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Pet Sematary (1989)

by Stephen King.
Based on the Novel by Stephen King.

More info about this movie on IMDb.com


FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY


That most persistent summer SOUND: crickets in high grass--
ree-ree-ree-ree... This in dark which slowly

						DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. A GRAVE MARKER - SUMMER DAY

It's a plywood cross leaning aslant. Written on the crossarm
in black paint which has faded: SMUCKY  HE WAS OBEDIENT. The
letters are straggling and ill-formed -- the work of a child.

EXT. OTHER MARKERS - DAY

MAIN TITLES BEGIN over series of DISSOLVING SHOTS. We see a
child's printing again, this time on a chunk of warped
crating: BIFFER BIFFER A HELLUVA SNIFFER UNTIL HE DIED HE
MADE US RICHER 1971-1974. On twO flat boards: IN MEMORY OF
MARTA OUR PET RABIT DYED MARCH 1, 1965 and GEN PATTON (OUR!
GOOD! DOG!) APRIL 1958. We can read PLYNESIA, 1953 and HANNAH
THE BEST DOG THAT EVER LIVED. HANNAH'S tombstone is part of
an old Chevrolet hood, painstakingly hammered flat.

All is silence but for the crickets and the wind stirring the
grass. Around the markers themselves, the grass has been
clipped short, and here and there we see flowers and cheap
vases, Crisco cans, Skippy peanut butter jars, etc. we can't
read all the epitaphs; some are too faded with age (or the
gravestones too degenerated), but we can tell that this
woodland clearing is a rather eerie -- and well populated --
animal graveyard.

EXT. ANGLE ON PET SEMATARY - DAY

CREDITS CONTINUE. From here we can see most of the clearing,
which is surrounded by forest pines. We can see that the
graves - maybe 80 in all - are arranged in rough concentric
circles. On the far side of the clearing is the end of a
patch which spills into the graveyard. The end of that path
is flanked by wooden poles which hold up a crude arch. We can
see no writing on this side -- the words on the arch face
those arriving along the path.

EXT. THE ARCH, FROM THE PATH SIDE - DAY

Written on the arch, in faded black print, is the work of
some long-gone child: PET SEMATARY.

AS THE MAIN TITLES CONCLUDE, THE CAMERA PANS SLOWLY DOWN to
look into the graveyard. From this angle we can see across to
a deadfall -- a tangle of weather whitened old branches at
the back of the clearing. It's maybe twenty-five feet from
side to side and about nine feet high. At either end are
thick knots of underbrush that look impassable.

AS THE CAMERA MOVES SLOWLY IN on the deadfall we realize
there is a horrible snarling face in those branches. Is this
an accident? Coincidence? Our imagination? Perhaps the
audience will wonder. THE CAMERA HOLDS FOR A MOMENT and then
we

						DISSOLVE TO:

BLACK. And a white title: MOVING DAY.

THE TITLE DISAPPEARS and the black FADES UP ON:

EXT. A HOUSE IN THE COUNTRY - EVENING

SOUND of crickets: ree-ree-ree-ree... The house is a pleasant
two-story New England dwelling. In front is a realtor's sign
with a big SOLD strip plastered across it diagonally. To the
left of the house: a big empty field. Behind it: the woods.
Before it: a wide two-lane road.

ANOTHER SOUND, GROWING: the rumble of a truck. A big, big
truck. It belts between THE CAMERA and the house -- a tanker
with a silver body and the word ORINCO written on the side in
blue letters. Its short stack is blowing quantities of dark
brown smoke.

Behind the truck comes a Ford wagon which slows, signals, and
turns into the driveway of the house we've been looking at.

EXT. THE WAGON IN THE DRIVEWAY - EVENING

As it stops we get a good look at the license plate
(Illinois) and a bumper sticker (HAVE YOU HUGGED YOUR M.D.
TODAY?).

			ELLIE (V.O.)
	Is this our new house, daddy?

			LOUIS (V.O.)
	This is it.

LOUIS CREED, about 32, gets out from the driver's side.
RACHEL CREED, his wife, gets out from the passenger side.
From a rear door comes ELLIE CREED, a girl of 6. The three
meet at the front on the wagon and stare, fascinated, at the
house. LOUIS is clearly nervous.

			LOUIS
	So... what do you think?

RACHEL begins to smile. She turns to LOUIS and hugs him.

			RACHEL
	It's gorgeous!

			ELLIE
	Am I really gonna have my own room?

			LOUIS
	Yes.

			ELLIE
	Yayy!

ELLIE looks toward the side lawn and sees a tire on a rope
hanging down from the bough of a tree. She goes running
toward it.

			RACHEL
	Be careful, Ellie. The rope might
	be--

			LOUIS
	Let her go. It's cool

RACHEL gives LOUIS a tired smile.

			RACHEL
	Louis, the house is beautiful.

They kiss -- gently at first, then more passionately. As he
draws her against him, a baby -- GAGE -- begins to cry from
the car.

			RACHEL
	The master of disaster awakes. Come
	on -- let's parole 'im.

INT. THE WAGON'S FRONT SEAT - EVENING

GAGE is sitting in a car seat amid litter from the road.
RACHEL leans in and begins to unbuckle the straps and
harnesses. GAGE is wearing only a t-shirt and a diaper. He's
fifteen months old.

			RACHEL
	Decided to wake up and see what
	home looks like, huh?

EXT. ELLIE IN THE TIRE SWING - EVENING

She's got the swing penduluming back and forth in long wide
arcs. She is staring off toward the woods.

			ELLIE
	Daddy! Mommy! I see a path!

EXT. THE VIEW UP TOWARD THE WOODS, ELLIE'S P.O.V. - EVENING

The field, and a clearly marked and mown path leading up its
flank and into the dark woods. THE CAMERA DIPS AND PENDULUMS
as though mounted on ELLIE'S swing.

EXT. RACHEL AND GAGE (FRONT OF CAR) - EVENING

			RACHEL
		(irritated)
	Not so high, Ellie! You don't know
	how strong that rope is.

She puts GAGE down. He totters a bit on his little legs and
then stands there, looking at his sister.

EXT. THE ROPE AND BRANCH - EVENING

The bark has rubbed off the branch -- it looks like a bone
peeling through decayed flesh. The rope is old, discolored.
And it is fraying away as we look at it.

EXT. LOUIS (REAR OF CAR) - EVENING

He has opened the tailgate and is pulling things out.

			LOUIS
	Ellie, you heard your m--

His eyes widen.

EXT. THE SWING WITH ELLIE - EVENING

SOUND: a heavy twang! as the rope breaks. The tire swing --
with ELLIE still inside it -- goes crashing to the grass.
ELLIE creams and begins to cry -- a little hurt and a lot
surprised.

LOUIS and RACHEL run to her.

			LOUIS
	Ellie! Are you all right?

			RACHEL
	Honey? Are you okay?

They reach the tangle of tire, rope, and six-year-old girl.

			ELLIE
	Hurrts! It hurrrrts!

			LOUIS
	Anyone who can scream that loud
	isn't ready for intensive care just
	yet -- looks like she just skinned
	her knee.

Nonetheless, he begins to rapidly disentangle his daughter
from the tire. RACHEL helps.

EXT. THE STATION WAGON WITH GAGE - EVENING

GAGE is standing by the rear of the car, utterly forgotten in
the heat of the moment. His diaper is sagging; the boy needs
a change. He is looking at a cat carrier which is sitting on
the tailgate. A big tomcat, CHURCH, is staring hopefully out
through the mesh. Mostly what we're aware of are shining
green eyes.

			GAGE
	Hi-Durch!

			CHURCH
	Waow!

SOUND: Growing thunder of an approaching truck - a big one.
On the road in the background -- quite close by -- a big
tanker truck -- silver body, ORINCO written on the side in
blue letter -- blasts by. The windlash of its passing blows
GAGE'S hair back from his forehead. We should be scared here
- not by the truck, but by GAGE'S lack of fear. He's smiling,
happy.

			GAGE
	Druck!

He starts down the driveway toward the road.

EXT. LOUIS, RACHEL, ELLIE (AT THE SWING) - EVENING

ELLIE has been disentangled from the swing. She's sitting
beside the wreckage, weeping hysterically (as much from
tiredness as from pain) as LOUIS and RACHEL examine her
scraped knee.

			LOUIS
		(to Rachel)
	Would you get the first aid kit?

			ELLIE
		(screaming)
	Not the stingy stuff! I don't want
	the stingy stuff, daddy!

RACHEL suddenly looks toward the car.

			RACHEL
	Gage's gone!

			LOUIS
	Jesus, the road!

They get up together.

EXT. GAGE, AT THE EDGE OF THE ROAD - EVENING

A truck is coming. A great big one. The grille looks like a
tombstone that's learned how to snarl.

GAGE takes a step into the road... and then big, gnarled
hands grab him. GAGE looks rather surprised at this, but not
worried. To GAGE strangers are as interesting as... well, as
interesting as Orinco trucks.

The fellow who has picked GAGE up is a man of about eighty in
old blue jeans and a work shirt. Over this he wears a faded
khaki vest with bright silver buttons. His face is deeply
wrinkled and kindly.

			JUD CRANDALL
		(to Gage)
	No you don't, my friend -- not in
	that road.

JUD carries him up the driveway to the station wagon. Here
he's joined by LOUIS and RACHEL, out of breath and really
scared. ELLIE brings up the rear. She's still sniffing.

			RACHEL
	Gage!

			JUD
		(hands him to her)
	I corralled him for you, missus.

			RACHEL
	Thank you. Thank you so much.

			LOUIS
	Yes -- thanks. I'm Louis Creed.

He stinks out his hand and JUD shakes it.

			JUD
	Jud Crandall. I live across the
	road. You wanna watch out for that
	road.
	Those damn trucks go back and forth
	all day and most of the night.
		(leans over toward Ellie)
	Who might be you, little miss?

			ELLIE
	I'm Ellen Creed and I live at 642
	Alden lane, Dearborn, Michigan.
		(pause)
	At least, I used to.

			JUD
	And now you live on Route 15 in
	Ludlow, Maine, and your dad's gonna
	be the new doctor up to the
	college, I hear, and I think you're
	gonna be just as happy as a clam
	here, Ellen Creed.

			ELLIE
		(to Louis)
	Are clams really happy?

They all laugh -- even GAGE.

			RACHEL
	Excuse me. I've got to change this
	kid. It's nice to meet you.

			JUD
	Same here.

RACHEL, carrying GAGE, moves away.

			ELLIE
		(worried)
	Daddy, do I really have to have the
	stingy stuff?

			LOUIS
	No. I Guess not.

			ELLIE
	Yayyy!

She goes belting off.

			JUD
	House has stood empty for too long.
	It's damn good to see people in to
	again.

SOUND: Another truck engine -- but this one is gearing down.
A moving van appears on Route 15. Its signal blinks and it
comes lumbering into the Creed's driveway.

			LOUIS
	Hey -- they actually found the
	place.

			JUD
	Movin' in's mighty thirsty work. I
	usually sit out on my porch of an
	evening and get outside a couple of
	beers. Come on oer and join me, if
	you want.

			LOUIS
	Well, maybe I --

			RACHEL (V.O.)
	Mr. Crandall.

EXT. RACHEL AND GAGE - EVENING

GAGE has been changed in the grass, and RACHEL is holding him
on her hip now. Both of them are looking at that strange (and
oddly enticing) patch which disappears into the deepening
twilight.

			RACHEL
	This path? Where does it go?

EXT. LOUIS AND JUD - EVENING

JUD nods. He smiles, too, but underneath the smile we sense
he is serious.

			JUD
	Oh, ayuh! It's a good story, and a
	good walk. I'll take you up there
	sometime, and tell you the story,
	too -- after you get settled in.

EXT. THE CREED HOUSE - NIGHT

SOUND: Crickets. Ree-ree-ree-ree...

There's one light upstairs, one downstairs. Perhaps we see
the path glimmering away into the woods -- either by virtue
of it being mown, or by virtue of some gentle optical trick.

INT. GAGE'S ROOM - NIGHT

RACHEL, wearing a nightgown, looks in on GAGE, asleep in his
crib. She quietly closes the bedroom and moves down the hall.

INT. ELLIE'S ROOM - NIGHT

ELLIE sleeps on a matterss on the floor of her new room
surrounded by a foothill of boxes. Unpacked and cluttered
about are billions of Crayolas, Sesame Street posters,
picture books and rumpled clothes. CHURCH is with her, also
sleeping and growling rustily. RACHEL closes ELLIE's door
quietly as she did GAGE'S.

INT. THE CREED LIVING ROOM - NIGHT

The light from the kitchen just casts a dim glow in here. The
room has a fireplace a lovely wooden floor. It's going to be
nice, but now it's a big bare box with movers' cartons
stacked all over the place.

LOUIS sits on one of the bigger boxes finishing a can of
Pepsi. He lights a cigarette and taps into the empty can
during the scene. The door on the far side of the room opens
and RACHEL comes in.

			RACHEL
		(crossing to Louis)
	Kids are asleep, doc.

			LOUIS
	Great.

He hugs her. She hugs him back warmly -- for a moment they
are just two good people in all the big darkness of their new
house.

			RACHEL
	You're not really going over to
	have a beer with that old guy, are
	you?

			LOUIS
	Well, I've got a million questions
	about the are, and --

			RACHEL
	-- and you'll end up doing a free
	consultation on his arthritis or
	his urinary problems.

			LOUIS
	I really do have a million
	questions.

EXT. THE FRONT OF THE CRANDALL HOUSE - NIGHT

Pervasive SOUND of the crickets as LOUIS comes rather
hesitantly up the crazy-paved path from the road's edge. From
the screened-in porch we hear the SQUEEK of a rocker; we see
the dim red fitful glow of JUD'S Pall Mall.

			JUD (V.O.)
	That you, doc?

			LOUIS
	It's me.

			JUD (V.O.)
	Well, come on up and have a beer.

INT. THE PORCH (WIDE SHOT) - NIGHT

LOUIS comes on up. JUD has got a pail of ice beside his chair
with some cans of beer in it. He opens one and hands it to
LOUIS.

			JUD
	You need a glass?

			LOUIS
	Not at all.

			JUD
	Good for you.

LOUIS drinks half the can at a draught.

			JUD
	One more time -- welcome to Ludlow.
	Hope your time here will be a happy
	one.

There's a moment of companionable silence, brocken by the
SOUND of a big truck. They look forward:

EXT/INT. THE ROAD (THROUGH THE POARCH SCREEN) - NIGHT

One of those big tankers goes rumbling by -- this one has
little amber running light twinkling like earthstars. It's
going fast -- it sweeps by in a blast of air.

INT. THE PORCH WITH LOUIS AND JUD - NIGHT

			LOUIS
		(wincing)
	Jesus!

			JUD
	That's one mean road, alright. You
	know that path your wife commented
	on? That road -- and those Orinco
	trucks -- are the two main reasons
	it's there. The local kids keep
	the path nice because they use it.
	Every spring a bunch of 'em mows it
	then they keep it nice all summer
	long.

			LOUIS
	Where does it lead?

			JUD
	The pet cemetery.

			LOUIS
	Pet cemetery?

			JUD
	It's the road. It uses up a lot of
	animals. Dogs and cats, mostly.

			LOUIS
	My daughter's got a cat. Winston
	Churchill. We call him Church for
	short.

			JUD
	I'd get his fixed. A fixed cat
	don't tend to wander. If it's all
	the time crossin' back and forth on
	that road, its luck will run out.

			LOUIS
	I'll take it under advisement.

			JUD
	Meanwhile, doc -- here's to your
	bones.

JUD raises his beer can in a toast. LOUIS clinks his can
against JUD'S.

			LOUIS
	And yours.

They drink.

EXT. ROUTE 15 AND THE CREED HOUSE - NIGHT

LOUIS crosses from the Crandall side to his own. THE CAMERA
FOLLOWS as he walks slowly up the driveway. He pauses for a
moment, looking thoughtfully -- hopefully -- at his new
house. Then something -- the CRY of an OWL, perhaps -- draws
his attention the other way... toward the path.

He walks to its head and stands looking out at it. It
glimmers in a wide cut swath that's a bit ghostly in the
dark. A SHAPE suddenly lurches out of the high grass at him,
and LOUIS recoils with a startled, muffled cry.

It's only CHURCH, the cat. Sure; who -- or what else? We see
his big green eyes in the dark as he cries his strange feline
hello: Waow!

			LOUIS
	Church! God, you scared the life
	out of me!

LOUIS bends and picks up the cat. As he does, that truck
SOUND comes again and he looks toward:

EXT. THE ROAD, LOUIS' P.O.V. - NIGHT

Another Orinco tanker drones by, fast.

Just beyond the road sits the Crandall place. It's too dark
to see shapes but we can see the cigarette ember over there.
JUD is still sitting up on the porch, as though standing
watch. Against what?

FADE TO BLACK.

And in that blackness, we see a second title card: THE
SPEAKING DEAD. THE TITLE DISAPPEARS and THE BLACK FADES UP
ON:

INT. THE CREED LIVING ROOM - AFTERNOON

GAGE trots along with a push toy. He stumbles into some
packing cartons and flops forward to the floor. Sensing that
the others are too busy to pay him any attention, he
struggles to his feet again without comment.

LOUIS has unpacked dishes, knick-knacks, silverware, pots and
books all over the place. He is slicing up empty cartons with
a matte knife.

ELLIE, with an armload of her newly unpacked treasures, comes
through the room followed closely by a rather sour-looking
middle-aged woman who busies herself dusting as she goes.
This is MISSY DANDRIDGE, a household helper and sometimes
baby-sitter.

			MISSY
	I'll be goin' now, Dr. Creed.

			LOUIS
	Alright, Missy. Thanks.

INT. THE CREED KITCHEN - AFTERNOON

MISSY enters and crosses toward the outside door, scooping up
a pile of dirty sheets and linens from a counter. At the door
she almost bumps into RACHEL who is returning home with two
overflowing bags of groceries.

			MISSY
	I'll do these up and bring 'em back
	next time, Mrs. Creed.

			RACHEL
	Can you come on Monday, Missy?
	That's Ellie's first day of school
	and my husband's first day at the
	college. We oughta be able to get
	some real work down around here.

			MISSY
	Always thought it would be lucky to
	marry a doctor. Wish I had a doctor
	around with my stomach pains so
	bad. Guess I'll never be lucky.
	Hell, I ain't married to anyone.

She winces slightly as one of those stomach pains hit, then
she moves out the door into the autumn sunset. RACHEL sets
down the groceries and walks toward the living room.

INT. THE CREED LIVING ROOM - AFTERNOON

ELLIE is feeding CHURCH. GAGE is trying to get involved in
the process but ELLIE is ignoring her brother.

RACHEL walks over to LOUIS and they kiss.

INT/EXT. VARIOUS LOCATIONS AROUND THE CREED HOUSE - DAY

MONTAGE as THE CREEDS busy themselves with making their house
a home. Unpacking, painting, papering, sawing, hammering,
mowing and edge-trimming.

At one point, JUD comes over to LOUIS, who is sweating in the
yard, and hands him a welcome of cold beer. RACHEL comes out
of the house with something freshly baked and covered with a
towel. She hands it to JUD who can't resist an immediate
nibble.

THE KIDS race around the house noisily and CHURCH tries to
stay out of their way. The place is getting in shape.

EXT. THE HILL ABOVE THE CREED HOUSE - DAY

THE CREEDS, led by JUD CRANDALL, are climbing the path toward
the woods. LOUIS has got GAGE in a Gerrypack. At the top of
the hill, JUD stops to let the others catch up.

			JUD
	Take a look behind you.

They turn and their faces express their wonder.

			LOUIS
	My God!

			RACHEL
	It's beautiful.

EXT. THE VIEW, THEIR P.O.V. - DAY

It is indeed beautiful. The CREED house in the f.g., Route 15
behind it (with one of those ever-present Orinco trucks
droning along), but behind that is the great sweep of the
Penobscot river valley, dozing under a fall sky of clear
blue.

EXT. AT THE TOP OF THE HILL WITH JUD AND THE CREEDS - DAY

			JUD
	I don't think there's very many
	people that even come up here. It
	don't look like you could see much
	because the hill's not very high.
	But you can see--

			RACHEL
	You can see everything. Honey, do
	we own this?

			JUD
		(before Louis can answer)
	It's part of the property, ma'am,
	but I don't guess anyone owns the
	look of things.

EXT. THE FOREST - DAY

These are thick pine woods. There isn't much sunlight, so
there isn't much underbrush. Mostly the woods floor is
carpeted with fallen pine needles... Except for the path,
where they have been neatly swept away to reveal the forest
earth. I think the image we're trying for is something like
Dorothy's Yellow Brick Road -- but this path is somehow more
sinister.

JUD stops at the base of a hill. LOUIS looks grateful for the
rest; he's sweating and there are wide dark patches under his
arms where the Gerrypack straps are.

			JUD
	You tired o' totin' that yowwen,
	Doc?

