Pet Sematary Quotes

[Victor near death whispers a sentence to Louis]

Victor Pascow: The soil... in a man's heart... is stonier.

[Louis watches the reanimated Church die]

Louis Creed: Go on. Lay down. Play dead.

Louis Creed: [Louis screams] Be dead!

[the ghost of Victor warns Louis not to bury Rachel at the Indian burial ground]

Victor Pascow: I'm sorry, Louis, I'm so sorry, but don't make it worse. Don't.

Louis Creed: I waited too long with Gage. With Rachel... it will work this time, because she just died. She just died a little while ago.

Victor Pascow: [Victor screams before fading away] Louis... don't. Please! Louis! No!

Rachel: Honey, you just had a bad dream, that's all. You know that, don't you?

Ellie: It wasn't a dream. It was Pax-cow. Pax-cow says daddy is going to do something really bad!

Rachel: Who is this Paxcow? Is he like the Bogeyman?

Ellie: He's a ghost. He's a good ghost. He says he's sent to warn us!

[Louis prepares to inject the reanimated Church with the syringe]

Louis Creed: Today is thanksgiving day for cats, but only if they came back from the dead.

[Louis answers the phone to talk to the reanimated Gage]

Gage: I'm at Jud's daddy. Will you come over and play with me? First I play with Jud. Then mommy came, and I played with mommy. We play, daddy? We had an awful good time Now, I want to play with you.

Louis Creed: [Gage laughs wickedly] What did you do?

Gage: [Louis screams] What did you do!

Louis Creed: [about the Indian Burial Ground] Has anyone ever buried a person up there?

Jud Crandall: [Jud spills his drink] Christ on his throne, no. And who ever would?

[Jud finishes the story of Timmy Baterman]

Jud Crandall: Four or five days after Timmy's funeral...

Jud Crandall: [in a flashback, narrating] That Margie Washburn seen Timmy walking up the road towards Yorkie's Livery. As time went by... lots of folks saw Timmy walking back and forth.

Jud Crandall: But it was Margie who finally came to some of us men folks and said it had to be stopped. She knew it was an abomination.

[Louis watches the reanimated Gage die]

Gage: No Fair. No Fair, No Fair.

Louis Creed: [sees the reanimated Church laying in bed with Rachel] Fuck off, hairball.

Louis Creed: Fuck off, hairball.

[Rachel sees the reanimated Gage]

Gage: [Gage holds up a scalpel] I brought you something, mommy.

Rachel: Gage.

Gage: [Rachel starts to tear up] I brought you something, mommy

Rachel: Oh, Gage. Gage.

Gage: [Gage walks up to Rachel] I brought you something, mommy.

[as Rachel screams]

Jud Crandall: How's your cat, Louis?

Louis Creed: It's Ellie's cat.

Jud Crandall: No. It's your cat now.

Jud Crandall: [sits on his porch looking at the Creed house] You've done it, you stupid old man. Now, you've got to undo it.

Jud Crandall: You've done it, you stupid old man. Now, you've got to undo it.

[Rachel sees her sister Zelda in a dream]

Zelda: I'm coming for you, Rachel. And this time... I'll get you. Gage, and I... will get you... for letting us die!

[chuckling]

[Rachel finds her sister Zelda in the present]

Zelda: Rachel? Is that you? I finally came back for you, Rachel. I'm going to twist your back like mine so you'll never get out of bed again. Never get out of bed again.

Zelda: [Zelda screams] Never get out of bed again! Never get out of bed again!

[Louis returns home after burying Rachel]

Jud Crandall: [narrating] The soil of a man's heart is stonier, Louis. A man grows what he can, and he tends it. Because what you buy is what you own. And what you own... always comes home to you.

[last lines]

Rachel: [Louis with tears in his eyes sees the reanimated Rachel return home] Darling.

[when the two kiss passionately, as Rachel holds a knife out and Louis screams]

[Mr. Goldman yells at Louis during the funeral]

Irwin Goldman: I knew something like this would happen. I told her when you were first married, you'll have all the grief you can stand, and more, I said. Now, look at this.

