What actually happens
A house with a pet cemetery in the backyard
Louis Creed is an ER doctor from Boston who moves his wife Rachel, their children Ellie and Gage, and Ellie's cat Church to a small town in Maine. Rachel and Ellie explore the woods and meet a funeral procession of children in animal masks, carrying a dead dog to the Pet Sematary. Back at the university hospital, Louis fails to save Victor Pascow, a student who has been hit by a vehicle and dragged. Later he dreams that Victor walks him to a deadfall behind the cemetery and tells him not to go any farther. He wakes up with muddy feet and muddy sheets, which is the kind of detail a doctor should take more seriously.
Reading this instead of watching it is the correct decision. Scaredy Cat makes that decision automatic, for free.
Church comes back with a worse personality
On Halloween, a truck kills Church. Their neighbor Jud Crandall, who is fond of Ellie, offers to help Louis bury the cat, and he leads him past the pet cemetery to an old burial ground beyond it. The next day Church walks home alive, but he has become aggressive, and Louis finds him eating a bird that is still moving. Jud explains that the ground brings the dead back and that a spirit called the Wendigo is believed to live there. He says he thought Church would return unchanged, and adds that sometimes dead is better. Church attacks Gage, Louis tries to put the cat down and cannot go through with it, and he lets Church loose in the wild instead. This is an optimistic plan for a cat that has already walked home once.
Ellie's birthday party goes to the road
This is the scene people dread most, and it comes in the middle of the movie. During Ellie's birthday party, she spots Church by the road and runs out to meet him. A derailed tanker truck hits her, and she dies. The family is devastated afterward. Rachel and Gage go to stay with Rachel's parents for a few days. Jud sees where Louis's grief is heading and warns him that Ellie would not come back as herself. The ghost of Victor warns him too. Louis drugs Jud, digs up Ellie, and buries her in the animal graveyard while the Wendigo watches. Ellie climbs out of the grave, and something about her is wrong.
Jud finds out what he should have locked
While the family is away, Rachel keeps seeing her dead sister Zelda, who had spinal meningitis and fell down a dumbwaiter shaft. Gage is also visited by Victor's ghost, who tries to keep him from going home. Jud wakes up, sees Ellie in the house, and runs to his own place to get a revolver. A growling Church distracts him, and Ellie ambushes him on the stairs. She cuts his Achilles tendon with a scalpel, mimics the voice of his dead wife, and stabs him to death.
The ending, explained
Rachel and Gage come home and find Ellie there. Rachel takes Gage upstairs, and Ellie, angry that her mother is afraid of her, stabs Rachel. Louis finds Jud's body and rushes home, where he gets Gage out just as Ellie fatally stabs Rachel, and locks him in the car. Rachel asks Louis to keep her out of the Pet Sematary, but Ellie knocks Louis out and hauls Rachel's body to the burial ground anyway. At the pet cemetery, Ellie goes after Louis, and he is about to decapitate her when a grave marker impales him from behind. The one holding it is Rachel, who has come back. Rachel and Ellie drag Louis away and bury him. Louis returns too, and the family sets fire to Jud's house with Church beside them. They walk to the car, Louis looks in at Gage, and the door unlocks with a beep. The movie ends on that sound.
The post-credits ruling
Nobody has confirmed whether there's a scene after the credits, so staying for them is your call.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: not fine, though the dog is already dead when the movie shows it.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Pet Sematary scary?
Yes, Pet Sematary is a 5 out of 10 with medium dread. It has jump scares, and the rest of the fear comes from a family handling a death badly.
How does Pet Sematary end?
Rachel stabs Louis from behind with a grave marker after she returns from the dead. The family buries him, he comes back, and they walk toward the car where Gage is locked in. The movie ends as the car door unlocks.
Does the dog die in Pet Sematary?
Yes, a dog is dead in Pet Sematary, but only at the start: children carry it in a wagon to the pet cemetery, and it looks like a lump of fur. The cat dies off screen, and a bird dies on screen.
Is there a post-credits scene in Pet Sematary?
Nobody has confirmed whether Pet Sematary has a scene after the credits, so you can stay or leave.
What is the Wendigo in Pet Sematary?
In Pet Sematary, the Wendigo is the spirit believed to live in the burial ground that brings the dead back. Jud tells Louis about it after Church returns, and it watches when Louis buries Ellie.
