Random Interesting Revelations From Documentary 'Unearthed and Untold: Path to Pet Sematary' (14 items)

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  (#5) King Tells The Infamous Story About Shelving The Novel Because It Scared Him Too Much

  Early on in Unearthed & Untold, King discusses his distaste for the book - not because he thinks the writing is bad, but because he was so afraid of the story he conjured up while writing the book. He admits that it was "nasty" and far too bleak for his personal taste.

  The film later reveals that Doubleday used these exact sentiments to market Pet Sematary once it was released. Who wouldn't want to read the novel written by the master of horror that even he felt was too scary? In 2019, King reiterated his distaste for the book to Entertainment Weekly: 

  I listened to it last year when I was down here in Florida walking on the beach with the dog. Michael C. Hall did the audiobook. I was curious about it. You know, I hadn't been near it in 20, 25 years. So I listened to it, and thought, "My God, this is just awful. It's just as dark as can be..." Not that it was badly written, necessarily. But all that stuff about the [demise] of kids. It was close to me, because my kids lived on that road.
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  (#2) The Filmmakers Interview One Of The Founders Of The Real Pet Sematary

  The pet cemetery of Pet Sematary is a real place, although it is not an ancient graveyard - at least not according to the documentary. The actual cemetery is in Orrington, Maine, and Stephen King lived next door while he was teaching at Hampden Academy.

  Bethany Smith, one of the founders of the "Pets Sematary," says that King's house was empty for "many many many years" before the author moved in. She explains that the cemetery was started in the '70s out of necessity because of the large amount of pets perishing on the highway. Smith also explains how the pet cemetery came to be called "Pets Sematary." She said: 

  The neighbor up the road, Johnny, he was really into spray painting anything and everything, he decided that our cemetery had to have a sign because it was a growing population. We gave Johnny the task of making the sign and he showed up with it spelled the way it's spelled and we had a really good laugh. 
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  (#8) Charlie Sheen And Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Visited The Set

  Filming in Maine had its charms - one of them being that people from around town were comfortable just stopping by the set and checking things out. But it wasn't just the locals who were popping by the Pet Sematary set to watch the newest King adaptation become committed to celluloid; there were also some legitimately famous folks who were interested in the production, as well. 

  Charlie Sheen stopped by one day to greet David Anderson, the makeup artist, after wrapping Wall Street. Basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar hung out around set thanks to his friendship with one of the film's producers. This wasn't the last time that Jabbar crossed paths with King, either - he went on to appear in The Stand a few years later. 
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  (#1) It Features The Actual Locations That Inspired Stephen King - Including The Titular Burial Grounds

  Many of the locations in Pet Sematary are the places that inspired King while he was writing the novel - from the pet cemetery he lived next door to, to the town where he spent time off while he wasn't teaching. In Unearthed & Untold, the cast and crew of the film discuss how it's not just the buildings and homes that add to the creepy vibe, but the other exterior surroundings in Maine, as well. 

  Denise Crosby (Rachel Creed) notes that the woods surrounding the Pet Sematary sets helped inspire her attitude while filming the more dour, horrifying scenes. If Pet Sematary was filmed in Los Angeles, or any other state doubling for Maine, the emotional inspiration from the area would not have been the same. Many of the locations in the film are miles away from one another, especially the Micmac burial ground and the deadfall, and each were just as necessary in creating the most appropriate aesthetic for the adaptation.  
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  (#9) Jud's Home Was A Facade Built Onto A Preexisting House

  Since the production took place in Maine, the crew couldn't just find the perfect house the way they could in Los Angeles, but director Mary Lambert made it work. For the Creed home, she found a house that only required a tree with a tire swing to be planted in the yard to make it legitimate. The Crandall home, however, was a bit more difficult to perfect. 

  The crew had to build a facade onto the front of a different house so that Jud Crandall's residence could be across the street from the Creed home and appear in the same scenes. The actual house is a modern ranch, which is a far cry from what Crandall's house looks like in the film. To make these changes, the crew built an extra frame onto the original building, and it looked incredibly real. They essentially built a house over the house, using sheetrock on the outside of the structure and adding real shingles and trim. 
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  (#4) The Novel Was Only Published Because Of A Contractual Agreement

  Stephen King really didn't want to release Pet Sematary. After he wrote it, he put it in a drawer and tried to forget about it before moving on to write something new. The story came back to life in the '80s after King moved from his first publisher, Doubleday, to Viking. Due to his previous contract with Doubleday, there was a pile of money withheld from King, and in order to access it, he had to give them one more book. In 2019, King explained to Entertainment Weekly: 

  The money had piled up enough, so I said, "Well, what do I do about this?" And [King's lawyer] said, "You'll have to give them another book, and make it part of the agreement that they can publish the book under their bullsh*t terms. But they have to break the investment fund."

  According to the documentary, Doubleday didn't want the book from King while he was still working with them. However, after moving to Viking, they were hungry for another King hit so they agreed to his terms. 

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