Pet Sematary
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50 free Pet Sematary trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Pet Sematary is the Stephen King story that readers remember as the one that goes too far. A young doctor moves his family to a house in rural New England, a kindly old neighbor shows him a path into the woods, and a grieving father learns exactly what lies at the end of it. It has been filmed twice, with a sequel and a prequel besides. This quiz covers the whole of it. Expect questions on the plot and characters of the 1983 novel, from the Creeds' arrival to the final page, along with the real events that gave King the idea. The films get their share too: the 1989 original, Pet Sematary Two, the 2019 remake and Bloodlines, with their casts, their music and the changes each one made to the book. It suits readers checking what they remember before a book club or a reading test, horror fans settling an argument about the movies, and anyone building a Stephen King round for trivia night. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so a wrong guess still teaches you something.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Why is 'Sematary' spelled that way in the title of Stephen King's novel about a Maine burial ground?
Children misspelled the sign
Children misspelled the sign on the animal graveyard they tend in the woods, and King kept the error. He based it on a real plot that local kids had made behind his rented house.
Q 02Which actor, famous as Herman Munster, played neighbor Jud Crandall in the 1989 film Pet Sematary?
Fred Gwynne
Fred Gwynne got the part only after the director fought studio executives, who feared audiences would never take a sitcom monster seriously.
Q 03Stephen King singles out Pet Sematary, his tale of a cursed burial ground, for which distinction?
It scared him the most
It scared him the most of all his novels, by his own account. He found the finished draft too disturbing to publish and released it years later only to settle a book contract.
Q 04In Stephen King's Pet Sematary, Ellie Creed's doomed cat bears the full name of which statesman?
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill is the cat's full name, shortened by the family to Church. He is the first creature Louis Creed buries in the ancient ground, and he comes home changed.
Q 05Which punk band, a favorite of Stephen King, recorded the title song for the 1989 film Pet Sematary?
The Ramones
The Ramones wrote it after a visit to King's home, where, the story goes, their bassist took the novel down to the basement and came back an hour later with the words.
Q 06Stephen King wrote the screenplay for the 1989 film Pet Sematary and also appears on screen as what?
A minister
A minister is King's cameo. He stayed closely involved throughout, insisting the film be shot in Maine and keeping the final say over who directed it.
Q 07How does the 2019 film Pet Sematary change the central tragedy of Stephen King's novel?
The daughter dies instead
The daughter dies instead: Ellie, not toddler Gage, is hit by a tanker at her own birthday party after running to the family cat in the road.
Q 08Which star of 3rd Rock from the Sun played neighbor Jud Crandall in the 2019 film Pet Sematary?
John Lithgow
John Lithgow plays Jud as a widower with a soft spot for young Ellie, which is why he shows her father the burial ground when her pet is killed.
Q 09Which teenage star of Terminator 2 played lead Jeff Matthews in the 1992 sequel Pet Sematary Two?
Edward Furlong
Edward Furlong was cast to cash in on his blockbuster fame, after the studio rejected a plan to build the sequel around a teenage Ellie Creed.
Q 10Which X-Files star joined the 2023 prequel Pet Sematary: Bloodlines as a grieving farmer?
David Duchovny
David Duchovny plays Bill Baterman, who buries his soldier son in the cursed ground in 1969 and sets the whole story in motion.
Q 11In Stephen King's novel Pet Sematary, the Creed family moves to rural Maine from which big city?
Chicago
Chicago is where the Creeds come from and where Rachel's parents still live, so she and the children are away visiting there when the family pet is killed.
Q 12Stephen King's Pet Sematary and all four of its films are set in or near which Maine town?
Ludlow
Ludlow is a real Maine town, though King's version of it is invented. He went back to his fictional one as the home of the troubled novelist in The Dark Half.
Q 13In Pet Sematary, what danger does elderly neighbor Jud Crandall warn the newly arrived Creeds about?
The highway outside
Q 21In the 1989 and 2019 Pet Sematary films, Rachel Creed is haunted by a sister who had which disease?
Spinal meningitis
Spinal meningitis left the girl deformed, and her death scarred Rachel for life. In the 2019 film she comes back to torment Rachel in frightening visions.
Q 22In Pet Sematary, which of his father's medical tools does the resurrected Gage Creed use to kill?
A scalpel
A scalpel taken from Louis's bag is the toddler's weapon. He kills Jud first, then his own mother when she hurries home early.
Q 23With which drug does Louis Creed finally kill the resurrected Gage in Stephen King's Pet Sematary?
Morphine
Morphine, given by lethal injection, ends both the toddler and the family cat. Louis fills his syringes knowing by then that he has been manipulated.
The highway outside the house is busy with speeding trucks, Jud warns. It goes on to kill first the family pet and then two-year-old Gage.
Q 14In Pet Sematary, Rachel Creed cannot talk about death because of the childhood loss of which sister?
Zelda
Zelda died when both girls were children, and the memory leaves Rachel so uneasy about death that even the neighborhood's animal graveyard disturbs her.
Q 15Which creature of Algonquian legend haunts the Maine woods in Stephen King's novel Pet Sematary?
A Wendigo
A Wendigo is the force that powers the burial ground, and Louis Creed meets it face to face while carrying his dead son through the forest.
Q 16In Pet Sematary, which Native American people once used the burial ground beyond the pet cemetery?
The Mi'kmaq
The Mi'kmaq, spelled Micmac in the novel, once laid their dead in the ground that Jud calls the real cemetery, and he leads Louis there instead of stopping at the pets' graves.
Q 17Around which holiday is the Creed family's cat run over in Stephen King's novel Pet Sematary?
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving finds Louis alone in the house while his family is away, so he can bury the animal in secret with Jud. The 2019 film moves the death to Halloween.
Q 18Which director, known for Madonna's music videos, made the 1989 film Pet Sematary and its sequel?
Mary Lambert
Mary Lambert won the job by impressing King, who had the final say, with her enthusiasm for his novels and her promise to stay faithful to the book.
Q 19Stephen King conceived Pet Sematary as a retelling of which 1902 short story by W. W. Jacobs?
The Monkey's Paw
The Monkey's Paw is about parents whose wish brings their dead son back to the door, the same bargain Louis Creed makes for Gage.
Q 20In Pet Sematary, which fatally injured student seems to warn Dr. Louis Creed with his dying words?
Victor Pascow
Victor Pascow dies on campus after being hit by a vehicle, then appears to Louis the next night and leads him to the edge of the pet cemetery with a warning to go no further.
Q 24Which card game is Louis Creed playing in the final scene of Stephen King's novel Pet Sematary?
Solitaire
Solitaire is his game as he sits indoors, waiting. Then Rachel's reanimated corpse walks up behind him and lays a cold hand on his shoulder.
Q 25In the novel Pet Sematary, resurrected soldier Timmy Baterman was killed in action in which war?
World War II
World War II took Timmy, and his grieving father buried him in the secret ground. Jud tells the story to stop Louis: what came back knew secrets it had no way of knowing.
Q 26In Pet Sematary, why does Ellie Creed no longer want her returned cat in her room at night?
He smells bad
He smells bad, enough that she shuts him out. The once docile pet has also turned hunter, leaving the torn-up bodies of his kills for Louis to find.
Q 27Which Star Trek: The Next Generation actress played Rachel Creed in the 1989 film Pet Sematary?
Denise Crosby
Denise Crosby was known as security chief Tasha Yar, mainly from the show's first season, before she played the death-haunted mother of the Creed family.
Q 28The 2019 film Pet Sematary is set in Maine, but it was actually shot in which Canadian province?
Quebec
Quebec hosted the shoot in summer 2018, in Montreal and the small town of Hudson. The 1989 film, by contrast, was made in Maine at King's insistence.
Q 29The 2023 prequel Pet Sematary: Bloodlines skipped cinemas for a release on which streaming service?
Paramount+
Paramount+ carried it exclusively from October 2023, after a festival premiere. The story goes back five decades to follow a young Jud Crandall.
Q 30Jud Crandall's talk of a rabid animal in Pet Sematary nods to which other Stephen King novel?
Cujo
Cujo is never mentioned by name, but Jud speaks of the animal that went rabid. King had published that novel two years before this one reached the shops.