“It’s an intimate portrait of our confrontation with death”: Lindsey Anderson Beer on Pet Sematary – Bloodlines

Pet Sematary: Bloodlines is the new prequel to the 2019 film based on Stephen King’s novel Pet Sematary, which explores the small town of Ludlow where a burial ground for dead animals resides. Except this one resurrects and changes them into something different – something more sinister and vicious. Bloodlines takes the viewers back to 1969 when Jud, one of the main characters from the initial film, first encounters the evil that resides in Ludlow in the form of his childhood friend Timmy who comes back from the frontlines of war. Timmy’s strange and erratic behaviour bleeds into the rest of the residents of Ludlow prompting several characters to make difficult choices in a bid for survival. The film stars Jackson White, Forrest Goodluck, Jack Mulhern and Natalie Alyn Lind.

The upcoming prequel serves as the directorial debut of writer and director Lindsey Anderson Beer. Her other credits include rewrites for Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley’s Chaos Walking and serving as executive producer for the Netflix teen romance Sierra Burgess is a Loser. Beer worked with Pet Sematary writer Jeff Buhler on the script for Bloodlines. She researched a lot of Native American ideology and Norse mythology to create her specific vision for the sequel – indulging in the idea of the evil as something not just exclusive to Ludlow but also present across different parts of the globe. The Upcoming caught up with her in preparation for the Paramount+ release to talk about focusing the prequel on Timmy, casting for Jack Mulhern, parts of her research that never made it into the film and the horror experience in streaming.

Mae Trumata

Pet Sematary: Bloodlines is released on Paramount+ on 6^th October 2023.

Watch the trailer for Pet Sematary: Bloodlines here: