Pet Sematary Exclusive Deleted Scene: Rachel is Haunted By Zelda

Rachel Creed in haunted by the memory of her sister, Zelda, in a deleted scene from Pet Sematary (2019). The new adaptation of Stephen King’s classic horror novel was a modest success overall, earning mixed-to-positive reviews and taking in $112 million at the box office on a $21 million budget. Generally-speaking, King’s fans were similarly divided over the changes the film made to both the original book and director Mary Lambert’s 1989 movie adaptation. More specifically, they took issue with the new version’s different ending and its portrayal of Zelda, among other things.

Zelda, as a reminder, is Rachel’s younger sister and suffered from spinal meningitis when they were both young girls. In Pet Sematary (2019), Rachel (Amy Seimetz) is tormented by her memories of Zelda as an adult; not only due to her terrible illness, but also because she died as a child when Rachel was alone at home with her, and inadvertently played a role in her death. As a result, throughout the film, the grown-up Rachel keeps experiencing terrifying visions of Zelda either dying or trying to hurt her.

Screen Rant is exclusively debuting a Pet Sematary deleted scene that features another moment where Rachel – alone in the Creeds’ new home – has yet another close encounter with the specter of her sister. You can check the clip out in the space below.

The Pet Sematary trailers actually included excerpts from this scene, which indicates that it was dropped from the film relatively later in post-production. It’s a perfectly decent, chilling sequence all in all, but it doesn’t necessarily reveal or establish anything that wasn’t already covered in the theatrical cut – meaning, it’s easy to see why it was eventually dropped. On the other hand, some viewers might’ve preferred it if this scene has been included in place of one of the jump scares featuring Zelda that made the final cut, instead. After all, it’s a comparatively quieter moment that depend more on atmosphere and building a sense of dread, as opposed to, say, sudden loud noises.

Overall, though, the Zelda subplot was perfectly fine in Pet Sematary as is, and tied into the film’s overarching theme about emotional grief and guilt and how they affect people’s views on death and the idea of the afterlife. At the same time, the Zelda character was arguably better in Lambert’s movie, if only because of Andrew Hubatsek’s performance (a grown man playing a ghostly girl is just inherently spookier) and the ghastly practical makeup that he wore to play the role. Whichever side one falls on, it seems that most people agree that the Zelda storyline is one of the more (if not the most) unnerving parts of both Pet Sematary adaptations.

Pet Sematary is now available on Digital. It releases on Blu-ray on Tuesday, July 9.