Pet Sematary II - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[tom]

Body count:11

[frederick]

Gus death is foreshadowed twice, when Drew, his mother Amanda and him are having dinner and Drew turns off the TV at first he points the remote at Gus pretending to shoot him, and later when Drew points take a rifle directly at his head before discovering that it wasn't loaded, Gus's death at the end when he's undead when Chase kills him the second time by blowing the back of his head off with his revolver.

[carla]

Dr. Chase Matthews (veterinarian) drives a 1983 Winnebago Utility Van.

[chad]

For the brief scene in the pathologist's office where the pathologist is doing an autopsy and working on a dog's skull, a fake puppet was used.

[brent]

Chase has a dream that Zowie is attacking him, only to awaken in his bed and find his dream is real. Zowie's eyes seem to explode (special effects). Zowie snarls and lunges, and his teeth and jaws snap. This scene was shot in cuts. The dog did a real snarl into the camera at his trainer's command. The trainer, again, was a photo double for the actor and this was playtime and a game for the dog. Chase shoots at Zowie and Zowie escapes by jumping through the closed bedroom window as the glass flies in all directions. The sound of the gunfire was added in post production. The actor/dog had been specially trained for this particular scene. The training was done gradually, starting with the dog jumping through a plain window frame, and progressing to a point where he would go through a candy glass window without a command and with the trainer merely taking the dog to the window and the dog going through the window without any hesitation. (Candy glass crumbles very easily and does not cause injuries.) When the scene was filmed, the balsa wood frame was scored to break at particular points as was the candy glass scored so that it would break according to a previous design.

[richard]

(at around 1h 12 mins) In the scene where Gus tries to chase his stepson, he opens the door with a hammer just like in the movie The Shining (1980), the only difference is that Jack Nicholson has an axe.

[miriam]

Zowie is at the vet's office because he has scratches from the rabbits on his nose and close to his eyes. To create the proper effect, the scratches were made with non-toxic makeup and a harmless dye, "eye blood", which is frequently used on actors, was used on the dog.

[frederick]

When Chase is driving his van and Zowie appears and attacks him. Chase grabs for his gun and points it at Zowie, firing at point blank range. Zowie is blown backwards, clear out of the car, spraying Chase with blood. The very badly wounded Zowie limps back into Gus's house, where he finally dies. The van was not moving when the scenes with the dog were filmed. The dog was shot with a toy pistol and the sound of gunfire was added in post production. A special harness had been made for the dog for the shot where he's hit by a bullet. The trainer pulled the dog out of camera range and then a fake dog was used, with the scene being shot in cuts. The spray of blood, of course, was fake blood and came from a spray gun. The trainer was the photo double for the actor. Stage make-up was used on the dog to simulate wounds and the dog's limp was achieved by a rubber band which had been placed on one of the dog's paws. Although the band did not cause any discomfort, the dog reacted to the odd feeling of something on his paw.

[mathew]

When Jeff is cleaning the former vet's office for his dad's new practice, he is surprised when a kitten leaps out at him and he discovers a box full of kittens. To accomplish this scene, the kittens were placed in a cardboard box in a cage in front of the camera. A trainer was off camera holding a kitten when the actor appeared in front of the cage. The trainer tossed the kitten onto the actor's shoulder and the actor fell down with the kitten. A second trainer called the kitten out of camera frame and the kitten scampered away. The actor had been rehearsed in handling the kitten carefully and the kitten was not frightened. As an added precaution, mats were placed on the floor where the actor and the kitten were to fall.

[janice]

When production started in January 1992, the director Mary Lambert was set to filming in Maine, like the first one. However, the producers switched production to Georgia because they were wary of Maine's winter weather around that time. Plus Georgia's foliage was similar to Maine.

[ray]

The scene where Zowie attempts to break into Gus's rabbit cages was shot in cuts. Gus had supposedly rigged the cages with noisemakers and an electrical surge that is supposed to shock anyone who touches it. The dog had been taught to push an object which sets off the special effects sparks which were only visual and did not shock the dog.

[leo]

When the school bullies steal the kitten from Jeff and take off on their bicycles with Jeff in hot pursuit, both a real and fake kitten were used. The fake kitten was used in the majority of the scenes and the real kitten was used very briefly, primarily in establishment shots. In one of these shots, Clyde, the bully, pulls the kitten out of his jacket and holds it up in the air while he is riding his bike. To achieve this, the trainer gave the actor the kitten, which he placed inside his jacket. On action, the actor started pedaling his bike and then took the kitten out of his coat and held it up in front of the camera. The young actor had been rehearsed on how to hold the kitten safely so as not to frighten, drop or injure the kitten. The remainder of the bicycle pursuit scene was filmed with the use of the fake kitten.

[ivan]

Both this movie and the original film Pet Sematary (1989) feature songs by Ramones during their closing credits.

[francisco]

In an early scene, an elderly dog is euthanized by injection in Chase's office. The dog/actor was aged with white makeup on his fur and laid perfectly still (so still he actually fell asleep). The actor slid a blunted needle under the dog's fur and did not pierce the dog's skin. A small hidden receptacle held the fake blood that appeared on the dog's fur in a close-up.