Watch a Clip From The Unsettling and Sad Alternate Ending of PET SEMATARY
I thought the new film adaptation of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary was decent. I enjoyed it, but I still like the original film better. That movie will always have a special place in my heart for scaring the living shit out of me when I was a kid.
There were two different endings that were shot for this new adaptation. The theatrical ending features Louis Creed (Jason Clarke) following his evil resurrected zombie daughter Ellie (Jeté Laurence) as she drags her dying mother Rachel (Amy Seimetz) to the ancient cursed ground where she buries her. It’s there that Rachel comes back to life and kills her husband while he is fighting Ellie. It concludes with an undead Louis, Rachel, and Ellie approaching Gage who is waiting inside of a car.
This alternate ending is very different in tone and is actually a bit more disturbing and sad. It features Rachel being buried in the cursed ground while she is still alive! I actually like this ending a lot better. You can watch a clip of it below thanks to EW:
The directors of the film, Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer , loved both endings, but this was this original one that was in the script. They explained that they liked this one so much because it was the sadder one. So why did they change it? Test audiences. Kölsch explains:
“Everybody liked the original scripted ending. But both endings were tested [with preview audiences] and what came back is [the theatrical ending] was clearer to people and it was what people seemed to resonate with and it left them with fewer questions — I don’t mean questions in a good ambiguity way but questions in that people didn’t understand everything that happened.”
Widmyer added:
“[The alternate ending is] the ending that really should be tested a week after you screen a film when you’ve had more time to sit and process it. The theatrical ending is the big loud slam dunk ending where it goes out on a bang. There’s an immediacy to it that’s satisfying. The [original ending] is haunting, it’s lingering, it stays with you.”
See, I like endings in horror movies that haunt you and linger with you after you watch it! This is an ending that I would have definitely liked better. But, nothing will be the ending of the original film!
Pet Sematary arrives on digitally on June 25th and on Blu-ray/DVD on July 9th. What ending do you like better?