Irwin Goldman: [screaming] I hope you rot in hell! Where were you when he was playing in the road? You stinking shit! You killer of children!

[Jud tells Louis the truth about the ground beyond the Pet Sematary]

Louis Creed: I'll bite Jud. What's the bottom of the truth?

Jud Crandall: Well, that sometimes, death is better.

Jud Crandall: [narrating] The person you put up there ain't the person that comes back. It may look like that person, but it ain't that person. 'Cause... whatever lives in the ground beyond the Pet Sematary ain't human at all.

[Louis hears the reanimated Gage in Jud's house]

Gage: Scared you, didn't I?

Louis Creed: Gage?

Gage: Hi, daddy. now I want you play with you.

Louis Creed: [Gage wickedly laughs] All right, Gage.

Louis Creed: [Louis pulls out his syringe] Let's play.

[Gage laughs]

[first lines]

Broken Hearted Child 1: [the voices of broken hearted children burying their pets at the Pet Sematary, voice-over] Bye, old Shep. See you in heaven. Yeah?

Broken Hearted Child 2: [voice over] This is where my kitty lays. No more he screams and hollers.

Broken Hearted Child 3: [voice-over] He lived for 5 and 20 days. He cost me $50.

Young Jud: [voice-over] Spot - A good fella. We love you.

Louis Creed: My little girl's got a cat. Winston Churchill. We call him Church for short.

Jud Crandall: I'd get him fixed if I were you. Fixed cat don't tend to wander.

[Gage bumps his father with his toy]

Gage: Uh-Oh!

Louis Creed: [Louis smiles] Uh-Oh.

[Rachel and Ellie read the Pet Sematary sign]

Ellie: What's it say mommy?

Rachel: It says Pet Sematary, honey. It's misspelled, but that's what it says.

[the Creed family enter the Pet Sematary]

Jud Crandall: I told you it was a bad road Louis. It's killed a lot of pets and made a lot of kids unhappy. At least something good come of it. This place. Couldn't plant nothing but corpses here anyway, I guess.

Rachel: How can you call it a good thing? A graveyard for pets killed in the road, built by broken hearted children.

Jud Crandall: Well, they have to learn about death somehow. Now, don't they Mrs. Creed?

[Jud and the Creed family look at the Pet Sematary gravestones]

Ellie: Daddy, look, this one's a goldfishy.

Jud Crandall: That's right, Ellie. They weren't all killed by the road. Especially the ones from back in my times as a child. They get older as you go towards the middle. Harder to read.

Jud Crandall: Do you know what a graveyard really is?

Ellie: Well, I guess not

Jud Crandall: It's a place where the dead speak.

[Ellie gasps]

Jud Crandall: No, not right out loud. Their stones speak or their markers. This ain't a scary place, Ellie. It's a place of rest and speaking.

Ellie: Daddy, what if Church dies? What if he dies and has to go to the pet cemetery?

Louis Creed: Honey, Church will be fine.

Ellie: No, he won't. Not in the end. In the end he's gonna croak, isn't he?

Louis Creed: Lovey, Church might still be alive when you're in high school, and that's a very long time.

Ellie: It doesn't seem long to me. It seems short.

Louis Creed: Well, if it was up to me, I'd let Church live up to be 100, but I don't make up the rules.

[Gage throws his food at breakfast]

Ellie: Yuck! Gross!

Gage: Uh-Oh!

Ellie: I don't want Church to get his nuts cut, daddy.

Louis Creed: [chuckles] Good God, where did you hear that?

Louis Creed: Church will be just the same. Well, almost the same, and we won't have to worry about him getting run over in the road by trucks. Church will be all right, honey.

Ellie: You promise, daddy?

Rachel: Don't shilly-shally, Louis, give the little girl a promise.

Louis Creed: Church will be fine. I promise.

Ellie: Yay!

[Louis warns his wife about if Church's operation goes wrong]

Louis Creed: If anything does happen while he's under the gas, and that's a 1 in a 1,000 shot, but it does happen, you explain it to her.

Gage: [Gage throws food at Church's box] Church!

[Missy sees Louis loading up to take Church for his operation]

Missy Dandridge: Going to get his...