			LOUIS
	Not yet (he lies). How much
	farther?

			JUD
	Less'n a mile.

JUD starts off again, fresh a a daisy. ELLIE scampers after
him. LOUIS rolls his eyes at his wife and RACHEL rolls her
back. Then they pass on.

EXT. THE ARCH READING PET SEMATARY AS JUD AND THE CREEDS
APPROACH - DAY

			JUD
		(stopping)
	This is the place.

ELLIE tries to read the words on the arch but can't. She
whips around to look at her mother.

			ELLIE
	What's it say, mommy?

A strange expression has come over RACHEL'S face -- she
doesn't like this. Not a bit.

			RACHEL
	It says Pet Cemetery, honey. It's
	misspelled, but... that's what it
	says.

ELLIE spins and runs through the arch. This makes RACHEL more
uneasy.

			RACHEL
	Ellen--! Be careful.

JUD lights a cigarette with a wooden match, using his
thumbnail.

			JUD
	I told you it was a bad road,
	Louis. It's killed a lot of pets
	and made a lot of kids unhappy.

The number of graves bears witness to just how many pets --
and how many kids. Now ELLIE romps among the rag-tag markers.

			ELLIE
	Mom! Dad! Y'oughta see it!

			JUD
	But at least somethin' good come of
	it. This place. Ground's stony.
	Couldn't plant nothin' here but
	corpses anyway, I guess.

EXT. INSIDE THE SEMATARY - DAY

ELLIE surveys the markers with puzzled delight. As she runs
toward the center we clearly see the symmetrical pattern of
rings. The others walk slowly through the arch. LOUIS is
extremely interested in all this, but it's becoming clearer
and clearer that RACHEL is troubled.

			RACHEL
	How can you call it a good thing? A
	graveyard for pets killed in the
	road! Built and maintained by
	broken-hearted children.

			LOUIS
	I think it's rather extraordinary.

			RACHEL
	Extraordinary morbid, maybe.

			JUD
	We... they have to learn about
	death somehow, now don't they,
	Missus Creed? The little ones?

			RACHEL
	Why?

			ELLIE (V.O.)
	Mommy! Daddy! Look at me!

EXT. ELLIE ON THE DEADFALL - DAY

She has begun to climb the old tangles branches and this
looks like an extremely dangerous proposition. ELLIE,
however, is having the time of her life. A branch breaks
under one of her feet and she switches nimbly to the next one
up.

EXT. THE GROWNUPS (AND GAGE) - DAY

			JUD
		(alarmed)
	No, honey! You don't want to go
	climbing on that! Come on down!

He hurries toward her.

EXT. THE DEADFALL WITH ELLIE - DAY

			ELLIE
	It's okay, Mr. Crandall --

The branch she's on breaks with a dry CRACK. Her foot drops
down suddenly and she totters backward, pinwheeling her arms.
JUD catches her as she falls. LOUIS arrives, GAGE jouncing
along on his back.

			LOUIS
	Have you got a death-wish, Ellen?

			JUD
	Best never to go climbing on old
	blowdowns like this, Ellie.
	Sometimes they bite.

			ELLIE
	Bite?

			JUD
	Ayuh.

EXT. RACHEL, STANDING AT THE ARCH - DAY

Her discomfort makes one thing very clear -- she doesn't want
to come in.

			RACHEL
		(calls)
	Is she alright, Louis?

			LOUIS (V.O.)
	Fine. Come and see.

			RACHEL
	I think I'll sit this one out.

EXT. THE GROUP BY THE DEADFALL - DAY

			ELLIE
	I want to look around, daddy. May
	I?

			LOUIS
	For a little while.

JUD looks toward:

EXT. RACHEL AT THE ARCH, JUD'S P.O.V. - DAY

She has retreated a bit. She sits on the pine needle carpet
of the path, opens her purse, and draws out cigarettes.

EXT. LOUIS AND JUD - DAY

JUD looks at LOUIS as if to say "What's all about this?"
LOUIS looks away.

EXT. THE SEMATARY - DAY

			ELLIE
	Daddy! Look! This one's a
	goldfishie!

ELLIE runs from one tombstone to the next, cheerful as maybe
only a kid could be in such a place. She looks at BIFFER'S
marker; at SMUCKY'S. HE WAS OBEDIENT. LOUIS and JUD slowly
walk after her.

			JUD
	They wasn't all killed by the road,
	'specially the ones from back in my
	time as a child. The road wasn't
	even paved then.
		(he points)
	There's the Stoppard boys' racing
	pigeon that Missus Cowley's cat
	got... and I think that's the cat
	himself right there, although it's
	been so many years I can't tell for
	sure. They get older as you go
	toward the middle. Harder to read.
		(calling)
	Missy Ellen! Come over here just a
	minute.

ELLIE runs amid the tombstones -- they have worked their way
to the center and there are quite a few of them -- and joins
the adults.

			JUD
	I see you're quite a reader for
	such a little girl. Can you read
	that?

He points again and ELLIE goes over for a look-see. On a
small slate marker slanted to one side, she reads the words
laboriously, tracing them with her finger.

			ELLIE
	"Spot a good fellow we love you
	boy."
		(pause)
	"Owned by Judson... Judson..." Gee,
	I can't read the rest.

			JUD
	Last name's Crandall, little missy.
	That's were I buried my dog, Spot
	when he died of old age in 19 and
	14.

ELLIE looks awed. LOUIS looks a little awed, too. JUD sweeps
a hand around indicating the whole cemetery, but he keeps his
eyes on ELLEN.

			JUD
	Do you know what this place is,
	Ellie? Oh, I know you know it's a
	boneyard, but a bone ain't nothin'
	and even a whole pile of 'em don't
	amount to much. Do you know what a
	graveyard really is?

			ELLIE
	Well... I guess not.

			JUD
	It's a place where the dead speak.

He sees her startled, uneasy expression and laughs. He
ruffles her hair reassuringly.

			JUD
	No -- not right out loud. Their
	stones speak... or their markers.
	Even if the marker ain't nothin'
	but a tin can someone wrote on with
	a Magic Marker, it speaks. Ain't
	that so, Louis?

			LOUIS
	I think it is so, Ellie.

			JUD
	It says some animal got laid down
	here, don't it?

			ELLIE
	Yes --

			JUD
	And that someone cared enough about
	that animal to mark the spot.

			ELLIE
	To remember.

			JUD
		(smiles)
	Yes. To remember. This ain't scary
	place, Ellie. It's a place of rest
	and speaking. Can you remember
	that?

			ELLIE
	Yes, sir.

INT. THE CREED KITCHEN - NIGHT

LOUIS is at the kitchen table. There are a number of medical
books scattered around him and he's making notes from one as
ELLIE comes in wearing a nightgown.

			LOUIS
	Hi, babe.

			ELLIE
	Daddy. What if Church dies? What if
	he dies and has to go to the Pet
	Sematary?

			LOUIS
	Honey, Church will be fine.

INT. JUST OUTSIDE THE KITCHEN DOOR - NIGHT

RACHEL is coming along with some dirty dishes. She hears
voices and stops, listening, her face troubled and afraid.

			ELLIE (V.O.)
	No he won't! Not in the end! He
	won't be fine in the end. In the
	end he's gonna croak, isn't he?

INT. THE KITCHEN WITH LOUIS AND ELLIE - NIGHT

			LOUIS
	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.

ELLIE has started to cry. LOUIS folds her into his arms and
she hugs him tightly, wanting his comfort.

			LOUIS
	If it was up to me I'd let Church
	live to be a hundred... but I don't
	make up the rules.

			ELLIE
	Well, who does? God, I suppose. But
	he's not God's cat! He's my cat!
	Let God get his own, if he wants
	one! Not mine! Not mine! Not --

She breaks down completely, sobbing, and LOUIS rocks her back
and forth.

INT. THE HALLWAY OUTSIDE THE KITCHEN WITH RACHEL - NIGHT

She is crying, too -- silently.

INT. ELLIE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT

She's asleep with her teddy bear encircled by one arm and her
thumb corked into her mouth. CHURCH is in bed with her,
curled on top of the blanket near her feet. From the doorway,
RACHEL looks at them with infinite love and then quietly
closes the door.

INT. THE KITCHEN - NIGHT

LOUIS has the Yellow Pages open on the counter. He is coping
something onto a blackboard which hangs on the wall: QUENTIN
JOLANDER, D.V.M. He writes an address, then he writes: CHURCH
SPAYED, and underlines it.

INT. LOUIS AND RACHEL'S BEDROOM - NIGHT

LOUIS walks in to find RACHEL pacing.

			RACHEL
	She's finally asleep.

			LOUIS
	She was a little over-exited,
	that's all. Poor kid.

			RACHEL
	It was that damned pet cemetery. It
	was the first cemetery of any kind
	for her and it just... upset her. I
	don't think I'll write your friend
	Jud Crandall and thank-you notes
	for that little hike.

			LOUIS
	All at once he's my friend. Rachel!

			RACHEL
	And I don't want her going up there
	again. It's unhealthy. Kids going
	up there and tending the graves,
	keeping the path. Whatever disease
	the kids in this town have got, I
	don't want Ellie to catch it. Here
	she is thinking Church is going to
	die.

			LOUIS
	Rachel, Church is going to fie.

			RACHEL
	Church is not going to die today,
	or tomorrow, or the day after that,
	or probably for years.

			LOUIS
	Honey, we can't be sure of th--

			RACHEL
	Of course we can!

RACHEL shouts this causing LOUIS to look at her with full
attention and concern.

			RACHEL
	We take good care of him, he's not
	going to die, no one is going to
	die around here, and so why do you
	want to go and get a little girl
	upset about something she can't
	understand until she's much older?

			LOUIS
	There's nothing wrong with a child
	finding out something about death,
	Rachel. In fact, I'd call it a
	necessary thing. Ellie's reaction --
	her crying -- that seemed perfectly
	natural to me. It--

			RACHEL
	Oh, it sounded natural. It sounded
	very natural to hear her weeping
	her heart out over her cat which is
	perfectly fine.

			LOUIS
	Ellie has known where babies come
	from since last year.

			RACHEL
	That has nothing to do with --

			LOUIS
	It does, though. When I was talking
	to her about Church I got thinking
	about my mother and how she spun me
	that old cabbage leaf story when I
	asked her where women got babies.
	I've never forgotten that lie.
	Children never forget the lies
	their parents tell them.

			RACHEL
	Where babies come from has nothing
	to do with a goddam pet cemetery! I
	don't want this discussed on front
	of Ellie any more, Lou. I mean it.
	There's nothing natural about
	death. Nothing. You as a doctor
	should know that.

She whirls and leaves the room.

INT. JUD CRANDALL'S PORCH - NIGHT

LOUIS and JUD are sitting in the cricket SOUND and sipping
beers.

			JUD
	I come from a different time. We
	was on closer terms with death. We
	saw mothers dying with child, and
	children dying of infection and
	fevers. If you got cancer, why,
	that was your death warrant right
	there. My brother Pete died of a
	burst appendix in 1912. We knew
	death as a friend and as an enemy.
	In those days it came into the
	house and said howdy and sometimes
	it took supper with you and
	sometimes you could feel it bite
	your ass.

LOUIS stands up and sets down his empty beer can.

			LOUIS
	I have to go. Big day tomorrow.

			JUD
	Yes, the merry-go-around starts for
	you tomorrow, don't it? Come on
	over tomorrow night and let me know
	how it went up the college. I'll
	whip you at cribbage.

			LOUIS
	Maybe I'll get you drunk first.

LOUIS leaves on the laughter.

EXT. ROUTE 15 - NIGHT

As LOUIS moves from JUD'S house back to his own, where no
lights are lit,a big Orinco truck comes droning along,
headlights glaring.

INT. THE CREED KITCHEN - MORNING

CLOSE ON GAGE. Cheerful little clots of scrambled eggs are
scattered all the way across the tray of his high chair -- it
looks a little like a map of the Pacific islands in yellow
crayon. GAGE scoops up Hawaii and throws it.

SPLAT! Eggs land on the serving plate of toast in the middle
of the kitchen table where ELLIE, in a pretty first-day-of
school dress, is finishing breakfast.

			ELLIE
	Yee-uck! Gross!

RACHEL is at the sink, doing dishes (we see the blackboard
with its message near her). LOUIS comes in wearing a sport
coat and slacks, ready for his first day on the job.

			ELLIE
	I'm scared. What if school here
	isn't like in Chicago? I'm scared
	and I want to go home!

			RACHEL
	You'll be fine, Ellie.

LOUIS down to where the cat-carrier sits by the kitchen door.
Inside, CHURCH waows unhappily.

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

			LOUIS
	Good God! Where'd you hear that?

			ELLIE
	Missy Dandridge. She says it's a
	operation!

			LOUIS
	The road's a lot more dangerous
	than any operation. Church will be
	just the same. Well -- almost the
	same -- and we won't have to worry
	about him being turned into
	catburger by one of those damn
	Orinco trucks. Church will be
	alright, honey.

			ELLIE
	Do you promise, daddy?

			LOUIS
	Well, honey... you know that...

			RACHEL
	Don't shilly-shally, Louis. Give
	the little girl her promise.

			LOUIS
		(reluctantly)
	Church will be fine. I promise.

			ELLIE
	Yayyy!

She runs off, cheered up. And RACHEL is cheered up, too.

			RACHEL
	Thank you, Louis.

			LOUIS
	Oh, you're welcome. Only if
	something should go wrong while
	he's under the gas -- it's a one-in
	a-thousand shot, but it happens --
	you explain it to her.

He leaves the room. RACHEL looks after him, stunned and a
little frightened.

			GAGE
		(conversationally)
	Here, Durch!

He picks up the Maui and throws it in the direction of the
cat-carrier. CHURCH is close to the mesh. Scrambled eggs hit,
driving him back, surprised.

EXT. THE CREED HOUSE - MORNING

THE CREEDS are all in the front doorway as a school bus pulls
up. Red lights flashing. ELLIE runs toward it with her lunch
box. LOUIS grabs GAGE'S hand and makes him wave it.

			GAGE
	Bye-bye!

			RACHEL
	Have a great day!

ELLIE climbs aboard, the red flashers go out and the bus
pulls away. LOUIS and RACHEL look at each other.

			LOUIS
	Gotta go.

He smiles at her, then he reaches inside the doorway and
picks up a heavy brief-case in one hand and the cat-carrier
in the other. He moves off toward the station wagon in the
driveway. RACHEL watches him go, worried that there wasn't a
warmer goodbye.

EXT. THE CREED DRIVEWAY - MORNING

A small car turns into the driveway and parks beside the
wagon just as LOUIS is putting CHURCH'S carrier into the
tailgate. MISSY DANDRIDGE gets out. Her color is bad. She
looks at the cat-carrier.

			MISSY
	Gonna get his --

			LOUIS
	-- nuts cut, yes. Thank you, Missy
	for introducing that colorful
	phrase into my daughter's
	vocabulary.

			MISSY
	Don't mention it.

She opens the passenger side door of her car and pulls out a
big neat pile of folded sheets. She winces suddenly and
presses her hands against her midriff for a moment.

			LOUIS
	How's that belly-ache of yours?

			MISSY
	No better and no worse.

			LOUIS
	You ought to see a doctor about it.

			MISSY
	It'll pass. They always do.

She starts toward the house with the sheets. LOUIS looks
after her. He doesn't like the way she looks.

EXT. THE FRONT OF THE CREED HOUSE - MORNING

RACHEL moves out of the driveway, carrying GAGE. She passes
MISSY, who turns to look then goes into the house.

EXT. THE CREED DRIVEWAY - MORNING

LOUIS has shoved the cat-carrier into the back of the wagon
and closed the door-gate when RACHEL reaches him.

			RACHEL
		(anxious)
	Still friends, doc?

LOUIS appears to consider this seriously for a moment... and
then he smiles and hugs his wife. They kiss. GAGE is mushed
between them.

			RACHEL
	Thank God. I was a little worried
	there. Have a great first day at
	school, doc. No broken bones.

			LOUIS
		(smiles)
	Not so much as a sprain.

EXT. VICTOR PASCOW AND FRIENDS - MORNING

CLOSE ON PASCOW. His fixed eyes stare. Half of his head has
been shattered inward. He is in a blanket that is being
carried by THREE BOYS and ONE GIRL. They are yelling at each
other not to joggle him, not to drop him.

A small knot of horrified college kids moves with bearers.
THE CAMERA PULLS JERKILY TO ONE SIDE, allowing the bearers to
mount the steps of a brick building, the infirmary. The
lookers-on break to either side as the infirmary doors open.
The head nurse, MARCY CHARLTON, a tough old babe of about
fifty, appeared in the doorway.

			CHARLTON
	Holy Jesus! Steve! Dr. Creed! Dr.
	Creed! We've got a mess here! Stat!

The bearers sweep past her and inside, leaving a red smear of
blood across the midriff of her uniform.

INT. THE INFIRMARY - RECEPTION AREA - MORNING

(THE CAMERA will show us all we need to see, but its
movements will seem almost random; this is like being in the
hotel kitchen after Sirhan shot Bobby.)

As THE STUDENTS bring in PASCOW, LOUIS comes running,
followed by STEVE MASTERSON, his P.A. Standing to one side
are TWO STUDENT NURSES in candystriper uniforms. They're
boggled and horrified.

LOUIS kneels. THE CAMERA RUSHES FORWARD, shoving between
onlookers. LOUIS looks at the wound. There's shattered bone
and pulsing brain tissue beneath. There's A SCREAM; THE GIRL
who was carrying one corner of the blanket is having
hysterics.

			GIRL
	Vic! Vic! Oh Christ! Vic!

			LOUIS
		(to Charlton)
	Get her out. Get them all out.

CHARLTON puts her arms around the girl.

			GIRL
	No! No! He can't die! He can't die!

THE CAMERA MOVES BACK DOWN as LOUIS takes an opthalmascope
from STEVE and shines it in PASCOW'S bulging, fixed eyes.

			LOUIS
	Steve, get the ambulance over here
	right now. He's gotta go to EMMC.

			STEVE
	The ambulance is at Sonny's Sunoco
	downtown, getting --

			LOUIS
	-- a new muffler, oh shit --

PASCOW makes a weird gargling noise. Blood suddenly spurts
out of his mouth. He begins to seizure. One of the
candystripers shrieks. THE CAMERA JERKS UP TO COVER the
student nurses just as one of them turns and throws up on the
wall. CHARLTON, who is pushing the gawkers and bearers out
the door, rushes back for the candystriper.

			CANDYSTRIPER
	I can't look at it... I can't stand
	it...

			CHARLTON
		(slaps her)
	Yes you by God can. Go get the hard
	stretcher!

The candystripers starts away, one helping the other down the
hall, and as CHARLTON moves over to where PASCOW lies dying
in his blanket, THE CAMERA DROPS to LOUIS and STEVE again.

			LOUIS
	Help me hold him.

			STEVE
	It wouldn't matter if we did have
	the ambulance.

			LOUIS
	It wouldn't matter if we had the
	SST.

PASCOW'S spasms begin to quiet.

			LOUIS
	He's going, Steve, go call the
	motor pool. Marcy, roll out the
	crash wagon.

			CHARLTON
	It won't --

			LOUIS
	I know it won't! But let's for
	God's sake do it by the rules!

STEVE jumps to his feet, leaving PASCOW in LOUIS'S arms, and
trots out of the room. MARCY CHARLTON follows, drawing the
drapes behind her so that the doctor and the dying man have
complete if temporary privacy.

			LOUIS
	There wasn't even supposed to be a
	sprain today, my friend. That's
	what I told Rachel.

PASCOW'S fixed eyes suddenly roll and his left hand bear
traps LOUIS' right wrist. LOUIS stares. The dying man pulls
him slowly but relentlessly down until their faces are only
inches apart.

			PASCOW
	... Pet Sematary...

LOUIS recoils, breaking the grips of PASCOW'S hand... but he
cannot quite snap the grip of those bright dying eyes.

			LOUIS
		(whispers)
	W-What did you say...?

Blood leaks from PASCOW'S mouth. He struggles hard to speak
again. At first he can only gurgle.

			PASCOW
	The soil of a man's heart is
	stonier, Louis... a man grows what
	he can... and tends it.

LOUIS leans forward again, terrified, yet needing to know.

			LOUIS
	How did you know my name?

			PASCOW
		(gurgling)
	I'll come... to you.

LOUIS grabs PASCOW'S bloody shoulder.

			LOUIS
		(low but urgent)
	Dammit, how did you know my name?

STEVE rushes back in, throwing the drape open loudly.

			STEVE
	Louis, they're...

Suddenly PASCOW spews more blood, covering LOUIS' face. He
begins to spasm again. His hand comes up and paws at LOUIS'
shirt, leaving a bloody handprint. Then it falls limp back.
PASCOW is dead.

			LOUIS
	Get a sheet.

STEVE leaves again and LOUIS stares fixedly down at the body.
He closes the eyes.

