Why the 1989 Pet Sematary film became a horror classic despite critical panning
In short: When Paramount released Pet Sematary in 1989, critics savaged it as sickening, bland, and inept. Yet, the film defied these reviews to become a box-office success. Directed by Mary Lambert, this adaptation of Stephen King’s novel remains a polarizing, haunting piece of cinema that continues to fascinate horror audiences today.
The production of Pet Sematary was fraught with industry skepticism. After a string of Stephen King adaptations in the early 1980s, executives at Paramount were convinced the market for his work had dried up. The project only gained momentum during the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike, when the studio faced a shortage of new material. Stephen King, who insisted on writing the screenplay himself and filming in Maine, chose Mary Lambert as director because of her genuine enthusiasm for his source material.
Lambert’s creative choices were often at odds with studio expectations. She fought to cast two-year-old Miko Hughes as the toddler Gage Creed rather than using twins, and she insisted on casting Andrew Hubatsek as the teenage Zelda Goldman to make the character more unsettling. Perhaps most significantly, the film’s ending was altered at the studio's request. The original cut featured a more ambiguous, tragic conclusion, but executives demanded a more graphic, gruesome finale, resulting in the version where Rachel Creed returns as a reanimated killer.
Upon release, the film was a commercial hit, grossing $57.5 million against an $11.5 million budget. Critical reception, however, was harsh. Reviewers like Gene Siskel and Leonard Maltin dismissed it as schlock, while others criticized its reliance on shock value over narrative depth. Despite this, the film found a lasting audience, bolstered by an iconic soundtrack featuring the Ramones. Today, it is frequently cited as one of the better King adaptations, proving that audience appeal often diverges sharply from critical consensus.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Pet Sematary (1989 film)
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