Louis Creed: Nuts cut, yes. Thank you, Missy, for introducing that colorful phrase into my daughter's vocabulary.

Missy Dandridge: Don't mention it.

Louis Creed: How's that bellyache of yours?

Missy Dandridge: No better. No worse.

Louis Creed: You know, I can take a look at that for you.

Missy Dandridge: It'll pass. They always do.

[Rachel kisses her husband before he leaves for work]

Rachel: Still friends, doc?

Gage: [Rachel and Louis kiss while Rachel holds Gage] I kissed you.

Rachel: [Rachel chuckles] Have a great first day at school, doc.

[Louis sees Victor for the first time as a ghost]

Victor Pascow: Come on, doc. We've got places to go.

Victor Pascow: [Victor vanishes before reappearing next to him] Come on, doc. Don't make me tell you twice.

[Victor smiles]

Louis Creed: Hey, why are you here?

Victor Pascow: I want to help you because, Louis? Because you tried to help me.

[Victor's ghost touches Louis]

Louis Creed: I don't like this dream.

Victor Pascow: Who said you were dreaming?

[Louis talks to Victor's ghost at the Pet Sematary]

Victor Pascow: This is the place where the dead speak.

Louis Creed: I want to wake up. I want to wake up. That's all.

Victor Pascow: Don't go on, doc. No matter how much you may feel you have to. Do not go on to the place where the dead... walk.

[Victor points to the path]

[Victor's ghost speaks to Louis on the ground]

Victor Pascow: The barrier was not meant to be crossed.

Louis Creed: [Louis cries] It's not my fault that you died. You were as good as dead when they brought you in.

Victor Pascow: The ground beyond... is sour.

[Louis wakes up from his sleep]

Rachel: You up, doc?

Louis Creed: Getting there.

Jud Crandall: [on the phone] Louis, afraid you may have a spot of trouble here.

Louis Creed: Jud? What trouble?

Jud Crandall: Well, there's a dead cat over here at the edge of my lawn.

Louis Creed: Oh, Jesus.

Jud Crandall: I think it might be your daughter's.

[Jud and Louis stand over Church's dead body]

Jud Crandall: At least it don't look like he suffered.

Louis Creed: Well, Ellie will suffer. She'll suffer plenty.

[Jud suggests they handle burying Church a better way]

Jud Crandall: You going to tell Ellie?

Louis Creed: I'll have to mull that over for a while. Maybe when they call I'll just tell her I haven't seen the damn cat around, you know? I don't want to spoil her holiday, and Rachel's.

Jud Crandall: Maybe... there's a better way

Jud Crandall: [Jud shows Louis how to climb the hill of branches at the Pet Sematary] I've climbed it a time or two before. I know all the places to step. Just follow me. Move easy. Don't look down... and don't stop. If you stop, you'll crash through for sure. Just don't stop, and...

Louis Creed: [falls through the branches] And don't look down. Right.

Jud Crandall: [after Louis falls through the branches] Louis, You all right?

Louis Creed: Yeah. I just lost my happy thoughts there for a second.

[Louis hears a scream as they make their way to the Indian burial ground]

Louis Creed: Jud, what's that?

Jud Crandall: Shh!

Jud Crandall: [the two remain silent for a moment as they hear what sounds like a scream] Just a loon, that's all.

[Jud and Louis make their way to the Indian burial ground]

Jud Crandall: [through the forest] Won't be much longer now.

Jud Crandall: [through the rocks] Just down here a little ways.

Jud Crandall: [on the mountain] Almost there, Louis.

Louis Creed: You keep saying that.

Jud Crandall: This time I mean it.

[Jud shows Louis the Indian burial ground]

Louis Creed: What is this place?

Jud Crandall: This is their burial ground.

Louis Creed: Whose burial ground?

Jud Crandall: Micmac Indians. I brought you here to bury Ellie's cat.

Louis Creed: Why, for God's sake? I said why Jud?

Jud Crandall: I had my reasons.

[Jud hands Louis the shovel to bury Church]

Jud Crandall: The soil's thin, but you'll manage. I'm a sit over yonder and have a smoke. I'd help you, but you got to do it yourself. Each buries his own.