EXT. A COUNTRY ROAD - LATE AFTERNOON

It's the leading edge of Maine fall, sunny and wonderful.
Here comes LOUIS' station wagon. As it reaches us, THE CAMERA
SWIVELS TO TRACK.

			RADIO (V.O.)
	Tragedy struck on the first day of
	the University of Maine's fall
	semester when Victor Pascow, a
	nineteen-year-old sophomore was
	struck by a car on...

INT. THE WAGON WITH LOUIS - LATE AFTERNOON

He abruptly turns off the radio. He still looks shocked by
the tragedy. The dying man's bloody handprint is partly
visible on his shirt in spite of his sport-coat.

			LOUIS
	He said my name. I heard it. He
	said my name.

EXT. THE CREED HOUSE - NIGHT

All lights are off. It's late.

INT. THE CREED BEDROOM - NIGHT

LOUIS and RACHEL are asleep, each on his/her own side of the
big double. THE CAMERA MOVES IN ON LOUIS.

SOUND: Loud, hollow BANG. Very loud -- loud enough to wake
the dead.

LOUIS sits up. Beside him, RACHEL sleeps on. LOUIS' eyes
widen in terror as he stares at...

VICTOR PASCOW, standing in the doorway. He's exquisitely
dead. Now pallid as well as smashed up.

			PASCOW
	Come on, doc. We got places to go.

LOUIS is in terror... But he's also in a state of near
trance.

			PASCOW
	Come on, doc -- don't make me tell
	you twice.

LOUIS glances at RACHEL. She's still fast asleep. He gets out
of bed careful not to disturb her. He's naked except for a
pair of pajama bottoms.

PASCOW turns and leaves. LOUIS follows, stopping in the
doorway to look back at the bed.

RACHEL is sleeping as before, and LOUIS himself is also in
bed asleep, although his rest is uneasy... as if he's having
a bad dream.

			LOUIS
		(relieved)
	Oh. Thanks God.

			PASCOW (V.O.)
		(low)
	Hurry up, doc.

INT. THE CREED KITCHEN - NIGHT

LOUIS enters and crosses toward the door which gives on the
shed/garage. This door stands open. LOUIS pauses.

			PASCOW (V.O.)
		(low)
	Come on, doc...

LOUIS goes into:

INT. THE SHED/GARAGE - NIGHT

The station wagon is a dark hulk. LOUIS crosses to it and
stands, perplexed. PASCOW looms softly behind him and puts an
arm around his shoulder. LOUIS turns and suddenly his face is
less than an inch from PASCOW'S mutilated face.

			PASCOW
	Let's go, doc.

			LOUIS
	I don't like this dream.

			PASCOW
	Who said you were dreaming?

He begins to move toward the garage door. After a moment,
LOUIS follows.

EXT. THE FIELD BEHIND THE HOUSE - NIGHT

We can see two shapes moving up the path toward the woods --
PASCOW and, behind him, LOUIS.

EXT. THE PET SEMATARY - NIGHT

THE CAMERA HOLDS on the arch for a moment, then PANS DOWN to
find LOUIS, looking around, obviously afraid. We can see why.
By starlight this is one scary place. Suddenly LOUIS sees
something and his fear really grabs him.

The face that we saw at the beginning of the movie is back in
the deadfall, yawning and snarling. LOUIS walks toward it as
if hypnotized. Without warning PASCOW'S hand falls on his
shoulder again from behind.

			PASCOW
	This is the place where the dead
	speak.

			LOUIS
	I want to wake up. I want to wake
	up, that's all. I --

			PASCOW
	Don't go on, doc. No matter how
	much you feel you have to. Don't go
	on to the place where the dead
	walk.

PASCOW points at the deadfall -- that grinning face -- and
perhaps now there are other effects as well -- subtle, but
there: Dim red light? A misty smoke drifting through the
tumbled dead branches?

After a moment there is A HUGE GRUNTING ROAR from the woods
beyond the deadfall -- it sounds like no animal we've ever
heard before. Then there is the SOUND of something enormous
shifting and snapping a tree like a toothpick.

LOUIS has crumbled to PASCOW'S feet. His eyes are squeezed
tightly shut.

			LOUIS
	Please, I want to wake up. Leave me
	alone. It's not my fault you dies;
	you were as good as dead when they
	brought you in --

THE CAMERA MOVES TIGHT ON LOUIS,and we hear the SOUND of a
RADIO, up and LOUD:

			RADIO VOICE
	-- another beautiful day in Maine!
	This is Michael O'Hara sayin' that
	the git-go ain't gonna be that bad.
	Temps are goin' all the way up to
	70 and we got the Ramones for
	Ludlow... here's "Sheena."

As the Ramones start "Sheena is a Punk Rocker," we CUT TO:

INT. THE CREED BEDROOM - MORNING

LOUIS' eyes snap open. He's in his own bed. As he sits up,
THE ANGLE WIDENS so we can see that he's alone. After some
initial confusion and fear, LOUIS looks deeply relieved.
RACHEL'S voice comes from far away, downstairs.

			RACHEL (V.O.)
	You up, doc?

			LOUIS
	Gettin' ready.

			RACHEL (O.S.)
	I got eggs down here!

			LOUIS
	Good d--

He throws the covers back and freezes. His feet are covered
with mud and pine needles. The sheets are greased with wood
muck. LOUIS stares in utter terror. After a moment we CUT TO:

INT. THE UPSTAIRS HALL - MORNING

CLOSE ON LOUIS' hands which enter the frame and dump a bundle
of sheets into a laundry chute. LOUIS stands by the chute for
a moment, shaken, naked but for a towel around his waist.
He's obviously fresh from the shower.

						FADE TO BLACK.

In the blackness a third tirle card: CHURCH

Over this is a SOUND: WAOW!

THE TITLE DISAPPEARS and the black FADES UP TO:

INT. THE CREED LIVING ROOM - AFTERNOON

CHURCH has returned. ELLIE comes running in from school
excited to see him.

			ELLIE
	Oh, Church. You're home! You're
	home!

The television is showing a game show to no one. GAGE is
crawling after the cat and RACHEL is ironing. LOUIS looks up
from his reading and catches his wife's eye. She smiles
warmly at him and looks back over at ELLIE.

			ELLIE
	I used part of my allowance to buy
	you a box of cat treats.

She produces the treats and CHURCH limps over to where she
sits on the floor. LOUIS watches the cat sadly. His walk is
the slow, careful walk of a convalescent. He allows ELLIE to
hand feed him. When GAGE moves in too close, ELLIE slaps at
him. CHURCH is her cat.

INT. THE LIVING ROOM - NIGHT

A clock somewhere strikes midnight and LOUIS looks up finally
from his books. The house is dark but for his reading light.
RACHEL calls from upstairs.

			RACHEL (V.O.)
	Louis. It's twelve o'clock.

			LOUIS
	Just comin'.

Hesitantly, he turns out the light and stands for a moment in
the dark.

INT. RACHEL AND LOUIS' BEDROOM - NIGHT

LOUIS snaps out of an almost-sleep. RACHEL breathes evenly
beside him, dead to the world.

LOUIS listens to the night sounds -- which are no sounds,
except for those ever-present crickets and maybe distant
drone of a tanker truck. But LOUIS hears something -- or
thinks he does. He throws back the covers, gets out of bed
and crosses to the door. His hand hesitates on the knob as he
fights back his fear of who -- or what -- might be standing
on the other side of the door. Suddenly he trows the door
open wide...

Nothing. No one. LOUIS held breath leaves him in a long sigh
of relief. He walks back to the bed, curls into the covers
and falls asleep with one hand on his wife.

INT. THE INFIRMARY AT THE COLLEGE - DAY

LOUIS and STEVE MASTERSON and another young doctor, an
Indian, walk down the hall past MARCY CHARLTON. They greet
each other but we don't hear the words. There is only a
MUSICAL SCORE which indicates that we are beginning a MONTAGE
to indicate time passing.

INT. LOUIS' OFFICE - DAY

The others walk on past the open door and LOUIS comes into
the room with his paper-bag-lunch. As he starts to eat a
sandwich, he picks up an open file from his desk and, closing
it, carries it to a file cabinet. As he plops it into a
drawer we see the name on its tab: VICTOR PASCOW. LOUIS slams
the drawer shut.

INT. THE CREED LIVING ROOM - NIGHT

Still part of the  MONTAGE. The T.V. now shows The Muppet
Show to no one. RACHEL sits in a big armchair with GAGE and
ELLIE curled in with her. She is reading them a book. Poor
old invalid CHURCH rubs against RACHEL'S legs

LOUIS is working on an antique car model, using glue and
tweezers to set the tiny parts in place.

EXT. TREES ON THE HILL BEHIND THE CREED HOUSE - DAY

The brazen color of Indian Summer rioting briefly.

						DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. THE SAME TREES - DAY

The color has turned brown. The leaves are starting to fall.

INT. THE INFIRMARY - DAY

LOUIS sees patients, students led in by NURSE CHARLTON.

INT. THE CREED KITCHEN - NIGHT

MISSY DANDRIDGE sits the children while LOUIS and RACHEL
leave the house all gussied-up.

INT. A MEETIN HALL -NIGHT

The members of the Council of Colleges are sipping and
munching hors doeuvres at a mixer with husbands and wives
attending. LOUIS introduces RACHEL around the room. She
yawns. No one notices except LOUIS. He pinches her and no one
notices that either.

INT. JUD CRANDALL'S PORCH - NIGHT

CLOSE ON ELLIE cacking like a witch. She's dressed in full
costume and being escorted proudly by LOUIS on Trick-re-Treat
night. She is rewarded for her performance by JUD who
produces a treat basket. ELLIE takes an apple and a bite-size
Snickers bar.

INT. THE CREED LIVING ROOM - DAY

ELLIE removes a Halloween witch from the window and replaces
it with a Thanksgiving Pilgrim from Hallmark. It's snowing
outside (if nature permits).

We can tell the MONTAGE is over because the MUSIC IS WINDING
DOWN.

CHURCH is slinking in and out around a set of packed
suitcases. GAGE is playing with a name tag on one of the
handles. LOUIS and RACHEL are putting on their coats.

			RACHEL
	It's not right. I don't like to
	think of you rattling around the
	house on Thanksgiving Day.
	That's supposed to be a family
	holiday, Louis.

			LOUIS
	That's why you're going with the
	kids and without me. As far as your
	dad's concerned, I'm never going to
	be part of the family.

			RACHEL
	I want you around.

			LOUIS
	I'll be around plenty when you get
	back.

She hugs him impulsively.

INT. THE BANGOR INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT - DAY

RACHEL'S is being called and ELLIE is bouncing impatiently.

			ELLIE
	That's us, Mommy. Come on-come on
	come on. They'll leave without us.

			RACHEL
	No they won't.

RACHEL clutches three boarding cards inn one hand and GAGE in
the other.

			RACHEL
	Louis Creed, I love you.

			ELLIE
	Mom-eeee.

			RACHEL
	Oh, alright. Be good, Louis.

			LOUIS
	Say hello to your folks.

			RACHEL
	Fun-nee.

LOUIS watches them move toward the boarding ramp.

EXT. THE AIRPORT PARKING LOT - DAY

LOUIS walks up to his station wagon fumbling for the keys.
The wind is zooming with such force, it almost tears his
hunter's cap off. He turns as the big jet carrying his family
off to Chicago rises beyond the terminal building.

INT. THE CREED LIVING ROOM - AFTERNOON

LOUIS runs in whipping off his cap. He rushes to the
telephone which is ringing insistently.

			LOUIS
	Hello?

			JUD
		(filtered)
	Louis? 'Fraid you may a spot of
	trouble here.

			LOUIS
	Jud? What trouble?

			JUD
		(filtered)
	Well, there's a dead cat over here
	on the edge of my lawn. I think it
	might be your daughter's.

			LOUIS
	Church? Oh. Oh, Jesus.

EXT. THE CRANDALL HOUSE - AFTERNOON

LOUIS waits for one of those trucks to go blasting by and
then crosses. It's cold and windy. Downed autumn leaves fly.
LOUIS can see JUD bundled in a big green duffel coat, his
face lost in the shadow cast by the fur fringed hood.
Standing on his frozen lawn, he looks like a statuary, just
another dead thing in this twilight landscape.

EXT. THE CAT'S BODY - AFTERNOON

It's lying on it's belly. It doesn't seem much damaged.
LOUIS' hands enter frame and lift the body by the tail. It
makes a SOUND -- rrrriippp -- as LOUIS pulls it out of the
frost it had set into.

EXT. LOUIS AND JUD WITH THE CAT'S BODY - AFTERNOON

			LOUIS
	Yeah. It's Church.

LOUIS puts one hand under the cat's head and lifts it so the
open eyes, now a dull green, state into THE CAMERA. There's
some blood on its ruff. That's all.

			JUD
	I'm sorry. At least it don't look
	like he suffered.

			LOUIS
	Ellie will, though. She'll suffer
	plenty.

From his jacket pocket he takes a green plastic garbage bag
and hands it to JUD. JUD holds the bag's mouth open on the
ground while LOUIS kind of shoves the body in. During this:

			JUD
	Loves that cat pretty well, doesn't
	she?

			LOUIS
	Yes.

He twists the bag shut and puts one of those plastic ties on
it.

			JUD
	What are you gonna do with it?

			LOUIS
	Put him in the garage, I guess.
	Bury him in the morning.

			JUD
	In the Pet Sematary?

			LOUIS
		(shrugs)
	Guess that's what it's there for,
	huh?

During all this JUD has grown peculiarly intense.

			JUD
	Going to tell Ellie?

			LOUIS
	I... I'll have to mull that one
	over a while. Maybe... maybe when
	they call I'll just tell Ellie I
	haven't seen the damn cat around.
	You know, I don't want to spoil her
	holiday. And Rachel's.

Twilight is falling. It's getting darker. JUD is quiet for a
moment then he seems to reach a decision.

			JUD
	Maybe there's a better way.

EXT. THE START OF THE PATH TO THE PET SEMATARY - EVENING

LOUIS is carrying the plastic bag in one hand and a
flashlight in the other. JUD has a pick and shovel and a
flashlight of his own. There's a very little light left now.

			LOUIS
	Jud, this is crazy. It's dark. It's
	late. And cold.

			JUD
	Come on. Let's get it done.

			LOUIS
	It can wait until tomorrow when we
	can see.

			JUD
	Does she love the cat?

			LOUIS
	Yes, but --

			JUD
	Then come on.

EXT. THE PET SEMATARY - LATE EVENING

It's very dark bot not quite pitch when JUD and LOUIS enter
under the arch.

			LOUIS
	Well, folks, here we are, in Louis
	Creed dreamland.

			JUD
	What say, Louis?

			LOUIS
	Nothing.
		(pause)
	Do we plant him on the outer circle
	or start a new one?

			JUD
	We're still not where we're going.

			LOUIS
	What do you mean?

			JUD
	The place we're going is on the
	other side of that.

He walks past LOUIS, pointing toward the deadfall.

			LOUIS
	We can't climb over that. We'll
	break our necks.

			JUD
	No we won't. I have climbed it a
	time or two before, and 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.

JUD starts up the side of the deadfall, and in spite of its
snarled tangles, he mounts as easily as a man climbing a
flight of stairs. After a few seconds, LOUIS follows.

			LOUIS
		(low)
	Thank God my Blue Cross is paid up.

EXT. THEIR FEET - EVENING

First JUD'S pass the camera, then LOUIS'; partly obscured by
the swinging cat-bag. They unerringly find just the right
branches and just as unerringly miss holes which look like
ankle-breakers.

EXT. THE DEADFALL WITH LOUIS AND JUD - EVENING

LOUIS is grinning, exhilarated.

			LOUIS
	God, this is amazing!

There are beads of sweat on JUD'S face. He looks both stern
and a little scared.

			JUD
	Just don't stop, and --

LOUIS looks down. A dead brunch snaps under one of his feet
like a gunshot and that foot plunges down maybe six inches.
LOUIS lurches to the edge of balance, then regains it.

			LOUIS
	-- and don't look down. Right --

JUD reaches the top and starts down the far side. LOUIS
reaches the top.

			LOUIS
		(amazed)
	Holy...

EXT. BIG GOD WOODS, LOUIS' P.O.V. - TWILIGHT

In the dying glow of twilight, this should be a mystic, awe
inspired view. There's no more scrub underbrush; no junk
pines and juniper-bracken here. Ancient firs rise almost like
Sequoias. This is a real forest... an old forest. And winding
upward among the trees, clearly marked by large white stones,
the path goes on.

EXT. THE MEN AT THE DEADFALL - TWILIGHT

LOUIS has stopped on top of the deadfall, surveying all this
with frank amazement.

			JUD
		(turning to look)
	Come on, Louis -- don't stop!

			LOUIS
	I'm alright! I'm f--

One of the branches snaps. LOUIS' foot plunges. His cuff
rips. He steps with his other foot, misses, and goes flying.
He does a half-somersault in the air and hits the deadfall on
his back. The green garbage bag leaves his hand. His
flashlight also goes. Branches crack. White dust puffs out
from under him. He thumps to the ground and JUD kneels beside
him.

			JUD
	Louis! You alright?

LOUIS sits up groggily. His pants are torn. His sweatshirt is
torn. His ankle is bleeding.

			LOUIS
		(dazed)
	Sure. I guess I just lost my happy
	thoughts for a second there.

LOUIS gets slowly up and retrieves the bag, which is rather
shredded now -- and we can see catfur through some of the
rents.

			LOUIS
	It does bite.

He whaps the flashlight against his palm a time or two and
the light comes on. Satisfied, he shuts it off.

			LOUIS
	Where are we going, Jud?

			JUD
	You;ll see before long.

He starts off up the path. LOUIS follows, carrying the bag.

EXT. LOUIS AND JUD IN THE FOREST - TWILIGHT

The sense of awe and mystery heightens as they go toiling up
the path dwarfed by those ancient firs.

SOUND of crickets, low at first, then up to LOUD: Ree-ree-ree
ree...

LOUIS almost walks into JUD'S back. The old man has stopped
suddenly. His head is cocked to one side, his mouth pursed
and tense.

			LOUIS
	Jud? What's --

			JUD
	Shhh!

SOUND: crackling underbruch and breaking brunches. Something
is moving out there -- something big. The sound seems at
first distant, then very close. It moves away and then moves
ominously toward them again. There's sweat on LOUIS' forehead
now, trickling down to his chapped cheeks. He shifts the
Hefty bag with CHURCH'S body in it from hand to the other.

THE SOUND DISAPPEARS... then a shrill, maniacal laugh comes
out of the darkness, loud, piercing, chilling. LOUIS is
frozen solid as the laughter rises, splits into dry cackles,
then sinks into a gutteral chuckling that might become sobs
before it fades out altogether.

			LOUIS
	What in Christ's name...?

JUD turns to look at him. In the dim light the old man looks
a hundred and twenty.

			JUD
	Just a loon.

EXT. LOUIS AND JUD AT THE EDGE OF LITTLE GOD SWAMP - TWILIGHT

Lots of undergrowth here, and creeping ground mist, too. The
CRICKETS are now only part of the soundtrack: BUZZ OF
CICADAS, THUMP OF FROGS. Swamp-sounds have been added. LOUIS
looks frankly doubtful.

Dead trees poke out of the murk like twisted hands. There's
scummy water standing around tussocks covered with long
grass, most of it dead. All this fades away into grim,
obscuring fog.

			JUD
	Micmac Indians used to call it
	Little God Swamp.

			LOUIS
	Is there quicksand?

			JUD
	Ayuh.

			LOUIS
		(nervous; joking)
	Are there ghosts?

JUD looks at him expressionlessly.

			JUD
	Ayuh.

JUD starts off, stepping to the first tussock. After a
moment, LOUIS follows. JUD'S face is set, strange.

			JUD
		(walking)
	There's a lot of funny things down
	this way, Louis.

			LOUIS
		(walking)
	You're telling me.

			JUD
		(walking)
	The air's heavier... more
	electrical... something. You might
	see St. Elmo's fire... what the
	sailors call 'foo-lights'. It makes
	funny shapes, but it's nothing.

LOUIS looks up and his eyes widen as he sees a faintly
glowing ethereal shape hanging in the branches of one of the
dead trees. It looks a bit like a corpse. In fact, I think it
looks quite a bit like PASCOW'S corpse. As we watch it
fades... fades... is gone.

			LOUIS
	It's funny, alright.

			JUD
	Just don't stop, Louis. You don;t
	ever want to stop down here in
	Little God.
		(pause)
	And you don't ever want to look
	behind you, whatever you hear.

EXT. THE SWAMP WITH JUD AND LOUIS - NIGHT

They move through the mist like wraiths, JUD with his digging
tools, LOUIS with his Hefty bag coffin. The air of the swamp
glows dimly above them.

Those SWAPS SOUNDS surround us, engulf us.

EXT. A LOW, STONY BLUFF OR STEEP HILL - NIGHT

(In the book this is described as being almost a cliff, but a
rocky hill rising out of the woods would serve just as well.)
We can see steps cut into the side, and two figures -- LOUIS
and JUD -- toiling up them. JUD'S panting and out of breath;
LOUIS, if anything, is in worse shape.

			JUD
	Almost there, Louis.

			LOUIS
	You keep saying that.

			JUD
	This time I mean it.

JUD tops the last step and stands under the stars, the wind
blowing his hair off his deeply lined brow. LOUIS joins him
and stares ahead with undisguised wonder.

EXT. THE MICMAC BURIAL GROUND WITH LOUIS AND JUD - NIGHT

The top of the hill or bluff is bare. There are a number of
rocky piles but for every pile of rocks there are ten
littered heaps, as if the neat piles had been burst apart.
There's a pattern to all this, the same pattern as in the Pet
Sematary: concentric circles.

			LOUIS
	What is this place?

			JUD
	This was their burial ground.

			LOUIS
	Whose burial ground?

			JUD
	The Micmacs. I brought you here to
	bury Ellen's cat.

			LOUIS
	Why? For God's sake, why?

			JUD
	I had my reasons. Soil's thin but
	you'll manage.

He hands LOUIS the pick and shovel.

			JUD
	I'm gonna sit over yonder and have
	a smoke. I'd help you, but you've
	gotta do it yourself. Each buries
	his own. That's how it was done
	then.

JUD walks away, leaving LOUIS with the digging tools in one
hand and the flashlight in the other.

EXT. LOOKING DOWN INTO A SHALLOW HOLE - NIGHT

SOUND: The wind. It blows ceaselessly up here.

The hole's about two and a half feet deep. Stubby rocks
protrude from the sides. The pick comes down, hits a rock at
the bottom, and flashes fire.

EXT. LOUIS AT THE SHALLOW HOLE - NIGHT

He drops the pick and sticks his hurt hands in his armpits.

			JUD (V.O.)
	Should be deep enough.

JUD joins LOUIS. Those tumbled piles of rocks are very
obvious. Cairns. Indian grave markers.

			LOUIS
	Jud, why am I doing all this?

			JUD
	Because it's right.

JUD sets the rocks down and walks off again. LOUIS looks
after him for a moment, then kneels down. He opens the
garbage bag and looks in at CHURCH'S stiffening corpse.

			LOUIS
	Pax vobiscum. Church old buddy. You
	were a hell of a good cat. I doubt
	if you were worth all this
	aggravation, but you were a hell of
	a good cat.

He tumbles the bag containing the body into the grave, and
then begins pushing the stony soil over it with the spade.

EXT. CHURCH'S GRAVE - NIGHT

LOUIS' hands come into the frame and add a final two or three
stones to the finished cairn. He looks at it for a moment and
stands up. JUD is right there.

			JUD
	That's fine. You done real good.

LOUIS looks at him.

EXT. THE CREED HOUSE - NIGHT

There's a light on in the kitchen, but that's all. There's
silence at first, and then the PHONE STARTS RINGING.

LOUIS and JUD are coming down the path with their tools and
their lights. They are both clearly fagged out. LOUIS hears
the telephone.

			LOUIS
	Oh, shit! Rachel!

He drops the tools and sprints into the side yard. He runs to
the door and inside. JUD stands there at the end of the path,
eyes inscrutable.

INT. THE CREED LIVING ROOM - NIGHT

The PHONE STOPS RINGING. A beat later LOUIS enters the room.
He picks up the receiver, although he already knows it's too
late. He listens to the SOUND of the dial tone, disgusted. He
starts to dial a number from memory.

			JUD (V.O.)
	Louis.

LOUIS looks up to see JUD standing in the kitchen/living room
doorway.

			JUD
	When you talk to 'em, not one word
	about what we done tonight. S'far's
	you know, the cat's still alive.
	We'll talk more about all this and
	by then you'll understand more.

LOUIS lowers the phone receiver into the cradle.

			LOUIS
	Jud... what did we do tonight?

			JUD
	Why, we buried your daughter's cat.

			LOUIS
	Is that all we did?

			JUD
	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 would tell you
	she's never seen into a man's
	heart. The soil of a man's heart is
	stonier, Louis -- like the soil up
	there in the old Micmac burying
	ground. A man grows what he can...
	and tends it.

During this, he's come across the room to LOUIS and dropped
his hand on LOUIS' shoulder... just the way PASCOW had done
in LOUIS' bad dream.

EXT. THE ROAD WITH JUD - NIGHT

SOUNDS: Boops and beeps of touch-tone dialing. Ringing. Then:

			DORY GOLDMAN
		(filtered)
	Goldman residence.

			LOUIS (V.O.)
	Hi, Dory... it's Louis --

During this, another SOUND has been growing: an approaching
truck. As JUD gains his side of the road, he looks back and
we read fear on his face -- no matter what he said to LOUIS,
he's sorry for tonight's piece of work.

A moment later a highballing Orinco truck cuts between THE
CAMERA and JUD.

INT. THE CREED LIVING ROOM WITH LOUIS - NIGHT

He's on the phone, trying to smile with his voice.

			DORY
		(filtered)
	You want to talk to your daughter?

			LOUIS
	That's be real fine.

			ELLIE
		(filtered)
	Hi... daddy?

			LOUIS
	Hi, babe. How are things out there
	in Chicagoland?

INT. THE GOLDMAN LIVING ROOM - NIGHT

ELLIE is dressed for bed in fuzzy pink pajamas. Her Chatty
Cathy is crooked in one arm. In her lap is a Garfield
transistor radio. Nearby we can see DORY and IRWIN GOLDMAN,
ELLIE'S grandparents, RACHEL'S mom and dad. DORY smiles as
she watches the little girl. IRWIN looks disinterested -- a
little disgusted. He really dislikes LOUIS.

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

INT. THE CREED LIVING ROOM WITH LOUIS - NIGHT

The smile fades off his face. It's replaced with a look of
combined guilt and unhappiness. He looks at his hands, which
are still dark with the dirt from CHURCH'S grave.

			LOUIS
	Well... I guess he's just fine,
	Ellie. I haven't seen him this
	evening, but --

INT. THE GOLDMAN LIVING ROOM WITH ELLIE - NIGHT

RACHEL, holding GAGE, sits on the arm of ELLIE'S chair.

			ELLIE
	Well, make sure you out him down
	cellar before you go to bed so he
	can't run out in the road. And kiss
	him goodnight for me.

			LOUIS
		(filtered)
	Yuck! Kiss your own cat!

			ELLIE
	Want to talk to Gage?

Before LOUIS can answer, she puts the phone in GAGE'S hand.
ELLIE and RACHEL watch, amused, as GAGE gobbles into it.

INT. THE CREED LIVING ROOM WITH LOUIS - NIGHT

From the telephone comes the SOUND of GAGE talking and
chortling. LOUIS is not listening. His eyes -- and his mind --
are far away.

EXT. THE CREED HOUSE - MORNING

LOUIS is raking leaves on the side lawn, near the tree with
the tire swing. After a moment or two of this, he props the
rake against the tree and starts toward the garage. He goes
in.

INT. THE GARAGE WITH LOUIS - MORNING

It's dim in here. LOUIS is crossing to the door which
communicates to the kitchen. As he passes the station wagon,
he hears a cat HISS. He turns.

CHURCH is on top of the car. THE CAMERA is so close that the
cat looks like he's coming right down our throats. LOUIS
recoils and stumbles backward with a cry. He hits a wall-rack
and tools fall to the floor with a LOUD JANGLING NOISE.
CHURCH jumps down from the car and THE CAMERA TRACKS as he
goes flying out the garage door into the sunlight.

			LOUIS
	Church!

INT. THE CREED KITCHEN WITH LOUIS - MORNING

He's spooning out cat food into a dish. He takes the dish to
the door and moves outside.

EXT. THE KITCHEN STOOP WITH LOUIS - MORNING

He puts the dish of food down and sits beside it.

			LOUIS
	Food, Church... food!

SOUND: Miaow. CHURCH comes slinking out of the bushes and
moves slowly toward LOUIS. He stops, looking mistrustful.

			LOUIS
	Come on, Church! Chow down!

CHURCH crosses to the stoop and begins eating the food.

			LOUIS
		(to himself)
	Christ. I don't believe this.

He picks CHURCH up and the cat miaows again -- he wants the
food.

			LOUIS
		(wincing)
	You stink, Church.

The cat is looking at the food, trying to get out of LOUIS'
arms.

			LOUIS
	In a second.

He tilts the head back so he can get a look at CHURCH'S neck.
There's some sort of mark here -- a clear remnant of the
collision with the truck. A line of white fur, or perhaps a
dark red scar where no fur at all grows. LOUIS sees something
else as he lets the cat's neck go. He tweezes it out of
CHURCH'S whiskers. It's a shred of green plastic.

			LOUIS
	Chewed his way out. Jesus
	Baldheaded Christ, he ch--

CHURCH suddenly claws at his face.

			LOUIS
	Ow!

He slaps his hand to his face. CHURCH leaps for the food.
LOUIS slowly takes his hand away. There are claw marks on his
cheek, welling blood.

EXT. JUD CRANDALL'S GARDEN WITH JUD - DAY

The garden is a plot of about half an acre. JUD comes
trundling slowly along a row, pushing a wheelbarrow loaded
with pumpkins.
He notices a real big pumpkin on the ground, stops, and bends
over to get it. He slits the vine with a pocket knife, gets
the pumpkin in his arms and stands up. He turns... and LOUIS
is right there (kind of a cheap jump, but always fun),
looking totally stunned. JUD, startled, drops the pumpkin.

			LOUIS
	What did we do?

INT. THE CRANDALL KITCHEN - DAY

LOUIS is sitting at the kitchen table. JUD comes from the
fridge with a couple of long-necked bottles of beer.

			LOUIS
	I tried to tell myself I buried him
	alive. I'm not a vet... it was
	dark...

			JUD
	Sure it was dark, but his head
	swiveled on his neck like it was
	full of ball bearings, and when you
	moved him he pulled out of the
	frost, Louis -- sounded like a
	piece of ticky tape comin' off a
	letter. Live things don't do that.
	You only stop meltin' the frost
	under where you're layin' when
	you're dead.

			LOUIS
	I feel like I'm going crazy...

LOUIS drinks about half his beer in one long pull. He needs
it. JUD sits across the table from him and settles in for a
long talk.

			JUD
	It was the rag-man told me about
	the place -- Stanley Bouchard. Us
	kids just called him Stanny B. He
	was half Micmac himself.

EXT. JUD AS A BOY (SEPIA TONE) - DAY

The time here is about 1910. JUD is wearing short pants, he's
crying as if he means to keep doing it for a long time.

			JUD (V.O.)
	I loved my dog a lot, Louis. When
	Spot died, I thought I was gonna
	die.

JUD is sitting on the front stoop. It's the same house JUD
lives in now, but the poarch hasn't been added yet, and the
road is dirt rather than tar. Along the road comes a horse
drawn wagon -- STANNY B.'S wagon, full of junk, rags,
bottles... Stuff to sell and swap. Strung across the top are
bells, and we can hear their CHIMING SOUND... but faint, like
bells heard in a dream.

STANNY B. is old and drunk. Dust spumes up behind the wagon
as he draws up to the Crandall house and stops. He gets down,
almost falls, takes a bottle out of his back pocket, drinks,
and approaches JUD. We can see his speaking, but we can't
hear.

			JUD (V.O.)
	Stanny B. did for me what I did for
	you last night, Louis. Only I
	wasn't alone when Spot came back.

EXT. THE CRANDALL BACK YARD (SEPIA TONE) - DAY

JUD'S MOTHER is back to THE CAMERA, hanging sheets on the
line. The sheets billow and suddenly, pushing out from behind
them, quite near her, is a small mongrel dog. SPOT. He's
covered with graveyard dirt. His eyes are red and rolling. He
splashes the sheets withe the muck of his passage.

			JUD (V.O.)
	My mother was with me,

She sees the dog and backs away, horrified.

			JUD (V.O.)
	He'd got caught in bobwire that
	infected. You could still see the
	marks on him.

And so we can, around his neck and along the side of his
head. These marks are the counterparts of the marks we've
already seen on CHURCH.

The BOY JUD comes rushing out of the house. HIS MOTHER is
cringing against the fence at the rear of the yard. SPOT
stands in front of her, swaying from side to side, as if
doped.

			JUD'S MOM
		(dim; far)
	Get your dog, Jud! He stinks of the
	ground you buried him in! Come here
	and get your dog!

INT. JUD AND LOUIS IN JUD'S KITCHEN - DAY

			JUD
	Spot lived another four years. He
	dies peacefully in the night that
	second time, and I buried him in
	the Pet Sematary... where his bones
	still lie.

			LOUIS
	Your mother knew all about it. All
	about... that place.

			JUD
	Ayuh. Lots of folks around here
	know. You best keep quiet, though,
	they might not take kindly to an
	outsider having the secret. How
	many times has this story been
	passed along, I wonder? A story
	that's just the same except for the
	names.

The men sit for a time, their beer bottles empty. Then JUD
looks at LOUIS.

			JUD
	You asked me why I led you up
	there. A man doesn't always know
	why he does things, Louis. I think
	I did it because 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 pain stops and the good
	memories begin. Not the end of life
	but the end of pain. If she's
	anything like me, she'll go on
	loving her pet. She'll go on loving
	it... but she'll draw her own
	conclusions... and she'll breathe a
	sigh of relief when it finally
	dies.

			LOUIS
	That's why you took me up there?

			JUD
	That's why, but it ain't why. I did
	it for the same reason Stanny B.
	did it. You do it because it gets
	hold of you.
	You do it because that burial place
	is a secret place and you want to
	share the secret. You make up
	reasons, but mostly you do it
	because you want to. Or because you
	have to. Stanny B. had been up
	there... and he took me... and
	seventy years go by... and then...
	all at once...

JUD shakes his head and coughs drily into the palm of his
hand.

			JUD
	Louis, if you was to take your cat
	out tonight and kill it, I would
	never say a word. That place... all
	at once it gets hold of you.

			LOUIS
		(after a long pause)
	Has... has anyone ever buried a
	person up there?

			JUD
	Christ on His throne, no! And who
	ever would? You don't even want to
	talk about such things, Louis.

JUD'S face is a complication. He's lying to LOUIS certainly.
And LOUIS knows it.

INT. BATHTUB FIXTURES - NIGHT

LOUIS' hands come into frame and turn on the spigots.

INT. THE CREED BATHROOM WITH LOUIS - NIGHT

He starts to undress, still looking troubled. (We should
notice that the door behind him is firmly shut. The bathroom
has no windows.)

The hot water is steaming. LOUIS turns off the faucets and
climbs in. A big sigh as he relaxes in the hot water. After a
few moments he puts a wet washcloth over his face.

SOUND: A splash. Something has been dropped into the bath.
LOUIS whips the washcloth off and opens his eyes. He looks
down and those eyes widen in shock. A very large and very
mangled dead rat floats in the bath, actually brushing
against LOUIS' chest. Blood has begun to stain the water.
LOUIS turns his head and sees:

CHURCH, crouching on the toilet lid. Its mouth yawns open
showing bloodstained teeth.

LOUIS leaps from the tub, grabs a towel and begins to rub
himself frantically. He's grossed out. The cat tries to arch
against him and he hits it. CHURCH falls to the door,
hissing. LOUIS looks at the closed door.

			LOUIS
	How the hell did you get in?

CHURCH looks up at him with dull, muddy eyes.

THE SOUND OF JET ENGINES.

EXT. A DELTA 727 - DAY

Its landing gear unfold preparatory to touching down at
Bangor International Airport.

INT. A DEPLANING AREA - DAY

Lots of people making their way up the jetway. LOUIS looking
them over anxiously. In one hand he's got half a dozen roses.
His face lights up. Here comes LOUIS' family. ELLIE is a
little ahead. RACHEL is pushing GAGE in his stroller. ELLIE
sees LOUIS and runs for him.

			ELLIE
	Daddy!

She leaps into her arms. LOUIS swings her cheerfully.

			LOUIS
	Hi, sugar!

She smacks him noisily. He smacks her back just as noisily.

			ELLIE
	Daddy, is Church alright?

LOUIS' face changes. All at once he's watchful.

			LOUIS
	Yes... I guess so. He was sleeping
	on the front porch when I left.

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

			LOUIS
		(trying to smile)
	That was a silly dream, wasn't it?

			ELLIE
	Is he really alright?

			LOUIS
	Yes.

			ELLIE
	Because you promised.

			LOUIS
	I know.

RACHEL reaches them. She's pretty tired. Hair hanging in her
face, good travelling clothes now looking a bit wrinkled and
a bit stale.

			RACHEL
	Want to take you son, doc?

LOUIS does. GAGE is ecstatic. LOUIS kisses RACHEL deeply.

INT. THE CREED KITCHEN - NIGHT

CHURCH is at the door, waiting to be let in. ELLIE does the
honors. The cat oils out into the shed/garage and Ellie
closes the door. She looks distressed. She crosses the
kitchen again.

INT. THE CREED LIVING ROOM - NIGHT

RACHEL, in a flannel nightgown, is watching TV. LOUIS is
reading a medical tome and making notes. GAGE, zipped into a
warm blanket suit, is sacking on the couch.

			ELLIE
		(entering)
	Can cats have shampoos?

			RACHEL
	Yes -- you have to take them so
	someone who grooms animals, though.
	I think it's pretty expensive.

			ELLIE
		(still upset)
	I don't care. I'll save up my
	allowance and pay for it. Church
	smells bad.

			LOUIS
	I've noticed it, too. I'll cough up
	the money, Ellen.

			ELLIE
	I hate that smell.

LOUIS looks both grim and sad -- a man discovering that what
you pay for you own, and what you own always comes home to
you.

			LOUIS
	Yes -- I hate it, too.

BLACK. And on it, a fourth title card: MISSY DANDRIDGE.

SOUND: a pen scratching over paper.

THE TITLE DISAPPEARS and the black FADES UP ON:

INT. A STUDY DESK - NIGHT

A single sheet of lined paper is spotlighted by the glow of a
desk lamp. On it, MISSY'S right hand is just finishing:
"Doctor says Intestinal Cancer. Cannot face this pain.
Sorry."

INT. THE DANDRIDGE CELLAR - NIGHT

A light comes on and we see a hangman's noose strung over a
beam. It dangles above a kitchen table which has been
relegated to cellar duty.

SOUND: Descending footsteps.

INT. THE NOOSE - NIGHT

SOUND of MISSY climbing onto the table. Her fame enters the
frame. She looks very sick. She puts her head into the noose
and rakes it tight to the hyoid bone.

EXT. THE DANDRIDGE HOUSE - NIGHT

One light on... a cellar light.

SOUND: Ree-ree-ree... then...

SOUND: Kick! THUMP!

SOUND: Ree-ree-ree...

INT. THE CELLAR WITH MISSY DANDRIDGE - NIGHT

She hangs limply, hands dangling at her sides, above the
table, which now lies upon its side. We can see the note
clearly. She pinned it to the bodice of her housedress.

SOUND: Car engines starting up.

EXT. IN FRONT OF THE GRACE METHODIST CHURCH - DAY

People are coming out and getting into their cars and turning
on their headlights. In the immediate f.g, is a hearse. Four
pall-bearers are loading a coffin into it.

EXT. LOUIS AND ELLIE ON THE CHURCH STEPS - DAY

			ELLIE
	They're all turning on their
	lights! Daddy, why are they turning
	on their lights in the middle of
	the day?

JUD, dressed in a rusty old black suit and a black tie, comes
out and stands with them. He looks haggard and old.

			JUD
	They do it to honor the dead,
	Ellen.

			ELLIE
	Is that right, dad?

			LOUIS
	Yes. To honor the dead.

EXT. LUDLOW CEMETERY - DAY

The mourners are gathered around the grave of MISSY
DANDRIDGE. The coffin rests above it on runners.

			MINISTER
	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.

As the mourners begin to break up, LOUIS, ELLIE, and JUD
start back toward LOUIS' car. THE CAMERA DOLLIES WITH THEM.

			JUD
	Rachel not feeling well?

			LOUIS
	Well... a touch of the flu...

			ELLIE
	She's in bed. She was throwing up.
	Ever since Mrs. Rogers called and
	said Missy --

			LOUIS
	That's enough, Ellen.

They've reached the CREED station wagon. LOUIS opens the
front passenger door.

			LOUIS
	Hop in.

Ellie does, and LOUIS closes the door.

			JUD
	Poor Missy. I don't know why God
	takes someone like her, who should
	have a bunch o' years still in
	front of her, and lets an old shit
	like me just go on and on.

			LOUIS
	My father used to have a saying,
	Jud -- "God sees the truth, but
	waits."

			JUD
	Ayuh... how's your cat, Louis?

			LOUIS
	It's Ellie's cat.

			JUD
	Nope. It's your cat now.

