eventually abandons Church deep in the woods and tells Ellie that Church ran away.

On Ellie’s birthday, Gage toddles into the road as a truck barrels towards him. While Louis runs after Gage and catches him before he is struck, the truck skids out of control and strikes and kills Ellie (who was lured into the road by Church, who had made his way home). Louis sends Rachel and Gage away to her parents’ house. Realizing what Louis intends to do, Jud tries to stop Louis. But Louis drugs Jud, exhumes his daughter’s corpse, and buries her in the burial ground beyond the pet sematary. On his way there, he spots an evil wendigo in the woods.

The spirit of Pascow appears to Rachel and Gage and tells them to return home. Meanwhile, Ellie is resurrected returns home to Louis. She realizes that she died and has been resurrected, and exhibits a disturbing personality.

Jud awakens and discovers that Ellie has been brought back to life. He goes to his home to get a gun to “undo” what Louis has done, but is attacked and stabbed to death by Ellie. Rachel and Gage return home and Rachel cannot accept that this Ellie is the same one who died. Angered by her mother’s rejection, Ellie attacks. Louis manages to get Gage out of the house and secure him in his car seat, but Ellie stabs Rachel to death before she can also escape the house. With her dying words, Rachel begs Louis to make sure she isn’t resurrected. But Ellie sneaks up on Louis and knocks him out before dragging Rachel’s corpse into the woods.

When Louis awakens, he accepts that he must kill Ellie. He tracks her to the pet sematary where the pair fight. Louis gets the upper hand but, before he can kill his daughter, he is fatally impaled by a resurrected Rachel. The ghoulish mother and daughter than drag Louis’ corpse over the deadfall to the burial ground. The film ends with the resurrected bodies of Ellie, Rachel, Louis and Church returning home and approaching the car where Gage waits to greet his “family.”