[Jud tells Louis to keep the Indian burial ground a secret]

Jud Crandall: When you talk to them... not one word about what we done tonight.

Louis Creed: What did we do tonight, Jud?

Jud Crandall: What we did, Louis, was a... secret thing. Women are supposed to be the ones who are good at keeping secrets, but any woman who knows anything at all will tell you she's never seen into a man's heart. The soil of a man's heart, Louis, is stonier, like the soil up there in the old Micmac burial ground.

[Louis talks to Ellie on the phone]

Louis Creed: Hi, baby. How's everything in Chicagoland?

Ellie: Grandma and grandpa gave me all sorts of neat things. How's Church, daddy? Does he miss me?

Louis Creed: Well... I guess he's just fine, Ellie. I haven't seen him this evening, but, ah...

Ellie: Well, make sure you put him down in the cellar before you go to bed so he won't run out in the road. And, kiss him good night for me.

Louis Creed: [Louis smiles] Yuck. Kiss your own cat.

[Louis talks to Gage on the phone]

Ellie: Want to talk to Gage?

Louis Creed: Yeah.

Gage: Hi, daddy. I love you.

Gage: [Louis remains silent] Hi, daddy. I love you.

[Louis remains silent]

[Louis examines the reanimated Church]

Louis Creed: Christ, I don't believe this. You stink, Church.

Louis Creed: [Louis holds up Church] Hold on a second. Gosh, he chewed his way out. Jesus Christ.

Louis Creed: [when Church scratches Louis on his face] Damn it!

[Rachel asks Jud about the trail next to her new home]

Rachel: Mr. Crandall? There's a path over there. Do you know where it goes?

Jud Crandall: [Jud pauses while looking down the trail] Oh. Ayuh, that's a good story. A good walk. I'll take you up there sometime. Tell you the story, too. After you get settled in.

[Jud cheers his beer with Louis on the front porch]

Jud Crandall: Meantime, Doc, here's to your bones.

Louis Creed: And your bones.

[both men take a drink]

Louis Creed: I've tried to tell myself that I buried him alive. I'm not a vet. It was dark.

Jud Crandall: Sure, it was dark. But his head swiveled on his neck like it was full of ball bearings. When you moved him, he pulled out of the frost, Louis. Sounded like a piece of ticky tape coming off a letter. Live things don't do that. You only stop melting the frost under where you're laying when you're dead.

[Jud tells Louis the story of his dog Spot]

Jud Crandall: [narrating] It was the Ragman who told me about the place. He was half Micmac himself. He knew how I felt about my dog Spot. Spot had got caught in barbed wire that infected. When he died, I thought I was going to die. Ragman did for me what I did for you last night. Only I wasn't alone when Spot came back. My mother was with me. You could still see the barbed wire marks on him

Jud's Mother: [in a flashback Spot the dog growls at Jud's mother] Jud, come and get your dog! He stinks of the ground you buried him in! Jud!

Jud Crandall: [narrating] Spot, came back, alright. He wasn't quite the same dog that I knew. When he died peacefully in the night that second time, I buried him up there in the pet cemetery where as you saw, his bones still lie.

[Jud tells Louis why he helped him bury Church]

Jud Crandall: A man doesn't always know why he does things, Louis. I think I did it, 'cause your daughter ain't ready for her favorite pet to die. Maybe with more time, she'll learn what death really is, which is where the pain stops and the good memories begin.

[Louis yells at Church who shows up in his locked bathroom with him]

Louis Creed: How the hell did you get in here!

Ellie: Daddy, is Church alright?

Louis Creed: Yes. I guess so. He was asleep on the porch when I left.

Ellie: Cause I had a dream about him. I had a dream he got hit by a car and you and Mr. Crandall buried him in the Pet Sematary.

Louis Creed: That was a silly dream, wasn't it?

[the Creed family agree to pay for Church to get groomed]

Ellie: Can cats have shampoos?

Rachel: Yes, but you have to take them to someone who grooms animals though, and I think it's pretty expensive.