INT. THE CREED LIVING ROOM - NIGHT

LOUIS sits watching the news. ELLIE comes into the room and
he uses the remote control to shut up the TV. She's dressed
for bed. She comes toward him slowly.

			LOUIS
	What's up, sugar?

			ELLIE
	Daddy, do you think Missy Dandridge
	went to heaven?

INT. THE KITCHEN WITH RACHEL - NIGHT

She'd putting away the last of the supper things. She hears
this and moves toward the living room door to listen. She
doesn't look at all well. Her eyes are red from crying and
her face is haggard.

INT. THE LIVING ROOM - NIGHT

			ELLIE
	At school Michael McDowell said she
	was gonna fry in hell. Michael
	McDowell says all sewersides fry in
	heaven.

			LOUIS
	Well, I think Michael McDowell is
	so full of shit he probably squeaks
	when he walks... but don't you dare
	say that.

			ELLIE
	I won't. Is Missy in heaven, do you
	think?

			LOUIS
	I don't know, honey. Different
	people believe all sorts of
	different things. Some believe in
	heaven or hell. Some think we're
	born again as little children. Some
	think we just wink out... like a
	candle flame when the wind blows
	hard.

			ELLIE
	Do you believe that?

LOUIS looks toward the sofa where CHURCH is sleeping.

			LOUIS
	No. i think we go on. I'm not sure
	what happens after we die, but I
	think we go on, yeah -- I have
	faith in that.

			ELLIE
	You believe in it.

			LOUIS
	Oh, faith's a little more than just
	believing.

RACHEL stands in the kitchen door, listening intently.

INT. LOUIS AND RACHEL'S BEDROOM - NIGHT

LOUIS is in bed reading. RACHEL, wearing a robe over her
nightgown, comes in and sits on the bed, an indication that
she wants to talk.

			RACHEL
	I heard you and Ellie tonight.

			LOUIS
	I thought maybe you did. I know you
	don't approve of the subject.

			RACHEL
	I just get... scared. And you know
	me. When I get scared, I get
	defensive.

			LOUIS
	Scared of what? Dying?

			RACHEL
		(struggling to get the
		 words out)
	My... my sister... Zelda...

LOUIS sets down his book and gives her his full attention.
She's going to talk about Zelda... for the first time in
their marriage.

			LOUIS
	I know she died... spinal
	meningitis.

			RACHEL
	She caught it... and she was in the
	back bedroom... she was in the back
	bedroom like a dirty secret. Louis,
	she was dying in there, my sister
	died in the back bedroom and that's
	what she was, a dirty secret.

Suddenly RACHEL breaks down completely. LOUIS, alarmed,
reaches for her and catches a shoulder but she pulls away.

			LOUIS
	Rachel -- babe -- don't --

			RACHEL
	Don't tell me don't. Don't stop me,
	Louis. I've only got the strength
	to tell this once.

			LOUIS
	Was it that horrible?

			RACHEL
	Worse than you can ever imagine. We
	watched her degenerate day by day
	and there was nothing anyone could
	do.

INT. ZELDA'S BEDROOM (SEPIA TONE) - DAY

The scene has the same dream-like quality as in JUD'S story
about STANNY B. We see ZELDA in her bed. She is shriveled --
pulled in one herself -- her shoulders hunched up and her
face pulled down as though it were a mask. She's monstrous,
with hands like birds' feet.

RACHEL, a little girl of eight, comes in with a tray.

			RACHEL (V.O.)
	I had to feed her sometimes. I
	hated it but I did it.

RACHEL feeds ZELDA some kind of sickening-looking soup. ZELDA
feeds from the big spoon, drooling all over her front.

			RACHEL (V.O.)
	We wanted her to die, Louis, we
	wished for her to die, and it
	wasn't just so she wouldn't feel
	any more pain, it was so we
	wouldn't feel any more pain. It was
	because she was starting to look
	like a monster... she was starting
	to be a monster...

INT. THE CREED BEDROOM - NIGHT

			RACHEL
	I wake up some nights... even now I
	wake up and think... I think 'Is
	Zelda dead yet? Is she?

RACHEL catches her breath. LOUIS takes her hand and she
squeezes his fingers with savage tightness.

			RACHEL
	Near the end the drugs stopped
	working. She started screaming then
	and none of us could remember the
	way she was before.

INT. ZELDA'S BEDROOM WITH ZELDA (SEPIA TONE) - NIGHT

ZELDA is hideously deformed now and screaming like a demon.
We hear the screams as though they are far off.

			RACHEL (V.O.)
	She was this foul, hateful,
	screaming thing in the back
	bedroom.

INT. THE GOLDMAN HOUSE (SEPIA TONE) - NIGHT

DORY and IRWIN are dressed in evening clothes and leaving
through the front door. RACHEL, age eight, is left alone with
those dim screams.

			RACHEL (V.O.)
	My parents were gone. When she
	died, my parents were gone. I was
	alone with her... and she was still
	screaming...

The SCREAMS start to echo, now, and warp.

INT. THE CREED BEDROOM - NIGHT

			RACHEL
	I was eight. I had started ti think
	Zelda hated me because my back was
	straight, because I didn't have the
	constant pain, because I could
	walk, because I was going to live.
	I started to imagine she wanted to
	kill me.

LOUIS holds her tightly against him now. She's in a bad way
but determined to get the rest of the story told.

			RACHEL
	When she stopped screaming... I
	went to see if everything was
	alright.

INT. ZELDA'S BEDROOM (SEPIA TONE) - NIGHT

ZELDA is curled in bed, her body twitching violently.

			RACHEL (V.O.)
	I thought she must have swallowed
	her own tongue. She was choking to
	death. I didn't know what to do! I
	was eight!

Little girl RACHEL rushes to ZELDA'S side. There is spit
coming down ZELDA'S chin and she is making the same SOUND
that PASCOW made when he was dying in LOUIS' arms: Gaaaaaaa --

INT. THE CREED BEDROOM - NIGHT

			LOUIS
	Rachel, that's enough.

			RACHEL
	I'm explaining. I'm explaining why
	I didn't go to poor Missy's funeral
	and why we had that stupid fight
	that day.

			LOUIS
	Shh -- that's forgotten.

			RACHEL
	Not by me, it isn't. I remember it
	well, Louis. I remember it as well
	as I remember my sister Zelda
	choking to death in her bed.

INT. ZELDA'S BEDROOM (SEPIA TONE) - NIGHT

THE CAMERA shows us what RACHEL narrates in gruesome detail
with the images slightly distorted and possibly in slow
motion. The SOUND still has that far off quality.

			RACHEL (V.O.)
	I turned her over on her belly and
	thumped her back. It's all I knew
	to do. Her feet were beating up and
	down... and her twisted legs. She
	started to... to convulse... and I
	thought, oh, she's choking. Zelda's
	choking, and they'll come home and
	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...

INT. THE CREED BEDROOM - NIGHT

RACHEL is regressing, reliving the nightmare. LOUIS clings to
her but she doesn't seem to know he's there.

			RACHEL
	I turned her over again and her
	face had gone black and her eyes
	were bulging and her neck was
	swelled up. Then she died. 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 and they
	looked. They thought I was crying
	but I think... I think maybe I was
	laughing. I think maybe that's what
	I was doing.

			LOUIS
	If you were, I salute you for it.

RACHEL, the story told, starts to calm down.

			LOUIS
	Yes, I salute you for it. And if I
	needed another reason to... to
	really dislike your mother and
	father, I've got it now. You never
	should have been left alone with
	her, Rachel. Never. Where was the
	nurse? There should have been an
	R.N. They went out, they actually
	went out and left an eight-year-old
	kid in charge of her dying sister,
	who was probably clinically insane
	by then? Where was the R-fucking-N?

LOUIS gets up out of bed and moves toward the bathroom.

			RACHEL
	Where are you going?

			LOUIS
	To get you a valium.

			RACHEL
	You know I don't --

			LOUIS
	Tonight you do.

In the bathroom he rummages through some pill bottles which
are high in the medicine chest.

			LOUIS
	If you told me this before, it
	would have explained a hell of a
	lot.

			RACHEL
	Lou, I couldn't. I've been... I
	guess a little phobic on the
	subject.

			LOUIS
	Just a little phobic. Yeah, right.

He comes back with the pills and a little Daisy cup full of
tap water.

			RACHEL
	That day I blew up at you... I'm
	sorry, Louis.

She takes her valium and swallows it with the water. LOUIS
strokes her hair.

			LOUIS
	No apology needed. But what the
	hell, I accept it anyway, it it'll
	make you, feel better.

			RACHEL
	It does, you know. I do feel
	better. I feel as if I just sicked
	up something that's poisoned part
	of me for years.

RACHEL lies back on the bed and her eyes slip closed. LOUIS
curls in beside her, stomach-to-back, and soothes her with
his hands.

			RACHEL
		(drowsily)
	Don't blame it all on my father,
	Louis. Please. That was a terrible
	time for them.

Then she seems to fall asleep, leaving LOUIS alone with his
thoughts.

						FADE TO BLACK.

A fifth card: GAGE

SOUND: An idling truck motor.

EXT. THE GRILLE OF A TRUCK - DAY

It looks monstrous... as high as a mountain. It's an Orinco
tanker. The driver, a young man in khaki fatigues and a
baseball cap, climbs up into the cab. He slams the door and
jams the truck into gear.

EXT. THE ORINCO SHIPPING YARD - DAY

The truck comes rolling slowly toward the main gate... stops
so the driver can look both ways... and then pulls slowly out
onto Route 15.

EXT. ROUTE 15 WITH THE TRUCK - DAY

Getting up to speed.

EXT. A KITE - DAY

There's a hand holding it -- LOUIS'. The kite begins to move
and THE CAMERA TRACKS IT. It flaps and flutters.

EXT. THE FIELD BESIDE THE CREED HOUSE - DAY

LOUIS runs with the kite beneath a gorgeous sky in which fat
white clouds move like airy ocean liners.

			ELLIE (V.O.)
	Go, daddy!

At a picnic table the remains of lunch are spread. In
attendance: RACHEL, ELLIE, and JUD CRANDALL. Looks like
everyone ate well.

			GAGE
	Go, dayee!

They all laugh -- JUD ruffle the kid's hair. LOUIS runs
through the field paying out string as the kite goes up.

INT. THE CAB OF THE ORINCO TRUCK - DAY

The driver is whistling. A transistor radio hangs from the
rear-view mirror on a strap. He turns it on. The Ramones.
"Sheena." Hey-ho, let's go.

EXT. ROUTE 15, TRUCKER'S P.O.V. - DAY

Unrolling before us at a good clip - too good, maybe.

INT. THE TRUCKER'S FOOT - DAY

Stamping the pedal closer to the metal.

EXT. ROUTE 15 WITH THE ONCOMING TRUCK - DAY

Belting toward THE CAMERA, SOUND of the growling engine.

EXT. THE FIELD - DAY

LOUIS has gotten the kite up okay. He's holding the string,
looking up at the sky. Now he looks back at the picnic table.

			LOUIS
	Hey, Gage!

GAGE gets down and runs toward his father. The others watch,
GAGE'S chubby legs bring him to LOUIS who transfers the ball
of string into his little hands.

			GAGE
	Dat?

			LOUIS
	String! You're flyin' it, Gage --
	you got the hammer, ma man!

			GAGE
	Gage fline it?

			LOUIS
	Bet your boots. Look --

LOUIS puts his hands over GAGE'S hands and pulls them down.
The kite dips in the sky.

			LOUIS
	See?

			GAGE
	Gage fline it!!

			LOUIS
		(tender)
	Bet your ass, little hero.

He kisses his son. They look up at the kite, dipping and
drifting under the clouds.

EXT. ROUTE 15 WITH THE ORINCO TANKER - DAY

Belting along fast, SOUND of the Ramones.

INT. THE CAB OF THE TANKER - DAY

The gas pedal is closer to the floorboards than ever. The
driver is singing along with the radio.

EXT. LOUIS AND GAGE WITH THE KITE IN THE FIELD - DAY

We are at some distance -- far enough to see that the two of
them have moved quite close to the road. We can see their
faces upturned to us -- we can hear the AMPLIFIED SOUND of
the kite itself.

THE CAMERA PANS TO THE LEFT -- to the road. And we can see
the truck, fairly close by now, and coming closer.

JUD'S lighting a cigarette. RACHEL is picking up paper
plates.

			ELLIE
	I want to fly it! Can I fly it now,
	mommy?

			RACHEL
	In a minute, hon. Let Gage finish
	his turn.

LOUIS runs along behind his son. This is the last moment of
happiness in this man's life -- so let's make it very happy --
as he and GAGE stare up at the kite.

There's a strong gust of wind. The ball of string falls out
of GAGE'S hand.

			ELLIE
	It got away from him! That numb
	shit!

			RACHEL
	Ellen Creed!

SOUND: The oncoming truck.

EXT. THE TRUCK - DAY

Slamming towards us -- a brutal leviathan on eighteen wheels.

EXT. THE FIELD - DAY

LOUIS is looking -- looking toward his people at the picnic
table.

			LOUIS
		(shrugs, good humored)
	What can you d--

Alarm hits JUD'S face. He rises.

			JUD
	Don't get him go in the road,
	Louis!

RACHEL looks; registers terrible alarm.

			RACHEL
		(screams)
	Get him , Louis! GET THE BABY!!

Jud starts running toward the road, although he'll never get
there in time; only LOUIS has a chance. Horrible
understanding dawns on LOUIS' face. The kid's almost in the
road; the ball of twine is in it.

RISING DRONE OF THE TRUCK.

			GAGE
	Geddit-geddit-geddit!

EXT. EVERYONE, KITE'S P.O.V. - DAY

GAGE reaches the road as the truck enters frame. LOUIS is
running across the field, getting close. RACHEL is clutching
ELLIE by the picnic table. JUD is helplessly trying to wave
the truck down.

EXT. VARIOUS ANGLES - DAY

GAGE reaches the broken white line and grabs the ball of
string.

SOUND of the incoming truck. GAGE turns his head.

			GAGE
		(not afraid)
	Druck!

In the cab, the driver's face turns into a Halloween mask of
horror. He BLASTS THE AIR HORN.

			LOUIS
		(shrieks)
	NO!!

A shadow falls over GAGE'S face. There is an audible CLICK!
And we FREEZE FRAME.
What we have now is a tremendously winning photograph of a
little boy, not quite two, with a ball of string in his
hand... and a shadow lying across his face.

MONTAGE of other still photos, each appearing with a loud
camera CLICK!

a.) LOUIS is pushing RACHEL out of a hospital door. RACHEL is
in a wheelchair and looks radiantly happy (so, for that
matter, does LOUIS). I think we may safely assume that the
small blanketed bundle in RACHEL'S arms is GAGE.

b.) LOUIS, bare to the waist, is tubbing, a two-month-old
GAGE in a baby-tub. He's laughing. The infant looks confused
but calm.

c.) The whole family by the Christmas tree, following an orgy
of present-opening. ELLIE, about five, has a doll in each
hand. LOUIS and RACHEL are in pajamas. GAGE, about five
months, is lying in a drift of wrapping paper. He looks.

d.) A child's sneaker lying in the road. It's splashed with
blood.

e.) GAGE -- he's about nine months old in his nap -- is
propped up in the angle of a sofa. There's a big white rabbit
in his lap. GAGE looks c. but c.

f.) ELLIE and GAGE, bundled up against the Chicago winter.
ELLIE is pulling a child's chair-sled. GAGE is propped up in
the chair. He's about eleven months old in this snap. He's
laughing.

g.) The Orinco tanker, overturned on the far side of Route
15.

h.) This one has taken at GAGE'S first birthday party. He's
wearing a party-hat and looking at a birthday cake with a
single candle on it while LOUIS kisses one cheek and RACHEL
kisses the other.

i.) LOUIS, in the road. He's holding GAGE'S jumper, which is
torn, blood-soaked, and inside-out. LOUIS is looking up
toward the sky and screaming.

j.) Here is a full-face studio portrait of GAGE. He is
smiling at us, heartbreakingly lovely. While THE CAMERA HOLDS
on this, we hear:

			JUD (V.O.)
	Sedative finally took hold.
	Rachel's asleep.

INT. THE KITCHEN TABLE WITH LOUIS - NIGHT

He's holding the studio portrait (j.) In his hands and
looking at it fixedly. The other photoes (the good ones, that
is; not the screamers -- those we may assume exist only in
LOUIS' tortured memory) are scattered on the table. We only
saw a few; there are actually hundreds.

LOUIS puts the portrait down as JUD comes in and crosses to
the fridge and gets a couple of beers.

			JUD
	Your father-in-law and his wife
	ain't stayin' here, I see.

			LOUIS
	No... squatting out there at the
	Holiday Inn like a couple of
	vultures. He wants Rachel to go
	back with them after the funeral.
	Her and Ellie.

			JUD
	Louis --

The swing door opens and ELLIE walks in looking dazed and
shocked. There are brown circles under her eyes, but
otherwise her complexion is much too white. She's wearing
fuzzy pj's. She's carrying the picture of her pulling GAGE on
the sled.

			ELLIE
		(coming to the table)
	I want to go back to my own room. I
	can't sleep with mommy. She keeps
	stealing the covers.

			JUD
	What you got there, Ellie?

At first she doesn't want to show him, but JUD is very kind.

			JUD
		(studying it)
	Why, that's real nice... you
	pullin' him on a sled. Bet he liked
	that, didn't he?

ELLIE nods. She is starting to cry. JUD is also leaking at
the eyes.

			ELLIE
		(crying)
	I used to pull 'im a lot.

LOUIS looks down at his hands, nods.

			ELLIE
	I'm gonna carry this picture, Mr.
	Crandall, until God lets GAGE come
	back.

JUD reacts violently. And LOUIS looks up, dully curious...
but hasn't the thought already passed through LOUIS' mind?
Yes -- I think it has.

			JUD
	Ellie... God doesn't do things like
	that. I know you loved your
	brother, but --

			ELLIE
	He can if he wants to. He can do
	anything, just like Inspector
	Gadget on TV. I have to keep his
	things ready for him, that's what I
	think. I've got this picture and
	I'm gonna sit in his chair --

			LOUIS
	Ellie --

			ELLIE
	-- and I'm gonna eat his breakfast
	cereal, too, even though it tastes
	like boogers. And... and...

She bursts into tears.

			JUD
	Louis, take care of your little
	girl... she needs you.

LOUIS' face is stricken. As THE CAMERA HOLDS on him, we hear:

			IRWIN GOLDMAN (V.O.)
	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.

INT. A FUNERAL CHAPEL WITH IRWIN GOLDMAN AND LOUIS - DAY

There are others in the background, all concentrating on the
scene the old man is making. LOUIS looks terribly shattered
(they both do, actually). He's staring at RACHEL'S father as
if he cannot in the least comprehend what he's saying.

			IRWIN (CONT'D)
	And now look at this!

He gestures toward the front of the chapel where, half-buried
in floral tributes, is a child-sized coffin. GAGE'S.

			IRWIN
		(weeping)
	Run over in the road like a... a
	chipmunk! I hope you rot in hell!
	In hell, do you hear me?

Everyone can hear him; by now he's screaming his head off.

			IRWIN
	Where were you while he was playing
	in the road? Thinking about your
	stupid medical articles? You
	stinking shit! You killer of
	children! You --

But there is now way IRWIN can express his outrage with more
words. As LOUIS stares numbly at him, IRWIN punches him in
the nose. LOUIS, taken off guard, sprawls backward, falling
over a pew onto the floor.

RACHEL and her mother, DORY, are at the rear of the chapel.
RACHEL screams and starts forward. DORY pulls her back.

			RACHEL
	Louis! Daddy! Stop it! STOP IT!

LOUIS starts to get up groggily. His nose is pouring blood.

			IRWIN
	How do you like that you son of a
	bitch? I should have done it
	sooner!

IRWIN kicks him in the stomach. LOUIS "oofs" and doubles
over. Among the other mourners we see STEVE MASTERSON and
MARCY CHARLTON.

			STEVE
	Hey!

LOUIS is slowly straightening up. IRWIN, in a sour frenzy of
glee, hauls back to kick him again, but when the foot comes
forward, LOUIS grabs it and pushes with both hands. IRWIN
goes stumbling and falling backwards... strikes the coffin...
knocks it off its bier. A SCREAM goes up from the mourners.

The coffin hits the floor with a huge crash. The latch snaps
and the lid pops partially open. Inside, LOUIS can see -- in
that split instant before the lid slams shut again -- a flash
of gray (GAGE'S suit) and a bit of pink (GAGE'S hand).

RACHEL screams. Her mother struggles to hold her but she
easily breaks free and goes down the aisle.

			MARCY CHARLTON
		(to Steve)
	Stop them. Right now.

STEVE charges toward the front of the chapel where IRWIN is
picking himself out of a tangled mass of coffin and
overturned floral tributes. His suit is wet from spilled
water. He's weeping loudly now. LOUIS leaps off the floor to
attack the man. That stunned look is gone. STEVE MASTERSON
gets between them as the last possible moment.

