Film · Paramount Pictures
Pet Sematary: where to start reading
Adapts Pet Sematary by Stephen King. Say how far you watched, and pick the book up exactly there.
Horror
1 parts
on screen
1 book
to read
Diverges
from the books
After Pet Sematary (2019), in the books you are
at Pet Sematary.
covers the whole story, but the back half changes a key event and the ending.
Movies and books diverge here
The film adapts the novel's setup and premise faithfully, then diverges in the second half: a different family member is lost and the ending is reworked. The 1983 novel plays it differently, so reading it is worthwhile even after the film. The 1989 version sticks closer to the book's turn.
Start reading at Pet Sematary (the complete novel; the book's version of the back half differs from this film)
Spoiler-safe, only what the movies already showed you.
Get the book
The movie draws on this book. Read the full story:
Pet Sematary
Stephen King
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What the movies changed here
- CutJud's wife Norma, a significant figure in the novel, is written out of the film.
- CutThe cautionary Timmy Baterman flashback is dropped, surviving only as a passing local legend.
- ChangedThe ghost of Victor Pascow is given a larger, more serious recurring role than in the book.
- ChangedThe family relocates from Boston rather than the novel's Chicago, and the back half reworks a central event.
Where this comes from: en.wikipedia.org · movieweb.com. Spotted a mistake? The report link at the foot of this page comes straight to us.
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the moviesthe books
The 2019 film adapts Stephen King's 1983 novel but changes a major turn in the back half, including which child is lost and how the ending plays out. The 1989 film follows the novel's version of that turn more closely.
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