Ellie: I don't care, I'll save my allowance to pay for it. Church smells bad.

Louis Creed: I'll cough up the money, Ellen.

Ellie: I hate that smell.

Louis Creed: Yes. I hate it, too.

[the Minister speaks at Missy's funeral]

Minister: And now, may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you. And comfort you and lift you up and give you peace. Amen.

[Jud makes a comment about Missy after her funeral]

Jud Crandall: Poor Missy. I don't know why God takes someone like her. She should still have a bunch of years in front of her and let's an old fart like me go on and on.

[Ellie asks her dad Louis where they go when they die]

Ellie: Is Missy in heaven, do you think?

Louis Creed: I don't know, honey. Different people believe in all sorts of different things. Some believe in heaven or hell, and some believe we come back as little children, and some believe we just wink out, like a candle flame when the wind blows hard

Ellie: Do you believe that?

Louis Creed: [Louis looks down at the growling Church] No. I think we go on

Louis Creed: [Louis then looks at Ellie and smiles] Yeah. I have faith in that.

Ellie: [Ellie smiles back] You believe in it.

Rachel: [narrating] My parents were gone when she died.

Zelda: [in a flashback] Rachel! Ha ha ha.

Rachel: [narrating] She started to... She started to convulse... And I thought... I thought... oh, my God, she's choking. Zelda's choking. And they'll come home, and they'll say I murdered her by choking. They'll say, "You hated her, Rachel", and that was true. And they'll say, "You wanted her to be dead", and that was true too. And then she died. And I started to scream. I ran out of the house screaming, "Zelda's dead! Zelda's dead! Zelda's dead!" And the neighbors they came out and they looked...

[with tears in her eyes]

Rachel: They thought I was crying. Do you know something? I think maybe... I was laughing.

Louis Creed: If you were, I salute you for it. And If I ever needed another reason to not like your father and mother I have one now. You should never have been left alone with her Rachel, never. Where was the nurse? They actually went out and left an eight year old kid in charge of her dying sister who was probably clinically insane by then.

[Jud sees a picture Ellie carries with her of Gage]

Jud Crandall: Oh. Ain't that real nice. You pulling him in the wagon. I bet he liked that, didn't he?

Ellie: I'm going to carry this picture Mr. Crandall until God lets Gage comes back.

Jud Crandall: Ellie... God doesn't do things like that.

Ellie: He can if he wants to. I have to keep his things waiting for him. That's what I think.

[Ellie talks to her dad while mourning for Gage]

Ellie: Daddy? God could take it back if he wanted to, couldn't he? If he really, really wanted to. Can I have faith in that?

Louis Creed: Yes. I suppose you can.

Jud Crandall: You're thinking thoughts best not thought of, Louis.

Louis Creed: I thinking about going to bed.

Jud Crandall: I'm responsible for more pain in your heart than you should have tonight. For all I know, I may even be responsible for the death of your son.

Louis Creed: What? Jud, you're talking crazy.

Jud Crandall: You are thinking of putting him up there. Don't deny the thought hadn't crossed your mind, Louis.

[Jud tells Louis the story of Timmy Baterman]

Jud Crandall: Louis... you asked me if anyone had ever buried a person up there in the Micmac grounds. I lied to you when I said no. It's been done. What you've been thinking of has been done. He was a local boy. It was towards the end of the second world war. His name was Timmy Baterman.

Jud Crandall: [narrating] He was killed on his way home from the second world war. His father Bill Baterman was so grief-struck. He was so grief struck, he buried his son up there before he ever had a chance to get to the bottom of the truth.

[Jud pleads with Louis to not bury his son in the Micmac burial ground]

Jud Crandall: [narrating] Louis, sometimes dead is better. The Indians knew that. They stopped using that burial ground when the ground went sour. Don't think about doing it, Louis. The place gets holier, but the place... is evil.

[Jud tells Louis the Indian burial ground might have made Gage die]

Jud Crandall: You see, Louis, what I'm getting at here, you understand?

Louis Creed: You're telling me that place knew Gage was going to die?

Jud Crandall: [in tears] I'm saying... that place might have made Gage die because I introduced you to the power. I may have murdered your son, Louis.

