7 Terrifying Details We Can’t Wait To See In The New ‘Pet Sematary’

In the highly anticipated film Pet Sematary, Dr. Louis Creed relocates from Boston to Maine with his wife Rachel and their two young children, Ellie and Gage. They discover a mysterious burial ground hidden deep in the woods, not far from their new home. When tragedy strikes, Louis seeks help from his old, eccentric neighbor, Jud Crandall. What he learns sets off a chain reaction that unleashes an unfathomable evil onto his family — maybe even the whole town.

Stock up on popcorn because Pet Sematary is coming to theaters on April 5. Here are a few details we can’t wait to see.

1. The unsettling lore, mysticism, and power of the sematary. Dozens of animals are buried beneath the dirt and sticks in the pet sematary. Their graves are marked with crosses patched together with twine and strung with animal masks. Children parade through the woods in those same masks, holding shovels and wielding crosses in a strange, unsettling procession. Decades before the children began their rituals, the land the sematary sits on was abandoned by ancient tribes. They carved warnings on trees before they fled because they feared the place. As Jud makes clear, the woods belong to something else. Something that has the power to bring back the dead. Of course, they never come back the same.

2. How disturbing those who come back from the pet sematary are. Church, the Creed family cat, gets run over on a highway near their new home. After the pet sematary brings him back to life, he acts differently. He looks like any average cat, but there is something menacing about him, something evil. Their daughter, Ellie, gets run over on the same highway. When the pet sematary brings her back, she is no longer a sweet little girl. She is dangerous. She is not to be trusted.

3. How the sematary changes people who are still alive. More than the dead are changed by the pet sematary. The Creed parents decay psychologically as the pet sematary takes hold of them. It transforms Louis from a loving, grieving father to a madman obsessed with bringing back the dead. It transforms Rachel from an affectionate, caring mother into a tense, panicky woman afraid of her own daughter.

4. How the pet sematary breaks a barrier. Rachel has a complicated relationship with death. She is still haunted by her sister, Zelda, who died when they were both young. After her family stumbles upon the pet sematary, she sees a horrifying version of Zelda crawling toward her with a cracking, deformed spine. Whether her sister has actually returned or the vision is only a trick of her mind, the pet sematary has created a chain reaction, tormenting her. Just like Jud warns Louis early on, if he brings back his little girl, she is not the only thing who will come back.

5. How much more Jud knows about the pet sematary. Jud is a local who has been living in the town for a while. He has seen what the sematary has done to dead pets, to dead people. He knows more secrets than he shares. Even though Louis seems to trust the old man, the sematary might have more power over Jud than he would ever admit.

6. How far people will go to keep their loved ones around. Sometimes, dead is better, but when a family member passes away, it’s hard to think rationally. Louis howls when he watches Ellie get bulldozed by a truck. He weeps when he attends her funeral. When he brings her back with the power of the pet sematary, she is dead-eyed and dangerous, but he orders Rachel to hug her like she is still the same adorable daughter he lost. He would rather have an imperfect, vicious version of her around than say goodbye forever.

7. How the film ties in with real landmarks in Maine. Pet Sematary takes place in a sinister world in a small town.  While King was a college student at the University of Maine, King took long walks through Mount Hope Cemetery, which appeared in the 1989 original film. We can’t wait to be scared by the big screen the same way King scared us on the page. Thought Catalog Logo Mark