The Haunting of Hill House star Henry Thomas is no stranger to spooky goings-on, but he’s about to learn that sometimes dead is better. Yes, according to Deadline, the ET star is set to appear in Paramount’s new Pet Sematary film. Thomas wasn’t the only new addition to the cast, Billions star Samantha Mathis is also set to appear in the new horror movie.
Both Mathis and Thomas are big names in horror. Thomas is a frequent collaborator with Doctor Sleep director Mike Flanagan appearing in both The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and his new series Midnight Mass. Mathis, meanwhile, has appeared in American Psycho, The Clovehitch Killer, and the TV series The Strain.
The pair join a pretty stacked cast that includes Forrest Goodluck, Jackson White, Jack Natalie, Alyn Lind, Mulhern, Isabella Star LeBlanc, and Pam Grier. Directed by Lindsey Beer, this new Pet Sematary movie will reportedly serve as a prequel to the events of the original novel and will focus on “a family that discovers a rather disturbing graveyard in the woods behind their home.”
While that plot description is pretty light on detail, it doesn’t take a Fangoria subscription to work out what the thriller movie will be about. King’s original manuscript makes it clear that the Miꞌkmaq burial ground, which has the power to bring the dead back to life, has existed for centuries. It also makes it clear that the people of Ludlow have been burying their animals there ever since the town was first established, so there’s plenty of fertile story for a prequel story to grow in there.
Were we to make a bet, though, we think the movie will adapt the story Jud tells Louis about Timmy Baterman, the only human buried in the burial ground (before Gage, at least). Timmy was a young man who died during WWII whose father was so despondent following his death that he took his son’s corpse up to the graveyard to bring him back. He succeeded, but what came back was pure evil and eventually had to be put down by the townsfolk.
In the US, the untitled Pet Sematary prequel is set to drop on the streaming service Paramount Plus at some point in the future. Only time will tell when and where it’ll drop in the UK, but we’ll update you when we know more.
In the meantime check out our list of the best horror movies on Netflix.