“The ground is sour,” Stephen King‘s characters famously warned of the cursed burial ground in Pet Sematary. Paramount+ original prequel movie Pet Sematary: Bloodlines explores this further by visiting Jud Crandall’s early encounters with the sour ground, and Bloody Disgusting has been provided with an exclusive clip introducing the horror.

Pet Sematary: Bloodlines will premiere Friday, October 6, exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., Canada and Brazil, on Saturday, October 7 in Australia, the U.K., South Korea, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria, and on Friday, October 20 in Latin America.

Constant Readers will recognize the telltale signs of impending doom in the clip below, with David Duchovny‘s Bill Baterman taking his son’s body beyond the Pet Sematary, beyond the deadfall, where the ground is sour.

Director Lindsey Anderson Beer said of the clip and its key player in a statement, “While the original Pet Sematary book and its film adaptations are about Louis Creed bringing back his child, our story features Bill Baterman bringing back his son who died in the Vietnam War. This is, of course, a clip of David Duchovny as Bill Baterman, burying his son with the hopes of resurrecting him. I cast Duchovny because of his performance as a father in Californication, and I knew he would bring the nuance and heartbreak this movie needed. Jack Mulhern, as Timmy Baterman, Jud Crandall’s friend and a soldier back from war and back from the dead, is stunning in the film. He’s terrifying, but vulnerable, as those around him reconcile that he’s suffering from more than just PTSD. Rather than a contained story, I sought to make an unpredictable experience with war as an organizing principle: tense stalking, frenetic action, with lulls and bonding with comrades in between. 

 “In the film, scares come as much from the cinematography, silence and sound design as any blood, guts, or violence. Because Pet Sematary is such an intimate portrait of death, I wanted every scare and action scene to be extremely close and intimate. This is the opening scene of the film and sets the tone for how I employed this approach. The score is sparse. You hear every breath and footstep. The sounds of the woods are violent and heightened, and there’s a faint whispering that can’t quite be located. Close shots of Bill Baterman, contrasted by wide POV shots give a sense the land itself is watching him. This approach to cinematography was written into my script from the beginning, and was meant in service of giving Ludlow, and its evil, true characterization in the film. It is a joy and a privilege to bring Ludlow, and King’s book, to life in a new chapter.”

The film has been officially rated “R” for “Horror violence, gore and language.”

The untold chapter’s official synopsis: “In 1969, a young Jud Crandall has dreams of leaving his hometown of Ludlow, Maine behind, but soon discovers sinister secrets buried within and is forced to confront a dark family history that will forever keep him connected to Ludlow. Banding together, Jud and his childhood friends must fight an ancient evil that has gripped Ludlow since its founding, and once unearthed has the power to destroy everything in its path.”

Pet Sematary: Bloodlines stars Jackson White (Tell Me Lies, Mrs. Fletcher) Forrest Goodluck (The Revenant), Jack Mulhern (The Boys in the Boat, “Mare of Easttown”), Henry Thomas (“The Fall of the House of Usher”, Gerald’s Game), Natalie Alyn Lind (“The Goldbergs”, “The Gifted”) and Isabella Star LaBlanc (“True Detective: Night Country”), with Pam Grier (Cinnamon, Jackie Brown) and David Duchovny (“Californication”).

The film is directed by Lindsey Anderson Beer, in her directorial debut, with a script written by Beer and Jeff Buhler, and produced by  Lorenzo di Bonaventura, and Mark Vahradian. The highly anticipated film will be featured in the Paramount+ Peak Screaming collection that curates fan favorite horror movies and iconic Halloween episodes from beloved series.