Pet Sematary: Bloodlines Writer/Director Talks Unearthing the Stephen King Prequel

Like all of the best Stephen King stories, Pet Sematary delivers audiences not only a rich world full of creepy mythology, but the story also serves as an allegory for a number of much more grounded themes. Given the storytelling potential, it's no real surprise that the novel would first inspire a 1989 film, then a 1992 sequel, and then a 2019 reboot adaptation. The next live-action chapter in the franchise is Pet Sematary: Bloodlines, which focuses on a specific chapter of the source material and expands those elements in exciting ways. The new prequel was directed by Lindsey Anderson Beer, who co-wrote the script with Jeff Buhler, writer of the 2019 reboot. Pet Sematary: Bloodlines lands on Paramount+ on October 6th.

"Because there have been a lot of movies, I felt like I had to put all of the movies out of my mind and just go to the book and focus on the book," Anderson Beer shared with ComicBook.com about her approach to bringing the script into live-action. "And I do very much consider it a prequel to the book and not necessarily any one movie. It was such a joy to revisit the book and it's even better as an adult than I knew it was as a kid. And so that was really fun, too."

The movie is described, "In 1969, a young Jud Crandall has dreams of leaving his hometown of Ludlow, Maine behind, but soon discovers sinister secrets buried within and is forced to confront a dark family history that will forever keep him connected to Ludlow. Banding together, Jud and his childhood friends must fight an ancient evil that has gripped Ludlow since its founding, and once unearthed has the power to destroy everything in its path."

The movie stars Jackson White (Tell Me Lies), Forrest Goodluck (The Revenant), Jack Mulhern (Mare of Easttown), Henry Thomas (The Fall of the House of Usher), Natalie Alyn Lind (The Goldbergs), and Isabella Star LaBlanc (True Detective: Night Country). David Duchovny and Pam Grier also appear in the prequel.

Buhler had written the script before Anderson Beer joined the project, as she expressed that, once she got involved, she injected elements into the script that resonated with her more strongly.

When asked if the script only earned subtle changes after she joined, Anderson Beer admitted, "No, it was a pretty large rewrite. There are story pillars there that, certainly, he laid the groundwork for, and ideas. It was his idea to do a Timmy Baterman origin story with Jud. That's what excited me about this project. I think, ultimately, when you're a writer-director, you have to just make something personal. So I had to do my own version of it, but there was a lot that excited me in his draft and, as much as it evolved, some of those story-turns definitely are still from the original draft."

Previous adaptations of the story took place in the 1980s and then the 2010s, but both featured teases that the town of Ludlow, Maine saw centuries of bizarre events, some of which are explored in Bloodlines. Still, these are only isolated incidents in the macabre history of the town.

"I definitely did not stick with the story that we were actually telling. I have a whole history and murder board of the people in Ludlow and what happened. I could tell 10 million side-stories and, no, you don't see it on the screen, but to me, that's my process," Anderson Beer expressed of developing the film's mythology. As far as whether she or Buhler might be returning to Ludlow, she confessed, "For me, I felt like the Timmy Baterman chapter offered so much in terms ... So in the book, it says that Timmy Baterman and Jud's encounter with Timmy Baterman is the reason that the evil's targeting him as an old man. It also says at the end of the book that Jud is the guardian of the woods, which, to me, suggested this greater mantle or responsibility that we don't actually know about in the movies. We just see him smoking and drinking on the porch mysteriously. So I felt like, as opposed to just a side story, this could really tell much more about the origin of this character, what role he's actually played in this town, what is the nature of this evil? Where does it come from? How was the town founded? Really treat this as a Ludlow origin story as opposed to a side adventure. "

She added, "In my head, there's much more to tell on that. So, definitely, I think that there could be more to be explored at some other point if that ever became a thing. That said, that's always up to fans. If people want to know more and they're clamoring for more, maybe that's something Paramount responds to. I don't know. But, at this present time, I put a lot into this movie and here it is."

Given that the story focuses on figures coming back from the dead, there's debate over whether it's a zombie story, as it bucks the trend of the typical stories in that subgenre. Anderson Beer weighed in on why she thinks Pet Sematary doesn't fit her mold of that subgenre.

"No, I don't think Pet Sematary is a zombie movie," the filmmaker confirmed. "Because I think, and this is one of the things that interests me most about Pet Sematary and about King's description of Timmy Baterman, in particular, in the book, [is it] makes it sound like he's tuning in and out. He is possessed sometimes, and then you see hints of himself, and, obviously, that's not true, at least in a zombie movie as we understand other zombies. That's what I think makes it so cool, is it's not just this mindless, meat puppet thing. It's more tragic than that and more nuanced than that, which makes it even harder for the people in their lives to let them go."

She continued, "But I think, ultimately, with this kind of stuff, that's a good point, but I think however people conceive of the answer, that's the answer."

Pet Sematary: Bloodlines lands on Paramount+ on October 6th.

Are you looking forward to the prequel story? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!