			STEVE
	Stop it! Jesus, what's wrong with
	you, LOUIS? It's your son's
	funeral!

This gets to LOUIS. He drops his first. That stunned
expression creeps over his face again -- that look that says
he doesn't have the slightest clue a to what's going on or
how it could possibly have happened.

LOUIS turns toward the front pew. IRWIN shuffles toward him,
hands outstretched.

			IRWIN
	I don't know what happened to me,
	Louis, please --

LOUIS brushes by him with no acknowledgement that IRWIN even
exists. He kneels down slowly by the coffin and puts his head
against it. RACHEL steps up and stands over her husband for a
moment. DORY comes up behind her and RACHEL turns, falls into
her mother's arms, and weeps uncontrollably.

INT. ELLIE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT

LOUIS comes in with ELLIE in his arms. He puts her gently
into her bed and pulls the covers up. She's already mostly
asleep.

			LOUIS
		(kisses her)
	Good night, Ellie.

			ELLIE
	G'night daddy.

He starts to the door, but turns back when he hears ELLIE'S
voice.

			ELLIE
	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 stands at the door looking at her for a long time,
apparently thinking about this quite deeply.

			LOUIS
	Yes -- I suppose, you can. Good
	night, Ellie.

He steps out, closing the door. ELLIE, in some measure
comforted -- it may be poison comfort but she surely doesn't
know this -- turns over on her side to go to sleep. We can
see the picture of GAGE under her arm.

INT. THE CREED BEDROOM - NIGHT

LOUIS peaks in on RACHEL. He reacts first with surprise, then
a species of horrified disgust. CHURCH is crouched on
RACHEL'S sleeping form. LOUIS comes in and swats the cat a
good one.

			LOUIS
		(low snarl)
	Fuck off, hairball!

The cat hisses at him through a mouthful of fangs, its eyes
big green balls... and then it flees out the door.

RACHEL stirs and mutters thickly, then lies still again.
She's almost certainly doped to the gills. LOUIS bends over
and kisses her gently. Then he leaves the room and closes the
door behind him.

INT. THE UPSTAIRS HALL WITH LOUIS - NIGHT

His face wears an expression of "How's he get in there in the
first place?" The light in the hall is dim. LOUIS looks
around and a slight fear brushes the back of his neck. He
starts toward the stairs.

INT. THE STAIRS - NIGHT

It's really dark here. LOUIS starts down, not holding the
bannister.

CHURCH is there on one of the risers. LOUIS trips over it --
or did it trip him intentionally?

For a moment he's pinwheeling madly for balance, on the verge
of falling. He manages to save himself. The cat shoots down
the steps, runs across the dining room toward the kitchen.
LOUIS regains his equilibrium after a bit and continues on
down.

INT. THE CREED KITCHEN - NIGHT

JUS is letting himself in through the shed/garage door.
CHURCH darts pass his feet.

As LOUIS enters from the dining room, he finds JUD watching
the cat run off into the night.

			LOUIS
	Jud, I buried my son today and I'm
	very tired. I wonder if we could
	just --

			JUD
	You're thinkin' of things best not
	thought of, Louis.

			LOUIS
	I'm thinkin' about going to bed.

			JUD
	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
	What...? Jud, don't talk crazy.

			JUD
	Now you're thinkin' of putting him
	up there. Don't deny the thought
	hasn't crossed you mind, Louis.

LOUIS doesn't reply, but his body language changes, and his
thought change, too. He's no longer thinking of going to bed.
JUD moves to a chair at the kitchen table and LOUIS doesn't
object.

			JUD
		(rhetorically, to himself)
	How far does its influence extend?

LOUIS watches the man's face in the dim light from the living
room.

			JUD
	You asked me if anyone had ever
	buried a person up there in the
	Micmac grounds. I lied to ya when I
	said no. It's been done. What
	you've been thinkin' of has been
	done.

EXT. A COUNTRY RAILROAD STATION (SEPIA) - DAY

The time is the late summer of 1944. The sign on the station
reads LUDLOW. There are a few 40's cars parked near the
station -- and a hearse. An UNDERTAKER is trying to talk to
BILL BATERMAN, a man in his forties. BILL walks away. He
doesn't want talk; he doesn't want comfort. He's grief
stricken, bitter man.

A train is pulling into the station.

			 JUD (V.O.)
	Timmy Baterman was on his way home
	from the war with his Purple Heart
	when he got killed in some stupid
	car accident down in Georgia. Bill
	was bitter -- his son survived the
	Japs only so he could get run down
	by some drunk salesman with a glass
	eye.

EXT. THE TRAIN - IN FRONT OF THE DEPOT (SEPIA) - DAY

The door of the mail-car opens. The UNDERTAKER and three
trainmen are unloading TIMMY BATERMAN'S coffin, which is
draped in a flag. BILL BATERMAN stands by, watching balefully
as they load his son into the back of the hearse.

The rear doors close. The hearse drives away. BILL stands
looking after it.

			JUD (V.O.)
	Bill Baterman was too bitter and
	too grief-stricken to get to the
	bottom of the truth.

INT. THE CREED KITCHEN WITH LOUIS AND JUD - NIGHT

LOUIS sits down now, still staring at JUD.

			LOUIS
	I'll bite -- what's the bottom of
	the truth, Jud?

			JUD
	Why... that sometimes dead is
	better. That's all. Sometimes dead
	is better.

			LOUIS
		(bitter)
	Tell to my wife and little girl.

			JUD
	It ain't your wife and little girl
	that's got me worried, Louis.

EXT. MARGIE WASHBURN ON HER PORCH (SEPIA) - DAY

She's a middle-aged woman dressed in mid-forties style. She's
got a rug-beater in one hand; the other is up to her eyes to
shade the sun. She's staring at something, horrified.

A young man dressed in jeans and a plaid shirt is shambling
up the road. His eyes are vacant. His shirt is half untucked.
His hair is sticking up in a wild crow's-nest thatch. There
is an ugly mess of healed scars on his neck and one side of
his face. I think one of his ears may be gone -- torn off by
the accident.

			JUD (V.O.)
	It was four or five days later when
	Margie Washburn seen him walking up
	the road toward Yorkie's Livery.

MARGIE WASHBURN begins screaming -- we hear her faintly.

He turns toward her and grins. He looks like a devil.

			JUD (V.O.)
	Lots of people saw Timmy Baterman
	walking back and forth between the
	home place and the town line. But
	it was Margie who finally went to
	some of the menfolks and said it
	had to be stopped. She knew it was
	an abomination.

EXT. THE BATERMAN PLACE (SEPIA) - SUNSET

It's a ramshackle old farm which looks remarkably like the
estate of that gentleman farmer Jordy Verrill. An old Ford
pulls into the driveway, and the four men get out.

SOUND BLEEDS IN: Most of all the SOUND OF THE CRICKETS.

They go to the door, and YOUNG JUD is wordlessly elected as
the prime honcho. He knocks. No answer. Again. No answer.

SOUND: Crazy laughter from inside the house.

			BILL BATERMAN (O.S.)
	Stop that, Timmy!

The four men look at each other.

			JUD
	Come on.

They start around to the back.

EXT. THE BACK YARD WITH BILL AND TIMMY (SEPIA)

TIMMY BATERMAN is staring directly into the setting sun, his
eyes glowing with green fire. He's laughing like Goofy gone
insane. BILL, scared, is trying to make him stop, to turn
away from the sun.

The four men come around the side of the house. They freeze
when they see BILL and TIMMY.

			ALAN
	Ohy holy Jesus lookit that.

BILL whirls around and sees them.

			BILL
	You men get out of here!

Now TIMMY also turns around and comes shambling forward.

			TIMMY
		(laughing)
	Ge ow! Ge Cwise off eye an!

			GEORGE
		(revolted)
	Oh Jesus, Jud! He's dead. I can
	smell him!

			BILL
		(screaming)
	GET OUT! YOU HEAR? GET OUT!!!

Abruptly TIMMY reaches up with both hands and scratches down
his cheek, goring deep grooves in his flesh. Blood flows
sluggishly out. Very weird looking blood.

			TIMMY
		(laughing)
	Dead! We love dead! Hate living!

BILL grabs TIMMY, who's still laughing wildly, and gets him
turned around. TIMMY shambles back to where he was originally
standing. BILL goes with him like a man who has charge over a
trained baboon. A stupid trained baboon.

			JUD
	God help you, Bill.

			BILL
		(snarls)
	God never helped me. I helped
	myself.

TIM goes back to staring directly into the setting sun and
laughing wildly, mindlessly.

INT. THE CREED KITCHEN WITH LOUIS AND JUD

			LOUIS
	What happened?

EXT. THE BATERMAN PLACE - NIGHT

We see legs and hands holding tin cans of gasoline. They
splash it from the cans along the sides of the house.

EXT. THE BATERMAN PORCH - NIGHT

YOUNG JUD rings the bell -- am old-fashioned twist type.

			BILL (O.S.)
	Who's there?

			TIMMY
		(laughing, screeching
		 voice)
	Ooo air? Ooo air?

			JUD
	Get out, Billy -- the place is
	going up.

He walks away. BILL BATERMAN wearing a strappy tee-shirt,
looks out the window.

EXT. A WALL OF THE BATERMAN PLACE - NIGHT

A match is struck... and applied to wet boards. Whoosh!

EXT. THE BATERMAN PLACE - NIGHT

Burning. Going up fast.

EXT. THE FRONT DOOR OF THE BATERMAN PLACE - NIGHT

It bursts open. We see two men struggling at the forefront of
an inferno -- correction, one man and an undead monster.
TIMMY is giggling and screaming, trying to pull his father
back into the flames.

			BILL
		(struggling)
	No! No, Timmy! Let me go!

			TIMMY
		(laughing)
	Love dead! Hate living!

He sinks his teeth into his father's arm. BILL screams. And
TIMMY pulls him back into the inferno.

EXT. THE FOUR MEN BY A 40'S STYLE CAR - NIGHT

They stare, horrified, the fire reflected on their faces.

EXT. THE BLAZINF FARMHOUSE - NIGHT

			TIMMY
		(faint, shrieking voice)
	Love dead! Hate living!

INT. THE KITCHEN WITH LOUIS AND JUD

			JUD
		(flatly)
	There was a fire, that's what
	happened. And that's all I got to
	say except that sometimes dead is
	better. Do you see, Louis, what I'm
	getting at? Do you understand?

			LOUIS
	You're saying the place knew Gage
	was going to die.

			JUD
	The place might have made Gage die
	because I introduced you to the
	power. I may have murdered you son,
	Louis.

						FADE TO BLACK.

And in the blackness, a sixth title card: THE DEAD WALK.

SOUND BLEEDS IN: JET ENGINES.

THE TITLE DISAPPEARS and the black FADES UP ON:

INT. AN AIRPORT BOARDING GATE WITH LOUIS AND RACHEL - DAY

			LOUIS
	This can be the start of patching
	things up with your folks. If
	something good doesn't come of
	Gage's death, I think I'll --

			GATE AGENT
	Final call for United's flight 61
	to Chicago. All passengers should
	now be on board.

			LOUIS
	Better get goin', hon.

He guides her over toward the jetway where DORY and IRWIN
GOLDMAN are waiting with ELLIE. We CUT IN CLOSER in time to
hear:

			ELLIE
	I don't want to go to Chicago,
	gramma Dory.

			DORY
	Why not, darling?

			ELLIE
	I had a bad dream last night. A
	nightmare.

			IRWIN
		(kindly)
	About what?

			ELLIE
	About Daddy. And Gage...
		(pause)
	And some named Paxcow.

Luckily -- or unluckily -- LOUIS doesn't hear this. He
arrives just too late with RACHEL on his arm.

			LOUIS
	Come on, you guys -- before you
	miss the boat.

			IRWIN
	Louis, I an sorry. What can I say?
	That I lost my mind? It's the truth
	but no good excuse.

			LOUIS
	We all lost our minds, Irwin.

LOUIS kisses RACHEL. Then he kneels and hugs ELLIE.

			LOUIS
	Be good to your mother, darlin'.

			ELLIE
	Come with us, daddy. Please come
	with us!

			LOUIS
	I'll be there in three days -- four
	at the most. I've gotta get the
	electricity shut off and square
	things with your school so the
	truant officer ain't after you, and-

			ELLIE
	Please, daddy! I'm scared!

			LOUIS
	Of what?

			ELLIE
	I don't know.

			LOUIS
	Everything's going to be alright,
	Ellie.

			ELLIE
	Do you swear?

			LOUIS
	I swear.

The voice of authority has spoken. We can tell by ELLIE'S
face that while things are still not right, they are a little
better.
She joins the others and the four of them, RACHEL, ELLIE and
THE GOLDMANS, start down the jetway. ELLIE looks back once...
and then they're gone.

LOUIS' face changes. Now it's a stony, contemplative face.
Not, when you get right down to it, a very nice face. He
turns and strides away.

EXT. THE AIRPORT PARKING LOT WITH LOUIS - DAY

We hear the SOUND of jet engines. LOUIS reaches the station
wagon. He turns and watches, as he did once before, while a
United Airlines 727 lifts into view and banks away. Face set,
LOUIS gets into the wagon and drives off.

EXT. MAIN STREET IN BREWER (A NEIGHBORING TOWN) - DAY

The CREEDmobile pulls up across from the Brewer Tru-Value
Hardware and LOUIS gets out, crosses the street, and enters
the store.

INT. THE HARDWARE STORE - DAY

On the counter: a six-cell flashlight, Duracell D-batteries,
a pick, a shovel, and a nylon drop-sheet in cellophane
packaging. Now the CLERK drops a pair of heave work gloves
onto the pile.

			CLERK
	Anything else for you today?

			LOUIS
	I think we got it all.

			CLERK
	Looks like heavy work.

			LOUIS
	It could be.

The quality of LOUIS' reply is somehow unnatural. The CLERK
looks at him, momentarily unsure, then starts ringing things
up.

INT. THE UNITED JETLINER WITH ELLIE AND RACHEL - DAY

RACHEL is holding a paperback but not reading it. Her eyes
are red. She's looking into space.

THE CAMERA DRIFTS TO ELLIE. She's in the window seat,
asleep... but her sleep is not easy. Her head turns from side
to side, as if in negation. She starts to mutter. Suddenly
her eyes flare open and she screams.

THE GOLDMANS, in the seats behind the CREEDS, are startled.
So are other passengers. A stewardess comes running.

			ELLIE
	Paxcow says it's almost too late!

			RACHEL
	Ellie... Ellie, what...

			ELLIE
	Paxcow says it's almost too late!
	We have to go back! Paxcow says
	it's almost too late!

EXT. LUDLOW CEMETERY - EVENING

The CREED wagon turns in and drives up one of the lanes. It
stops and LOUIS gets out. He walks to a fresh grave on which
the first flowers are already starting to wilt. He sits down
and plucks a flower. Holding it in a trembling hand, he looks
at the grave steadily.

			LOUIS
	It's wrong.
		(pause)
	What happened to you is wrong.

			PASCOW (V.O.)
	Remember, doc.

LOUIS looks around. VICTOR PASCOW, bloody and mutilated, is
standing beside a nearby tomb.

			PASCOW
	The barrier was not meant to be
	crossed. The ground is sour.

LOUIS is not put out of contenance in the slightest by
PASCOW'S appearance; he probably knows PASCOW is just a
figment of his conscience or imagination, and so do we.

			LOUIS
	I'll tell you where the ground is
	sour -- the ground in my heart is
	sour. Let me tell you something
	else, Vic-baby; Wrong is wrong.

LOUIS looks back down at the grave. He starts to cry.

			LOUIS
	He was my son! He wasn't even two
	and he was run down in the fucking
	road and he was almost in pieces.
	And if don't think I'm going to
	try...

He looks back up at the tomb, but PASCOW is gone. LOUIS
starts to cry harder. Abruptly he reaches out at the floral
tributes and knocks a bunch of them over. He talks to himself
now.

			LOUIS
	If it doesn't work -- if he comes
	back like Jud said Timmy Baterman
	was -- I'll put him back to sleep.
	And they don't even need to know.
	Rachel and Ellie never need to
	know, I've got to try.

EXT. THE GOLDMAN HOUSE IN LAKE FOREST, ILLINOIS - NIGHT

We might recognize the place from RACHEL'S account of her
sister, ZELDA. Crickets chirp here, but they're not the same,
maddening crickets that we hear in Ludlow.

INT. THE GOLDMANS' UPSTAIRS HALL - NIGHT

THE CAMERA MOVES SLOWLY along this hallway, which is lined
with pictures of RACHEL, ELLIE... and GAGE (there may even be
a couple in which LOUIS is featured, but damned few). Near
the end of the hall a door is open and light is spilling out.

			RACHEL (V.O.)
	Honey, you just had a bad dream.
	You know that, don't you?

			ELLIE (V.O.)
	It wasn't a dream. It was Paxcow.

THE CAMERA GOES THROUGH THE OPEN DOORWAY and into the room
where ELLIE is staying. She's in bed, badly upset. RACHEL is
sitting beside her. There's a single lamp lit on the bedside
table.

			ELLIE
	Paxcow says Daddy's going to do
	something really bad. He --

			RACHEL
	Who is this Pax Cow? Is he like the
	boogeyman?

			ELLIE
	He's a ghost. But he's a good
	ghost. He says he was sent to warn
	us.
	He says he's near daddy because
	they were together when his soul
	was dis -- dis -- I can't remember!

ELLIE starts to wail, frustrated and frightened. RACHEL holds
her.

			RACHEL
	There are no ghosts, Ellie. I want
	you to go to sleep and forget all
	this nonsense.

ELLIE calms down some. RACHEL lays her down gently, tucks up
the covers, leans over and turns off the bed-lamp.

			ELLIE
	Will you ar least call and make
	sure daddy's okay?

			RACHEL
	Of course I will.

She kisses her daughter, gets up and leaves the room.

INT. THE UPSTAIRS HALLWAY - NIGHT

PASCOW is here, halfway down the hall of the stairs, bloody
as ever. RACHEL doesn't see him. She stops beside him,
though. He makes her stop, I think. She looks perplexed... a
woman trying to think of something.

			RACHEL
	Pax-cow. Why do I know that --

			PASCOW
	Pascow.

RACHEL suddenly straightens. She looks startled and afraid.

			RACHEL
	Pascow? Was she saying Pascow?

			ELLIE
		(voice in Rachel's mind)
	He said he was near daddy because
	they were together when his soul
	was dis -- dis --

			PASCOW
	Discorporated.

RACHEL suddenly bolts for the stairs.

EXT. THE CREED HOUSE IN LUDLOW - NIGHT

It's dark; no lights. A beat of silence. Then the TELEPHONE
STARTS RINGING.

INT. THE GOLDMAN LIVING ROOM - NIGHT

IRWIN and DORY are watching RACHEL with some anxiety. RACHEL
is holding the phone to her ear. We can hear the FILTERED
SOUND of one ring after another. She hangs up.

			RACHEL
	He's not home.

			DORY
	Probably went out for a hamburger
	or a chicken dinner, dear. You know
	how men are when they're alone.

RACHEL is dialing another number.

INT. THE CRANDALL KITCHEN WITH JUD - NIGHT

The PHONE STARTS TO RING and JUD shuffles over from the
fridge with a bottle of beer. He picks up.

			JUD
	Hello -- you got Judson.

INT. THE GOLDMAN LIVING ROOM WITH RACHEL - NIGHT

			RACHEL
	It's Rachel Creed, Jud. I'm calling
	from Chicago.

			JUD (V.O.)
		(filtered)
	Chicago! Is Louis with you?

			RACHEL
	No... we're going to be here a
	while. He needed a few days to
	close things up back there. I just
	wondered if he was with you.

INT. THE CRANDALL KITCHEN WITH JUD - NIGHT

His face says this very seriously.

			JUD
	No -- but if he drops by, I'll tell
	him to call you.

INT. THE GOLDMAN LIVING ROOM WITH RACHEL - NIGHT

			JUD
	No -- but if he drops by, I'll tell
	him to call you.

INT. THE GOLDMAN LIVING ROOM WITH RACHEL - NIGHT

			RACHEL
		(making up her mind)
	Don't bother. I'm coming home.

			JUD (V.O.)
		(filtered)
	Rachel!
		(alarmed)
	NO! You don't want to do th --

			RACHEL
	I have to do it, Jud. Goodbye.

She hangs up.

INT. THE CRANDALL KITCHEN WITH JUD - NIGHT

			JUD
	Rachel! Rachel --!

The BUZZ of an open line. Connection broken. JUD slowly
replaces the receiver. The man looks very grim.

INT. THE FRONT HALL OF THE GOLDMAN HOUSE - NIGHT

RACHEL comes down the stairs, dressed for travelling. She's
carrying a tote-bag in one hand. Her parents meet her at the
loot of the stairs.

			DORY
	Rachel, darling... you're upset...
	a night's sleep...

