Trivia / Pet Sematary

• Artistic License – Medicine: In the novel and film, medical doctor Louis tells Rachel that her sister Zelda was probably "clinically insane" from pain and drugs on the night she died. Louis would know that there is no such thing as being "clinically" insane, as insanity is not a medical status, but a legal one. Of course, it's very likely he was just using a colloquial phrase in a private moment in order to reassure his wife.
• Author Phobia/Reality Subtext: The Gage incident is based on King's own son having a close encounter with a truck. King mentions in On Writing that it is a parent's job to save your kid's life. His son bolted towards a road where semis blew by on a regular basis, and King caught him. What he couldn't stop thinking about was what would have happened if he hadn't. As he put it, he not only found himself thinking the unthinkable, but writing it down. He thought that the story went too far and was too dark and unenjoyable, and he was considering not publishing it.
  • In a foreword for the Signet paperback edition, King mentions his young daughter jumping on plastic wrap bubbles and ranting, "Let God have his own cat!" after the death of her pet, Smucky. This rant appears in the book, as does Smucky's grave ("He was obedient").
• Contractual Obligation Project: While Pet Sematary was marketed as "the book so scary Stephen King didn't want to publish it," the real truth is that King wanted out of his Doubleday contract due to the publisher holding onto a huge backlog of his royalties. Doubleday refused to give the money back unless King delivered two more books. Having previously shelved Pet Sematary for being too nihilistic for his liking, King threw the manuscript at them to settle half of the contract.
• Creator Backlash: Stephen King has a really complicated relationship with this book. In the introduction to at least one edition, King admits he has very mixed thoughts on the book because it's such a grim and hopeless read it's inspired Too Bleak, Stopped Caring in him, its author. On the other hand, it strangely verges also into Creator's Favorite, as Stephen King often states he considers it his scariest novel, and will usually recommend it as his first choice for readers looking for a scare.
• Never Work with Children or Animals: According to Mary Lambert, one of the hardest things was to get the cat to eat the pork chop.
• No Animals Were Harmed: Definitely subverted in-story, but played straight with the animal actors. The needle used to kill Church a second time was a prop rigged to look like it penetrated skin. The cat was sedated by a veterinarian with American Humane on set; kitty made a full recovery.
• Referenced by...:
  • MADtv (1995) did a parody of the film by doing a Crossover with Davey and Goliath.
  • In South Park episode "Marjorine", Butters is seemingly killed. Mr. Stotch's neighbor comes over and warns him not to bury "him" (actually a pig carcass) in the local Indian Burial Ground. It follows the scene from the film nearly word-for-word. When Butters returns from his wacky hijinks after Mr. Stotch re-buried the pig corpse, he assumes Butters is a zombie.
  • A running gag in Justice League (2017) is the Flash’s fears of Superman being resurrected in the exact same way.
• Self-Adaptation: This was the first filmed screenplay that Stephen King adapted from one of his own novels.
• Technology Marches On: In the book, a terabyte (and even 64 kilobytes!) is spoken of as an obscene and unthinkable amount of memory for a computer to have.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Gage originally was supposed to be played by twin boys, however that was scrapped once Miko Hughes was chosen for the role.
  • Bruce Campbell was the first choice for Louis Creed.
  • Christina Ricci auditioned for Ellie Creed.
  • George A. Romero was originally set to direct, but when filming was delayed, he dropped out and Mary Lambert stepped in and Romero directed Monkey Shines. Tom Savini was also asked to direct.
  • Pet Sematary Two was originally going to be more of a direct follow-up to the original and center around Ellie Creed, but this was changed due to the studio not wanting a teenage girl as the main lead.

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