[Mr. Goldman apologizes to Louis for the funeral incident]

Irwin Goldman: Louis. I am sorry. What can I say? I lost my mind.

Louis Creed: We all lost our minds, Irwin.

[Louis sits over Gage's grave]

Louis Creed: [in tears] If it doesn't work... If he comes back... and he's like Jud said Timmy Baterman was, well, I'll just put him back to sleep. They don't have to know. Rachel and Ellie, don't ever have to know.

[Louis stands over Gage's grave with a shovel]

Louis Creed: I'm going to bust you out, son.

[Rachel's car breaks down on the side of the road]

Rachel: Now what?

Victor Pascow: It's trying to stop you. Do you hear me? It's trying to stop you!

Rachel: [Rachel looks out into the darkness] Is anyone there?

[Louis sits over Gage's Indian burial plot]

Louis Creed: Come back to me, Gage. Come back to us.

[Rachel thanks the truck driver for the ride to her home]

Rachel: Thank you so much.

Victor Pascow: [Victor's ghost replies before smiling] Think nothing of it.

Orinco Driver: Well, I didn't get a ticket, lady, so you're welcome. Whatever your problems are, I hope they work out.

Victor Pascow: It's the end of the line for me, too. I'm not allowed any further.

Rachel: I'm sure things will be fine.

Victor Pascow: [Victor smiles] I'm not.

Rachel: [Louis is lying on the bed, reading a book as Rachel enters the bedroom] I heard you and Ellie, tonight.

Louis Creed: I figured you might have. I know you don't approve of the subject.

Rachel: I just get... scared. And you know me...

[She sits down on the bed]

Rachel: ... When I get scared, I get defensive.

Louis Creed: [He puts his book down, and sits up, facing Rachel] Scared of what? Dying?

Rachel: [Hesitant at first] My sister, Zelda...

Louis Creed: I know, she died. Spinal Meningitis.

Rachel: She was in the back bedroom like a dirty secret.

[the scene cuts to a flashback of a young Rachel entering Zelda's bedroom with Zelda's dinner, as Rachel's voice over continues]

Rachel: My sister died in the back bedroom and that's what she was: a dirty secret. I had to feed her sometimes. I hated it, but I did it.

[the scene shows a young Rachel feeding Zelda, with the young Rachel looking grossed out, with Zelda beginning to cough]

Rachel: We wanted to her dead. We wished for her to be dead. It wasn't so that she wouldn't feel anymore pain. It was so that we wouldn't feel any more pain. It was because she was starting to look like this monster.

[Cuts back to the present day, with Rachel continuing her story]

Rachel: Even now, I wake up and think, "Is Zelda dead, yet? Is she?"

[the scene cuts back to the flackback with a young Rachel standing on the staircase]

Rachel: My parents were gone when she died.

Zelda: [In flashback] Rachel.

[Zelda laughs]

Rachel: [Flashback shows Zelda choking, with a young Rachel trying to assist] She started to... she started to convulse. And I thought... I thought, "Oh, my God. She's choking. Zelda's choking. And they'll come home and they'll say, 'You hated her, Rachel'", and that was true. They'll say, "You wanted her to be dead", and that was true, too. Then, she died. And I started to scream, I ran out of the house screaming, "Zelda's dead! Zelda's dead! Zelda's dead!" And the neighbors, they came out and they looked.

[the scene shows a young Rachel running down the stairs crying, with her neighbors standing in the front door, looking up at her, strangely, as she runs out of the house, where the scene cuts back to present day]

Rachel: And they thought I was crying. But you know something? I think maybe... I was laughing.

Louis Creed: [Louis embraces her in a hug, as she cries] If you were, I salute you for it. And if I ever needed another reason to not like your Mother and Father, I have one now. You should've never been left alone with her, Rachel, never. Where was a nurse? They actually went out and left an 8-year-old kid in charge of her dying sister, who was probably clinically insane by then.

[He gets up]

Rachel: Where you going?

Louis Creed: To get you a valium.

Rachel: But you know I don't take-...

Louis Creed: - -Tonight, you do.