			RACHEL
	I have to go. The connections are
	tight and I have to be at O'Hare in
	forty minutes. Will you drive me,
	daddy?

			IRWIN
	Maybe I ought to say no. I think I
	might have a responsibility to put
	a stop to this craziness.

			ELLIE
	Don't you dare!

They all look up. ELLIE is coming down the stairs.

			ELLIE (CONT'D)
	It's not crazy! It's NOT!

RACHEL moves a few steps up and takes ELLIE in her arms. THE
GOLDMANS look at them, now getting a little nervous
themselves.

			DORY
	Go ahead and drive her, Irwin. It's
	what she wants.

			ELLIE
	Please hurry.

			RACHEL
	I will. Kiss me.

ELLIE does, with trembling lips.

INT. THE GOLDMAN CAR WITH RACHEL AND IRWIN - NIGHT

They're speeding along on one of Chicago's freeways.

			IRWIN
	I'll come with you if you want.

			RACHEL
		(shakes her head)
	I've got three planes to catch and
	I got the last seats on two of
	them. It's like God saved them for
	me.

EXT. O'HARE AIRLINES TERMINAL - NIGHT

IRWIN'S car heads toward "DEPARTURES".

EXT. LUDLOW CEMETERY - NIGHT

A quiet city of the dead. Spooky. SOUND of crickets: Ree-ree
ree-ree...

At the grave of GAGE CREED, LOUIS sets down his grave-robbing
equipment. He tosses aside the remaining floral tributes and
takes up his newly bought spade. He looks down for a long
second.

			LOUIS
		(low)
	Gonna bust you out, son.

He starts to dig.

CLOSE ON the shovel. Digging... throwing... digging again.
Already the shape of the excavation is beginning to show. The
work is easy; this earth is new and fresh.

EXT. A RUNWAY AT O'HARE - NIGHT

A United jetliner in a lineup of jetliners.

INT. THE UNITED JETLINER WITH RACHEL - NIGHT

Everyone looks impatient, but RACHEL looks half crazy.

			PILOT (O.S.)
	This is the Captain speaking. I'm
	sorry about this delay, folks, but
	we've got a real low ceiling to
	night and air traffic control's
	playing it safe. I'm gonna turn off
	the NO SMOKING sign till we get
	clearance.

SOUND: Bing! There's a general groan. RACHEL has closed her
eyes. I think she's praying.

EXT. GAGE'S GRAVE - NIGHT

Now it's pretty deep. Four feet, maybe. LOUIS is standing in
it. We see his feet as the shovel goes up and down, up and
down.

LOUIS is sweating and streaked with dirt. Suddenly, as he
spears for another shovelful from the grave, we hear a
SCRAPING SOUND. He tosses the shovel aside and squats.
There's a white streak at the bottom of the grave-the top of
GAGE'S coffin. LOUIS swipes a hand through the loose dirt,
uncovering more, then he begins to sweep off -the top of the
coffin with both hands.

INT. THE CRANDALL PORCH - NIGHT

JUD comes out wearing a light jacket. He's got a six-pack. He
looks at:

EXT. THE CREED HOUSE, JUD'S P.O.V. – NIGHT

It's still dark over there across the road. A truck blows
past.

INT. THE CR.ANDALL PORCH WITH 3UD NIGHT

He sits down in his ladderback rocker.

			JUD
	You-done it, you stupid old man...
	Now you got to undo it.

He cracks a beer. Lights a cigarette. And begins to watch.

EXT. GAGE'S GRAVE WITH LOUIS - NIGHT

He climbs out of the hole and opens his duffle bag. He starts
to pull out the new pick but he's stopped by:

The SOUND of an approaching car.

LOUIS freezes.

A police car comes cruising slowly along. The spotlight on
the driver's side comes on and runs along the graveyard's
stone wall. LOUIS watches, waiting, hardly breathing.

The police car reaches the end of the wall. Everything looks
jake. The spotlight goes out and the car speeds up. LOUIS
relaxes perceptibly. He takes the pick and drops back into
the grave.

He inserts the tip of the pick under the flange of the coffin
and levers it. CRACKING SOUND. Again. More CRACKING. Again.
And the lock breaks. The coffin lid comes up a little, dirt
gritting at the hinges.

CLOSE ON LOUIS. Here's a man on the thinnest edge between
sanity and madness.

EXT. O'HARE RUNWAY - NIGHT

The United jetliner lifts off.

INT. THE JETLINER WITH RACHEL AND HER SEATMATE - NIGHT

			SEATMATE
	Think you'll make your connection
	in Boston?

			RACHEL
	I have to.

EXT. GAGE'S GRAVE WITH LOUIS - NIGHT

He's lying on his stomach, reaching in. We hear the SOUND of
dirt grating in hinges again.
We're looking up into LOUIS' face. If GAGE had a P.O.V., this
would be it. Suddenly the face fills with a terrible grief as
the lid clears and LOUIS can see his dead son.

			LOUIS
	Oh, Gage -- oh, honey.

INT. THE CRANDALL PORCH WITH JUD - NIGHT

His chin slips to h There's a long round ash on his cigarette
in the tray. A couple of empty beer cans on the table beside
him. Another truck blasts by, startling him out his doze. He
jerks his head up suddenly... and slaps himself. He's okay...
for now.

EXT. THE GRAVEYARD WITH LOUIS - NIGHT

He is sitting on the edge of the open grave, holding his dead
son in his arms, rocking him. GAGE is back to us. We see only
a small, limp figure in a gray suit. Hair flops limply.

			LOUIS
	It's going to be alright... I swear
	it's going to be alright.

The nylon drop-cloth is spread open to the right. LOUIS lays
his son down on it.

CLOSE ON the ground beside the cloth. It's littered with
flower petals. One limp two-year-old hand appears among them.

LOUIS closes the cloth over GAGE, making a roll. He then
produces a rope from the duf fie bag. He cuts the rope and
begins to tie one piece around one end of the roll.

INT. THE GOLDMAN HOUSE IN LAKE FOREST - NIGHT

THE CAMERA IS PULLING BACK through the upstairs hall where
all those picture s were hung earlier. We might notice 'than
now those pictures are gone. The furnishings are different,
too. What we see now is what we saw when RACHEL told her
story about ZELDA.

RACHEL appears at the top of the stairs, dressed the way she
was dressed on the jetliner a moment ago... what's going on
here?

She moves slowly down the hall, gaining on THE CAMERA.

A door is open, and a dim light comes from within. It's the
bedroom where RACHEL comforted ELLIE earlier... the back
bedroom... the bedroom where ZELDA died.

RACHEL reaches the open doorway and looks inside.

ZELDA is on the bed, hideous, deformed, her face black as it
was when she choked to death.

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

			PILOT (V.O.)
	Good evening again, ladies and
	gentlemen...

INT. THE JETLINER WITH RACHEL – NIGHT

She snaps awake, terrified. He SEATMATE is knitting something
beside her. Across the aisle sits VICTOR PASCOW, bloody but
serene, hands clasped in his lap, looking straight ahead.
RACHEL doesn't see him, neither, mercifully, does any one
else.

			PILOT
	We've had a strong tailwind and we
	expect to arrive at Boston's Logan
	Airport almost on time.

PASCOW clenches his fist in a "That's one for our side."
gesture.

			RACHEL
		(softly)
	Thank God.

Her SEATMATE looks at her a bit strangely.

EXT. THE GRAVEYARD WITH LOUIS – NIGHT

He's got the bundle containing his son and the duffle bag
with the tools. He's running, bent over. He reaches the stone
wall and is stopped by the SOUND of another motor. He
freezes.

Here comes that same police car, its spotlight running along
the wall on the other side. LOUIS crouches against the
graveyard side of the wall, expecting the car to drive on as
it did before... but it stops.

A COP gets out and walks slowly this way... right toward the
spot where LOUIS is crouching. The COP looks over the top of
the wall... if he looks down... but he doesn't. Instead he
turns around so we see his back. LOUIS looks up, miserably
scared, pouring sweat.

Silence. Then: SOUND of the COP taking a whizz. The COP'S
body reads "Ah! Relief." Another SOUND: his fly being zipped.
He looks back at the cemetery for a moment.

			COP
	I ain't afraid of no ghosts.

He walks back to his cruiser, gets in, and hauls ass.

LOUIS gets up and looks cautiously over the wall. Nothing
there but the CREEDmobile, parked a little way down on the
other side of the road. LOUIS tosses the duffel bag over and
gently puts the nylon roll containing GAGE on top of the
wall. He vaults to the other side.

EXT. THE STREET SIDE OF THE WALL WITH LOUIS – NIGHT

He gathers up the roll, gets the duffle bag hooked over his
shoulder, and runs across the road like a soldier crossing
enemy territory. He goes to the rear of the wagon.

He puts the body down and feels in his pocket for his keys.
No keys. Mild consternation. He looks around, feeling
exposed. The other pocket. Still no keys. More consternation.
He begins to hunt feverishly through all his pockets, pants
and jacket. Nope.

SOUND: An approaching car.

LOUIS sees that it's a civilian not the ubiquitous COP. The
car rolls past, its radio blasting. The teenagers inside
never see anything.

LOUIS turns his pockets out, now, spilling change everywhere.
No keys. Suddenly a little light goes on in his eyes. He goes
to the driver's side door and looks in at:

INT. IGNITION, LOUIS' P.O.V. – NIGHT

The keys are in the switch.

EXT. LOUIS – NIGHT

He snatches the keys and returns to the back of the wagon. He
unlocks the doorgate. He puts GAGE'S body carefully inside,
then the duffle bag. He closes the doorgate and returns to
the front of the car. He opens the driver's door and freezes.

He returns to the rear, gets his keys from the doorgate,
comes back to the front, gets in, and drives away.

INT. A JETWAY AT LOGAN INTERNATIONAL – NIGHT

People are debarking into the gate area. Through them comes
RACHEL, moving fast, pushing some people, excusing herself
incoherently. PASCOW is walking along beside her.

			PASCOW
	There's just time. If you run.

RACHEL doesn't see PASCOW, nor does she hear him... not with
her ears... she hears him in her mind. She takes off her
shoes and starts to run.

INT. THE CONCOURSE WITH RACHEL – NIGHT

She's sprinting down the concourse -- look out, O.J.

INT. GATE 27 WITH GATE AGENT AND PASCOW – NIGHT

The AGENT is starting to close the jetway door.

			PASCOW
	Don't do that, babe.

The AGENT looks puzzled, as if she's just had a thought (or
maybe a gas pain). She stops closing the door just as RACHEL
runs into the area.

Through the gate windows, RACHEL can see a jet plane starting
to swing ponderously away from the gate.

			RACHEL
	Make it come back!

			AGENT
	I can't -

RACHEL bolts down the jetway. The AGENT stares after her, and
then runs for her stand, where we can see FLIGHT 61 and
BANGOR on the slide-card. The AGENT picks up a microphone.

EXT. THE JETWAY – NIGHT

RACHEL stands all alone at the end of the giant chute.

AMPLIFIED SOUND of JET ENGINES.

			RACHEL
	COME BACK, MOTHERFUCKER!!!

Slowly, the big jet stops. It starts to swing back to pick
her up.

RACHEL is crying. PASCOW appears behind her and puts a hand
on her shoulder. She doesn't feel it.

			PASCOW
	You're doin' just fine.

INT. JUD CRANDALL ON HIS PORCH - NIGHT

He's fast asleep.

SOUND: An approaching car.

EXT. THE CREED HOUSE - NIGHT

The station wagon turns in and parks. LOUIS gets out. He
opens the back, removes the body and the duffle bag filled
with tools. He manages to get everything together and walks
to the edge of the side yard. He looks at:

EXT. THE PATH TO THE PET SEMATARY, LOUIS' P.O.V. – NIGHT

Off it goes, glimmering in the dark.

EXT. LOUIS – NIGHT

He hugs the wrapped corpse of his little boy to him.

			LOUIS
	Please, God -- let this work.

He sets off.

INT. JUD ON HIS PORCH – NIGHT

Zonked out. He missed the whole thing. Nice going, JUD.

EXT. THE ARCH TO THE PET SEMATARY - NIGHT

LOUIS passes under like a ghost.

EXT. INSIDE THE SEMATARY - NIGHT

LOUIS is crying as he moves through the crude markers and
crosses to.,

EXT. THE DEADFALL – NIGHT

			LOUIS
	Ain't gonna stop, Gage. Ain't gonna
	look down.

He begins to climb. Woven into the deadfall, facing the Pet
Sematary, is that snarling face. LOUIS doesn't see it because
he doesn't look down.

He reaches the top and stands there a moment looking into the
Big God Woods. The path winds onward through those gigantic
fir trees -- it glows slightly.

EXT. BIG GOD WOODS – NIGHT

LOUIS moves up the path, laboring under his load.

EXT. THE EDGE OF LITTLE GOD SWAMP WITH LOUIS - NIGHT

That phosphorescent glow is a lot more pronounced than it was
last time. SOUNDS of crickets and frogs. The water is mucky
and still. Hummocks stick up like knobs on the back of a
creature best not seen. Fog drifts through the dead trees.
LOUIS doesn't want to go in there.

But he does.

INT. AN AIRPORT HERTZ DESK WITH RACHEL, A CLERK -AND PASCOW –
NIGHT

			CLERK
	I'm sorry... it's been very busy
	tonight. I really don't have
	anything.

			PASCOW
	What about the Aries K with the
	scratch on the side?

Something dawns on the CLERK. She starts looking through her
papers.

			CLERK
	I do have an Aries K, but it came
	in sort of beat up -- there's a
	long scrape up one side –-

			RACHEL
	I'll take it.

EXT. LOUIS IN LITTLE GOD SWAMP – NIGHT

He comes walking toward THE CAMERA with GAGE in his arms and
the duffle bag over his shoulder. Mist swirls around him.
There are a lot of swampy, marshy SOUNDS now -- too many. It
sounds almost prehistoric.

Suddenly: HARSH, SCREAMING LAUGHTER.

LOUIS stops. He looks slowly around. A demonic face takes
shape in the mist and floats slowly toward THE CAMERA. It
runs a tongue out that's about nine feet long. It's eyes blow
out. Blood ann thick, gooey stuff runs from the empty
sockets.

LOUIS closes his eyes. After a moment he opens them. Nothing
there.

			LOUIS
	See? Just imagination.

EXT. DEEPER IN LITTLE GOD SWAMP – NIGHT

MYRIAD SOUNDS, none of them pleasant laughter, gobbling
howls, screams. Sound's like the swamp has been invaded by a
pack of escaped lunatics.

LOUIS enters frame. He's obviously tiring now, but he keeps
moving along.

SOUND: Approaching footsteps. Big ones. Thudding ones.
Something is coming which sounds approximately the size of a
Tyrannasaurus Rex. It keeps getting louder and louder and
louder. LOUIS looks plenty scared.

ANOTHER SOUND: A falling tree. And the footsteps get even
closer... closer...

A second tree falls -- we see this one. Then the footsteps
begin to fade.

EXT. LOUIS (A NEW ANGLE) – NIGHT

In the extreme foreground is the tree which has just fallen --
it's no small tree, either, but a great big old fir. LOUIS
approaches. Stops. Looks down at the forest floor.

Here's a gigantic animal track -- if it was full of water,
LOUIS cold swim in it. It looks like no animal track we've
ever seen before. Three big claws at the end of it.

LOUIS looks up again. His face is set and hard.

			LOUIS
	It doesn't matter. Come on, Gage.

He starts to walk again.

EXT. THE MICMAC BURYING GROUND – NIGHT

SOUND: The wind, lonesome, keening.

THE CAMERA MOVES SLOWLY over the top of the bluff, dreaming
its way over those rocky cairns... most of them burst apart.

SOUND: Tortured breathing. Panting.

LOUIS toils his way up the ancient stone steps and comes into
view, carrying his bundles. He reaches the top and makes his
way slowly into the burial ground. Before long, he stops,
looking down at...

... a broken cairn, and the grave beneath. We can see the
shredded remains of a green garbage bag.

LOUIS slowly kneels. He puts the nylon roll to one side and
wearily takes the pick and shovel from the duffel bag. By now
he is a man approaching total exhaustion.

INT. THE ARIES K. WITH RACHEL AND PASCOW – NIGHT

Both of them look tense. RACHEL is bolt upright behind the
wheel. Suddenly, BANG! as one of the tires blows.

EXT. A COUNTRY ROAD - NIGHT

The Aries K. goes skidding and slueing across the pave, the
left rear tire half off the rim. The car climbs the curb and
hits a tree.

INT. RACHEL – NIGHT

She lurches forward, but she's wearing her seat-belt -- good
girl! She unbuckles and gets out.

EXT. RACHEL BY THE WRECKED CAR – NIGHT

She looks at the little Aries, which now has quite a bit more
wrong with it than just a scratch up the side. She slumps,
near tears.

			RACHEL
	Now what?

PASCOW comes from behind the tree. He looks urgent and upset.

			PASCOW
	It's trying to stop you. Do you
	hear me? It's trying to stop you.

RACHEL looks around uncertainly... a little afraid. As she
scans the scene she looks at -- and through -- PASCOW.

			RACHEL
	Is anyone there?

After a moment of silence she turns back to the road. Lights
appear and brighten as a car approaches. RACHEL steps to the
shoulder and stick's out her thumb, surely for the first time
in her life.

The car sweeps by without slowing.

EXT. GAGE'S CAIRN – NIGHT

LOUIS puts the last rocks on the pile, rocks back on his
haunches and surveys his work. Beside him is the nylon drop
cloth, now open and empty. Absently, LOUIS stuffs the cloth
into the duffel bag (where his tools have also been replaced)
and stands up with a wince, one hand going to his lower back.
He looks down at the cairn.

			LOUIS
	Come back to me, Gage. Come back to
	us.

EXT. ANOTHER ROAD WITH RACHEL – NIGHT

She's walking down the shoulder with her three-quarter-heel
shoes in one hand, her tote bag in the other. She sees the
lights of another car coming up behind her. She turns, thumb
out. The car blasts by.

			RACHEL
		(shouts)
	MAY THE SEWERS OF RANGOON BACK UP
	IN YOUR BEDROOM, ASSHOLE!

She starts walking again.

EXT. THE FIELD BESIDE THE CREED HOUSE – NIGHT

LOUIS is moving down the path.

INT. THE CRANDALL PORCH – NIGHT

JUD is still fast asleep. A snore almost wakes him... but
doesn't.

INT. THE CREED GARAGE – NIGHT

LOUIS slings the duffel bag wearily to one side and goes into
the kitchen, shutting the door behind him. CHURCH is under
the station wagon, its eyes glowing.

INT. THE UPSTAIRS.HALL OF THE CREED HOUSE - NIGHT

SOUND of LOUIS plodding up the stairs. He comes into view,
dirty and exhausted, his hair hanging in his face. He walks
down the hall toward:

INT. THE MASTER BEDROOM – NIGHT

The clock on the bed table reads 2:17 A.M. LOUIS falls face
first on the immaculate bedspread and lies still.

(In this shot we should note that the closet door is standing
open.)

EXT. THE MICMAC BURYING GROUND, FEATURING GAGE'S CAIRN –
NIGHT

THE CAMERA MOVES SLOWLY IN. HOLDS. Nothing for a beat. Then a
small white hand slams up through the rocks, hopefully
scaring the living shit out of us. The hand begins to feel
around. It takes one of the rocks and pushes it aside.
Another. Another. Another.

The SOUNDS are not encouraging. It is GRUNTING and GROWLING.
There is nothing human here. Rocks begin to tumble on their
own as GAGE starts to come out of his grave.

EXT. ROUTE 15 WITH RACHEL - NIGHT

She's still trudging along on foot. But here comes another
vehicle. As the lights appear, RACHEL suddenly does a
Claudette Colbert, pulling her skirt up and exhibiting a very
lovely leg.

The lights -- it's an Orinco truck, naturally -- spotlight
her. The truck stops. The DRIVER leans over and opens the
passenger door.

			DRIVER
	Hop in, baby.

			RACHEL
	Thank you.

INT. THE CREED KITCHEN – NIGHT

Silence, then A SQUND: the doorlatch. GAGE is coming in from
the garage. Dead dry breath. Low snarling noises. Small feet
in dirty black shoes. Those shoes grit slowly along the
linoleum, leaving tracks. CHURCH, eyes glowing, follows
along.

INT. THE BEDROOM WITH LOUIS – NIGHT

CAMERA HOLDS ON LOUIS as those gritting footsteps approach.
Then IT PANS TO THE CLOSET AND MOVES IN TIGHT.

On the floor is LOUIS' little black bag. The footfalls near.
A small white hand enters frame and opens it. Both hands
search around inside and bring out a scalpel.

The GAGE-THING makes a contented SOUND.

EXT. THE ORINCO TRUCK ON ROUTE 15 – NIGHT

It sweeps past THE CAMERA.

INT. THE CAB WITH RACHEL AND THE DRIVER – NIGHT

			RACHEL
	Can't you go any faster?

