when Hollywood seemed to 
have written off Stephen King adaptations as an exhausted trend best left on the pop culture scrap heap, a low-budget release from Paramount came along in 1989 and changed the game once again. Pet Sematary marked the first studio film for director Mary Lambert, best known for a string of influential music videos and the arty head scratcher Siesta, and was adapted from a bestselling King novel the author had famously avoiding publishing for years because of its touchy subject matter that, as the publisher successfully touted at the time, scared even the reigning maestro of horror fiction. Though many noted the book's debt to the classic short story "The Monkey's Paw," the heightened level of horror on display hit even closer to home since it completely decimated that most American of institutions, the nuclear family, from top to bottom. King insisted that the film stick to his own screenplay and, for once, actually shoot in Maine, both of which came to pass when a writer's strike sent the studio scrambling for a script that could be ready to go. The massive success of the film spawned not only a Lambert-directed sequel but a slew of new King adaptations that continue to this day. 
(mostly filled with casual observations 
and long gaps of silence) and a camera interview along with participants like actors Dale Midkiff, Denise Crosby, and Brad "Pascow" Greenquist. That begs the question: was there really a need for another look at the making of this film?
Berdahl together with her twin sister, Beau, both of whom played young Ellie Creed (something that wasn't really played up when the film came out). Exactly why 
they needed twins for the role actually makes sense, but you'll have to watch to find out. Since this was shot in Maine and used local residents for a number of roles and crew positions, you get to hear stories from some really crazy, unlikely places including the woman who supervised the grounds of the cemetery itself, the Orinco truck driver who had to mime "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" over an ear piece, the Budget rental car agent, and... well, just about everyone else, including Maine scholars, actress Heather Langenkamp (who became engaged to makeup artist Dave Anderson on the film), composer Elliot Goldenthal (who got his big break on the film) and, yes, Marky Ramone. Plus locations. Tons and tons of locations, many never chronicled before. There's also a substantial opening segment on King's novel including background about its real-life inspirations like the highway in front of his old house and even an interview with the creator of the actual "pets sematary" that started it all. 
of varying degrees of resolution. It all looks great though and pretty comparable to 
what you'll find in other documentaries along the same lines like Never Sleep Again, Crystal Lake Memories, and You're So Cool, Brewster!, while the DTS-HD MA English 5.1 audio (no captioning options) is mostly center oriented with some spacious activity for the music score. Also included are two tracks with the creators, first a standard audio commentary and then a Halloweekly podcast episode; there's some overlap between the two, understandably, but they're also jammed with stories about how they ferreted out such a wide range of interview subjects (much of it with the aid of Dale Midkiff's stand-in) and came to the conclusion that they had to do a documentary versus a book. 
added bits, including a full explanation of why the undead dog in Jud's 
story is never seen. One surprisingly substantial extra is
“Pet Tales – From the Cutting Room Floor” (18m27s), which collects some fun deleted anecdotes that strayed a little off the main narrative but offer a lot of quirkiness and extra shading that shouldn't be missed -- especially the first one from Crosby, which sounds like something out of Christine as she tried to find a local car to buy. A collection of location photos (2m2s) of the two filmmakers (who also appear sparingly in the main feature) features them in some very familiar settings, followed by a handful of
poster art concepts, a raw reel of the VHS production footage provided by Rhonda Carter (6m35s), a sizzle reel of highlights and fan testimonials, and a promotional trailer. 