| Director | Mary Lambert |
|---|---|
| Genre | film based on a novel, horror film, zombie film |
| Runtime | 103 min |
| Country | United States |
| Budget | $11.5 million |
| Box office | $57.5 million |
The Creed family—Louis, Rachel, their children Ellie and Gage and their pet cat Church—move from Chicago to rural Ludlow, Maine, after Louis accepts a job as a local physician. They befriend neighbor Jud Crandall, who takes them to an isolated pet cemetery (misspelled "sematary") in the forest behind the Creeds' home.
Louis encounters Victor Pascow, a jogger who is fatally injured after being hit by a truck. He warns Louis about the pet cemetery before dying, calling Louis by name though they have never met. That night, Pascow's ghost leads Louis to the cemetery and warns him not to cross the barrier. Louis awakens from the supposed dream to find his feet covered in dirt.
During Thanksgiving, while the family is gone, Church is hit by a truck and killed. Realizing Ellie will be devastated, Jud takes Louis beyond the pet cemetery and deep into the woods, to an ancient Miꞌkmaq burial ground. Jud instructs Louis to bury the cat and warns him not to tell anyone about what they have done. The next day a reanimated Church returns to the house. He now stinks, moves sluggishly, his eyes glow gold and he is vicious toward Louis. Jud explains that as a boy he revived his pet dog and that, although the cat might be different, it will save Ellie the grief of losing her pet.
Sometime later, Gage is killed by a truck along the same highway. Jud anticipates that Louis is considering burying his son in the Miꞌkmaq ground, although Louis denies it. Jud believes that introducing Louis to the ritual ground aroused the malevolent forces present there, which caused Gage's death. He tells Louis the story of a local named Bill Baterman who buried his young son Timmy in the Miꞌkmaq ground after he was killed near the end of World War II. Timmy returned as a malevolent entity, terrifying the townsfolk. A group of men including Jud tried destroying Timmy by lighting the Baterman house on fire, only for Bill to perish with Timmy. Jud insists that the burial ground is evil and Louis must not bury Gage there, adding that "sometimes, dead is better".
After the funeral, Rachel and Ellie leave for Chicago while Louis stays behind, ostensibly to take care of loose ends. Despite Pascow and Jud's warnings, Louis exhumes Gage's body and buries him at the ritual site. In Chicago, Pascow appears to Ellie in a dream and warns her that Louis is about to do something terrible. Rachel is unnerved by Ellie's dream but can only reach Jud when she calls, who tells her Louis is not home. She decides to return to Maine, much to Jud's alarm.
That night, the reanimated Gage returns home and steals a scalpel from Louis' bag. He taunts Jud before murdering him. Rachel returns home and is lured into Jud's house by the specter of her dead sister Zelda Goldman, only to discover that she is actually seeing Gage, holding a scalpel. In shock and disbelief, Rachel reaches down to hug Gage and he kills her.
Waking up from his sleep, Louis notices Gage's muddy footprints in the house and finds his scalpel missing. Receiving a phone call from Gage that he has "played" with Jud and Rachel, he fills three syringes with morphine and heads to Jud's house. Encountering Church, he kills the cat with an injection before entering the house. After Louis finds Jud's body under his bed, Gage taunts him further and Louis is startled by Rachel's body hanging from the attic before Gage attacks him.
After a brief battle, Louis overpowers Gage and injects him with the morphine syringe. He then lights Jud's house on fire, leaving it to burn as he carries Rachel's body to the burial ground. Pascow appears and warns Louis not to "make it worse", but Louis, grief-stricken to the point of insanity, believes that he waited too long when he buried Gage, but burying Rachel "will work this time". That night, Rachel returns to Louis and they embrace. Rachel takes a large knife from the counter, and the screen cuts to black before Louis screams.