			DRIVER
	Lady, I got nine points on my
	license right now.

			RACHEL
	I understand. It's just that -–

She looks at him, pleading. He speeds up.

			RACHEL (CONT'D)
	Thank you. If you only understood
	how important this is –

			DRIVER
	That's alright, babe. Only if we
	get stopped, next time I'll be the
	one hitchin' and you can give me a
	ride.

INT. THE CRANDALL PORCH WITH JUD – NIGHT

More deeply asleep than ever. Suddenly he straightens up ...
so suddenly he almost falls off his chair. Something startled
him, but what? A dream? Or something nearer? He collects his
senses. He looks across the road at:

EXT. THE CREED HOUSE – NIGHT

No lights on. No movement. Just the cricket SOUND.

INT. THE CRANDALL PORCH WITH JUD – NIGHT

He looks down and sees small muddy tracks on the porch floor.
They lead into the house through an open door which JUD had
closed earlier. He gets up and rushes inside.

INT. THE CRANDALL LIVING ROOM – NIGHT

JUD turns an the light and looks around, frowning. He hears
little SOUNDS, bumps, footfalls.

			JUD
		(sharply)
	Who's here?

He walks toward the door which gives on the hall.

			JUD (CONT'D)
	Somebody playin' games?

INT. THE HALL WITH JUD - NIGHT

It's dimly lit by light-spill from the living room. MORE
SOUNDS, from overhead this time. JUD follows them, climbing
the old wooden steps.

INT. JUD'S BEDROOM – NIGHT

JUD enters and looks around. It's dark in here but he can see
more of those muddy tracks and we can tell from his face that
he knows who it is that's come to call.

			JUD
	Gage? Are you the one playin'
	games?

Silence. He goes to the window and looks out at:

EXT. THE CREED HOUSE ACROSS ROUTE 15 - NIGHT

Quiet, still, dark.

INT. THE BEDROOM WITH JUD – NIGHT

He turns slowly around and walks toward the bed.

			JUD
	Gage? Come on out.

He reaches in his pocket and brings out a pocketknife. He
unfolds the blade p and it kicks light.

			JUD (CONT'D)
	I brought you something.

SOUND: Miaow!

JUD looks down. CHURCH is crouched in the doorway, green eyes
shining.

			JUD (CONT'D)
	How did you --?

A small hand holding a scalpel shoots out from beneath the
skirt of the bedspread and slashes JUD'S calf. He screams
with pain and staggers backward. The other hand shoots out,
grabs one of JUD'S ankles, and pulls. With a startled yell,
JUD falls. He loses his pocketknife.

The GAGE-THING lurches out from under the bed and we finally
see it. It should be clear to us that its really not GAGE at
all. Some demonic presence is riding inside the mouldering,
disfigured shell.

There is a struggle. JUD is repeatedly slashed with the
scalpel. GAGE screams and gibbers -- nothing intelligible;
only SOUNDS.

JUD expires.

GAGE sits on top of him... and bites into his throat.

EXT. ROUTE 15 BETWEEN THE CRANDALL AND THE CREED HOUSE –
NIGHT

Headlights. RACHEL'S 'truck has arrived. It pulls up on the
CRANDALL side of the road. RACHEL opens the passenger door
which faces JUD'S house and gets out.

Suddenly PASCOW is sitting in the passenger seat which RACHEL
just vacated.

			RACHEL
	Thank you so much.

			PASCOW
	Think nothing of it.

			DRIVER
	I didn't get a ticket, so you're
	welcome, lady.
		(And, more seriously)
	Whatever your problems are, I hope
	they work out.

			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.

			PASCOW
	I'm not.

She closes the door and steps away. The truck starts off with
a HISS OF RELEASED AIR BRAKES. As it pulls past her, RACHEL
hears:

			GAGE (V.O)
		(soft)
	Mummy!

She freezes. Her face wears a "did I hear that?" expression.
She looks over her shoulder at:

EXT. JUD'S HOUSE – NIGHT

The one place in the whole world we do not want RACHEL to go.

			GAGE (V.O)
		(soft)
	Mummy!

EXT. RACHEL – NIGHT

She walks up the paved walk and slowly climbs the steps to
the porch. She sets her tote-bag down on the top step and
opens the screen door. Of course, it creaks.

INT. THE PORCH WITH RACHEL – NIGHT

She looks very uncertain. This is the wee-hours of the
morning, and someone else's house. But... that voice....

			GAGE (V.O)
	Mummy, I need you!

RACHEL looks stunned -- rocked. She steps onto the porch and
the door slaps shut behind her.

The door to the living room is open. Inside she can see
CHURCH, sitting calmly in the shadows, watching with glowing
eyes.

			CHURCH
	Miaow!

			RACHEL
	Church!

She crosses to the open door.

INT. THE CRANDALL LIVING ROOM – NIGHT

As she steps inside, RACHEL can see that the cat's fur is
streaked with something dark... and red. CHURCH raises one
paw and licks it.

			RACHEL
	Jud?

The house gives back no answer. Only silence.

RACHEL is really alarmed now. She moves through the room and
into the hallway.

INT. THE HALL – NIGHT

Suddenly, there's a GROAN from upstairs, low and filled with
pain.

			RACHEL
	Jud? Are you up there?

The GROAN comes again and RACHEL runs up the stairs.

INT. UPSTAIRS HALL – NIGHT

She slows up when she reaches the top. She's never been up
here before and it's dark.

Another GROAN... from behind the second door on the right,
JUD'S bedroom, the back bedroom. RACHEL realizes that the
groaning isn't JUD'S at all. She recognizes the voice... and
so might we. It's the pained voice of her sister.

She approaches the door, staring all the while at the cut
glass doorknob. Her hand stretches out for it... and before
she can touch it, the door is snatched open from inside.

ZELDA stands there, hunched and twisted, her body so cruelly
deformed that she has actually become a dwarf, little more
than two feet high; and for some reason she's wearing the
suit they had buried GAGE in. But it's ZELDA, alright, her
eyes alight with an insane glee, her face a raddled purple.
It's ZELDA.

			ZELDA
	I finallv come back for vou Rachel.
	I'm going to twist your back like
	mine and vou'll never get out of
	bed again, never get out of bed
	again, NEVER GET OUT OF BED AGAIN!

RACHEL is frozen in spiraling, sickening horror as she sees
that...

Now ZELDA is gone. It's GAGE. His face isn't black but dirty,
smeared with blood, and swollen, as if he had been terribly
hurt and then put back together again by crude, uncaring
hands.

			GAGE
	I brought you something, Mommy!

He raises his hand high. The scalpel kicks light.

			GAGE (CONT'D)
	I brought you something, Mommv! I
	brought you something, I brought
	you something!

INT. THE CREED BEDROOM WITH LOUIS – MORNING

He's restless; having a bad dream, from the look. He rolls
back and forth. Closer and closer to the edge of the bed.
Finally, with a wild yell, he goes over onto the floor.

He comes awake. Sits up. Ouch! He's aches from top to bottom
and side to side, but his back is the worst. His hands go to
it.

			LOUIS
	Jesus!

He starts to get up very slowly and his eyes fix on GAGE'S
tracks on the bedroom floor. They enter the room, go to the
closet, then leave again.

			LOUIS (CONT'D)
	Gage --?

He scrambles for the closet, his aches and pains forgotten.
He stares in wildly. His doctor-bag lies open. LOUIS grabs
it. His original crazy hope is now tempered with the first
signs of fear. He goes through the bag and quickly finds a
little black case. The case is empty but the indented shape
is clear. There was a scalpel here once... but now it's gone.

			LOUIS (CONT'D)
	Oh my God.
		(pause)
	Gage!

INT. THE CREED KITCHEN WITH LOUIS – MORNING

He rushes in. There's nothing here. Suddenly the PHONE RINGS
and LOUIS almost jumps out of his skin reaching for it.

			LOUIS
	Hello!

			IRWIN GOLDMAN (V.O)
		(filtered)
	Hello, Louis -- it's Irwin. I just
	wanted to be sure Rachel got back
	alright.

As IRWIN says this, LOUIS' eyes fix on the floor. There are
two sets of GAGE-tracks, one coming in from the shed/garage
and the other going back out. In his face we suddenly see
that LOUIS understands everything... or almost everything.

			IRWIN (V.O.)
		(filtered)
	Louis ... are you there?

			LOUIS
		(slowly)
	Yes -- I'm here.

			IRWIN (V.O.)
		(filtered)
	Did she get there alright?

			LOUIS
	Yes, she's fine.

			IRWIN (V.O.)
		(filtered)
	Well, put her on at that end and
	I'll put Ellie on at this one.
	Ellie's very worried about her
	mother.
		(pause)
	She's almost in hysterics.

			LOUIS
	She... Rachel's asleep.

			IRWIN (V.O.)
		(filtered; an edge in his
		 voice now)
	Then I suggest you wake her up.
	Ellie... she had a dream that her
	mother was dead.

			LOUIS
	I'll call you right back.

			IRWIN (V.O.)
		(filtered)
	Louis --!

But LOUIS, whose last responses have been almost trancelike,
hangs up. He follows the tracks to the shed/garage door and
looks out.

The PHONE STARTS TO RING AGAIN. LOUIS, looking extremely
upset, comes back and picks it up.

			LOUIS
	Irwin, you'll just have to -–

			GAGE (V.O.)
		(filtered)
	I'm at Jud's, daddy. Will you come
	over and play with me?

LOUIS is dumbfounded... slack-mouthed with terror.

			LOUIS
		(a bare whisper)
	Gage?

			GAGE (V.O)
		(filtered)
	Mommy already came. We played,
	daddy. First I played with Jud and
	then mommy came and I played with
	mommy. We had an awful good time.
	Now I want to play with you.

GAGE begins to giggle... a really awful sound.

			LOUIS
	What did vou do? What did vo -–

CLICK! The GAGE-THING hangs up, still giggling.

INT. THE CREED BEDROOM – MORNING

LOUIS plops the doctorbag down on the bed and roots through
it. He comes up with three syringes, still wrapped in paper.
Then he roots around some more and comes up with several
ampoules. He holds one up for inspection.

We can read the word MORPHINE on it very clearly.

He carries the things over to the window where he begins
filling the syringes (using two ampoules for each syringe --
i.e., enough to kill a polar bear). He looks out the window
at:

EXT. THE CRANDALL HOUSE ACROSS ROUTE 15 – MORNING

He goes back to filling the syringes.

			LOUIS
	What you buy is what you own, and
	sooner or later what you own comes
	home to you. Wasn't that what you
	said, Jud? Wasn't that pretty much
	it?

LOUIS is going slowly insane. What remains of his rationality
is like a rapidly fraying rope. His hair has gone partially
white.

EXT. THE FRONT DOOR OF THE CREED HOUSE – MORNING

LOUIS comes out the door. In one hand he's got a raw pork
chop. In the other he's carrying a pair of Playtex rubber
gloves. He walks to the soft shoulder of Route 15 and waits
for an Orinco truck to pass. Then he crosses.

EXT. THE CRANDALL WALK WITH LOUIS AND CHURCH – MORNING

LOUIS walks most of the way to the house, then stops. CHURCH
gets up, humping his back warily.

			LOUIS
	Hi, Church. Want some grub?

He losses the pork chop onto the grass. CHURCH hurries over,
sniffs it, and starts to chow down. He looks up at LOUIS, who
is pulling the rubber gloves onto his hands.

			LOUIS (CONT'D)
	Don't mind me. Eat it while vou
	can. Eat all you want.

CHURCH goes back to worrying the chop. Smack-smack-smack.
LOUIS finishes with the gloves, gets one of the loaded
syringes out of his breast pocket, holds it up, squirts a
drop out of the tip, then moves toward the cat.

CHURCH looks up. LOUIS stops moving. CHURCH eats again. LOU15
moves closer. All the time he talks to the cat in a voice
that tries to be soothing.

			LOUIS
	Eat all you can... all you want...
	that's right... todav's
	Thanksgiving for cats, but only if
	they came back from the dead...

LOUIS grabs CHURCH. It begins to squall and fight but LOUIS
holds on.

			LOUIS (CONT'D)
	No you don't.

The syringe plunges into CHURCH'S haunch. The dose is
injected. LOUIS drops the cat to the ground. The needle is
still dangling out of its haunch. It looks dazed. It tries to
walk and falls over on its side. It tries to get up... and
then falls over again.

			LOUIS (CONT'D)
	Go on. Lie down. Play dead. Be
	dead.

LOUIS walks to the porch steps and sees RACHEL'S tote bag.
Any doubt he might have allowed himself the luxury of having
is erased by the initials -- R.C., same as the cola.

Twang! one of the few remaining strands of sanity has now
parted.

INT. THE CRANDALL PORCH – MORNING

LOUIS climbs the steps and comes in. He strips off the rubber
gloves. He tosses them onto the table beside JUD'S beer cans
as he moves inside the house.

INT. THE CRANDALL LIVING ROOM WITH LOUIS – MORNING

LOUIS moves through warily, and into the hall.

INT. THE CRANDALL HALL WITH LOUIS – MORNING

It's dark in here, and spooky.

			LOUIS
	Rachel?
		(pause)
	Jud?
		(longer pause)
	Gage?

No answer. He looks down and sees one of RACHEL'S shoes lying
by the foot of the stairs. He goes over and picks it up. It's
a three-quarter-heel, and it's pretty badly scuffed. There's
a spot of blood on it.

SOUND: A low giggle.

LOUIS looks up the stairs. Mighty dark. Mighty shadowy.

SOUND: Another giggle.

			LOUIS (CONT'D)
	Gage?

			GAGE (V.O.)
	Let's play, daddy! Let's play hide
	and go seek!

			LOUIS
	Alright, Gage... let's.

LOUIS takes another of those loaded syringes from his pocket
and begins to climb the stairs.

INT. UPSTAIRS WITH LOUIS – MORNING

LOUIS arrives on the landing. We begin the nerve-wracking
business of checking rooms. First, the bathroom... where the
shower curtain is of course pulled. LOUIS yanks it back.
Nothing.

Next the linen closet. Nothing. A guest room, shadowy and
empty. Another closet. A bag falls off the top shelf, and a
bunch of ceramics inside it SHATTER LOUDLY. LOUIS flinches
back.

Now he's at JUD'S room. He goes in.

INT. JUD'S BEDROOM WITH LOUIS – MORNING

He steps around the bed and sees... a bloodstain. He gets
down on his hands and knees to investigate. He is quite close
to the skirt on the bedspread. He lifts it....

... he is nose to nose with JUD, who is dead with his eyes
wide open, an expression of incredible horror on his face.

The DOOR SLAMS.

LOUIS bolts to his feet as GIGGLES fade down the hall.

Slowly LOUIS kneels back down and speaks to the bedspead
skirt, which has mercifully fallen back into place.

			LOUIS
	I'm sorry, Jud. I'm sorry. I'm

There's a SQUEEKING, SQUEALING SOUND.

LOUIS gets up again. He starts for the door. Then he turns
back and speaks to JUD one last time.

			LOUIS (CONT'D)
	I'm going to set things back in
	order. I... I know just what to do.

He goes out.

INT. THE UPSTAIRS HALL WITH LOUIS – MORNING

Clutching the syringe in his hand (one spare remains in the
pocket) he inches slowly through the shadows... past all
those doors.

			LOUIS
	Gage?

Another SQUEAKING SOUND. And another GIGGLE. LOUIS keeps
moving forward. He gets about halfway down the hall -- and
our nerves are tuned to the breaking point -- when there is a
SQUEALING CREAK and a GRATING THUMP from overhead.

It happens fast. A ceiling trapdoor drops open and RACHEL'S
body plunges down. It hangs, swinging, bound around the
armpits, a grotesque parody of MISSY DANDRIDGE. Half her face
is gone. Eaten.

LOUIS screams and backs against the wall. Twang! The last
silver thread of sanity parts.

GAGE leaps down from the trapdoor and lands on the floor
waving his scalpel.

			GAGE
		(screeching)
	Allee-allee-in-free! Allee-allee-in
	free! Allee-allee-in-free!

INT. LOUIS AND GAGE IN THE UPSTAIRS HALL – MORNING

I won't choreograph all the moves, but GAGE slashes his
stunned father up pretty badly, screeching the whole time.
LOUIS finally begins to react. He grapples with the little
critter and tries to get the syringe into him. No good. It
gets batted out of his hand. It breaks.

LOUIS and GAGE fall to the floor. LOUIS gets the last syringe
out of his pocket, but it's also knocked away. The only
consolation is that this one doesn't break. It rolls off
along the floor. LOUIS finally manages to get it again as the
struggle goes on, and plunges it into GAGE'S neck.

			GAGE
	No fair! NO FAIR!

GAGE gets to his feet, clawing for the needle lolling out of
his neck. He's lost all interest in his father. He goes
staggering away. He's slowing down. He goes to his knees...
and falls on his face.

LOUIS watches this and, when it's over, his vacant, half
catatonic gaze goes back to RACHEL'S body which swings slowly
back and forth in a shaft of morning sunshine.

EXT. THE BACK YARD OF THE CRANDALL HOUSE – DAY

Time has passed. It's late afternoon. LOUIS comes out with a
sheet-wrapped form in his arms. RACHEL, of course.

He sets the body down and goes back inside.

INT. THE CRANDALL KITCHEN WITH LOUIS – DAY

He's splashing around a can of coal oil. When he's got the
room wetted down to his satisfaction he goes to the door,
lights a match, and tosses it.

Flame runs across the floor. The fire is slow at first, but
it begins to gain rapidly. LOUIS goes out.

EXT. THE BACK YARD WITH LOUIS – DAY

He picks up the sheet-wrapped form of his wife and walks
around the side of the house as flames shoot through the
kitchen windows.

EXT. THE FRONT OF THE CRANDALL HOUSE FROM ACROSS THE ROAD –
DAY

Flames are in all the windows now. LOUIS appears with his
shrouded burden and starts to cross the road.
VICTOR PASCOW is standing right on the broken yellow line,
holding his hands out.

			PASCOW
	I'm sorry, Louis I'm so sorry. But
	don't make it worse. Don't -–

			LOUIS
	I waited too long with Gage. But
	Rachel… it will work this time.
	Because she just died... she just
	died a little while ago.

			PASCOW
		(terrified)
	Louis, don't! Don't do th --

LOUIS walks into PASCOW. Through PASCOW. And PASCOW puffs
apart like thin air.

EXT. SIDE LAWN OF THE CREED HOUSE – SUNSET

The tire swing is in the extreme foreground. As LOUIS passes
it on his way to the path, he sets it swinging. The rope
CREAKS. LOUIS' shadow trails along behind him.

EXT. THE PATH WITH LOUIS – SUNSET

His hair is snow white. His mind is gone. His face wears an
expression of damned serenity.

			LOUIS
	It will be alright, Rachel. I
	promise. You'll see, Rachel -–

SOUND: Crickets. Ree-ree-ree-ree...

EXT. THE ARCHED ENTRANCE TO THE PET SEMATARY – TWILIGHT

LOUIS passes under.

			LOUIS (V.O.)
	-- a man's heart is stonier.

EXT. THE PET SEMATARY WITH LOUIS - TWILIGHT

THE CAMERA TRACKS HIM through the graves -- SMUCKY WAS
OBEDIENT -- to the deadfall. He begins to climb that snarling
face.

			LOUIS (V.O)
	A man grows what he can... and
	tends it. Because what you buy is
	what you own...

EXT. THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH TOWER IN LUDLOW – NIGHT

The hands on the tower clock are at midnight. The clock
starts to toll. One... two...

EXT. THE SMOULDERING RUINS OF THE CRANDALL HOUSE – NIGHT

CAMERA HOLDS for a moment, then PANS OVER to the road. An
Orinco tanker drones past, it's running lights twinkling.

Across at the CREED house, there's one light on in the
kitchen.

TOLLING CONTINUES: Three... four... five...

THE CREED KITCHEN WITH LOUIS – NIGHT

He's sitting at the table, filthy, covered with dried blood.
He is playing at Patience. He holds a handful of cards.

TOLLING CONTINUES: Six... seven...

SOUND: The back door opens.

SOUND: Crickets from outside. Ree-ree-ree-ree...

SOUND: Gritting footsteps.

LOUIS looks up. Straight ahead. He doesn't look behind, at
what's coming.

			LOUIS
	And what you own always comes home
	to you.

He flips up one card.

TOLLING CONTINUES: Eight...

It's The Bitch, the Queen of Spades, she who supposedly
poisoned the laddies in the Tower.

LOUIS' hand falls upon it.

TOLLING CONTINUES: Nine... ten...

CLOSE ON LOUIS as a hand clotted with grave dirt falls on his
shoulder. A woman's hand.

TOLLING CONCLUDES: Eleven... twelve...

			RACHEL (V.O.)
	Darling.

FADE OUT...

... leaving only the CRICKETS ... and LOUIS'S long, insane
scream.

			        END
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