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Passes the Bechdel test

Pet Sematary

1989. Directed by Mary Lambert, written by Stephen King.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

  1. Yes 1. At least two women
    7 women characters. 8 of them speak.
  2. Yes 2. Who talk to each other
    In 6 scenes out of 632.
  3. Yes 3. About something besides a man
    In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.

Poster for Pet Sematary

The film

Eager to start afresh, the young doctor, Louis Creed, and his family--his wife, Rachel, their daughter, Ellie, and their two-year-old toddler, Gage--move to their new home in the small rural town of Ludlow, Maine, alarmingly close to a busy highway. However, after the inadvertent death of Rachel's cherished tomcat in an awful accident, reluctantly, a desperate Louis will take his friendly neighbor's advice to bury it in an ancient Micmac graveyard: a mystical burial ground imbued with alleged reanimating powers. Now, despite the terrible results and the insistent warnings from a recently deceased, tragedy-stricken Louis has no other choice but to go back to the Indian cemetery, in high hopes that, this time, things will be different. Nevertheless, can the dead truly return from the grave?

Released
21 Apr 1989
Genres
Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
Rated
R
IMDb
6.5 / 10
Metascore
38 / 100
Awards
1 win & 6 nominations total
Elsewhere
View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

  • Women
  • Men
  • Not in the cast list
  • Bigger name, more lines
  1. Louis 277 lines, man
  2. Jud 171 lines, man
  3. Rachel 103 lines, woman
  4. Ellie 102 lines, woman
  5. Sound 41 lines, man
  6. Pascow 28 lines, man
  7. Gage 21 lines, man
  8. Irwin 21 lines, man
  9. Bill 10 lines, man
  10. Steve 6 lines, man
Full cast, 19 people
  • Dale Midkiff as Louis Creed
  • Fred Gwynne as Jud Crandall
  • Denise Crosby as Rachel Creed
  • Brad Greenquist as Victor Pascow
  • Michael Lombard as Irwin Goldman
  • Miko Hughes as Gage Creed
  • Blaze Berdahl as Ellie Creed
  • Susan Blommaert as Missy Dandridge
  • Mara Clark as Marcy Charlton
  • Kavi Raz as Steve Masterton
  • Mary Louise Wilson as Dory Goldman
  • Andrew Hubatsek as Zelda
  • Liz Davies as Girl at Infirmary
  • Kara Dalke as Candystriper
  • Lisa Stathoplos as Jud's Mother
  • Stephen King as Minister
  • Elizabeth Ureneck as Rachel as a Child
  • Chuck Courtney as Bill Baterman
  • Peter Stader as Timmy Baterman

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 14 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 4% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 632

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers
ScenesWomen's linesMen's lines
1 to 14126
15 to 2869
29 to 421546
43 to 56722
57 to 701111
71 to 841317
85 to 98109
99 to 1122321
113 to 126014
127 to 14006
141 to 154215
155 to 168139
169 to 182011
183 to 196025
197 to 210014
211 to 2241012
225 to 238024
239 to 252214
253 to 26628
267 to 2801215
281 to 2941023
295 to 3081218
309 to 32207
323 to 336213
337 to 35057
351 to 36418
365 to 37878
379 to 392023
393 to 406024
407 to 4201316
421 to 43438
435 to 4481610
449 to 462118
463 to 47602
477 to 49022
491 to 50433
505 to 51817
519 to 53206
533 to 54635
547 to 56041
561 to 574213
575 to 588318
589 to 602011
603 to 61606
617 to 63009
631 to 63210

The evidence

  • Straight from the script
  • Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
RACHEL: It's gorgeous! ELLIE: Am I really gonna have my own room?
ELLIE: Yaay! ELLIE: Is that a swing? RACHEL: Yes, but the rope might be-- ELLIE: Yaay!
ELLIE: What's it say, mommy? RACHEL: It says Pet Cemetery, hon. It's misspelled, but...that's what it says. RACHEL: Ellen--!
RACHEL: I know what you just said. Ellie, clear your place. ELLIE: I'm scared. What if school here isn't like in Chicago! I'm scared and I want to go h-h-home!
ELLIE: I don't want to go to Chicago, Gramma Dory. DORY: Why not, darling? ELLIE: I had a bad dream last night. A nightmare.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 27 are women's.

225 lines from women, 594 from men.

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

7 women and 10 men in the cast. 8 women and 13 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 3 of 851. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 80 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

  • First line by a woman
  • Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 25% of the words (1,815), men 75% (5,566). Women have 27% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.

Conversations between two named characters

Exhibit F: behind the camera

3 of the 12 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 24% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by
Mary Lambert (woman)
Written by
Stephen King (man)
From the novel by
Stephen King (man)
Produced by
Richard P. Rubinstein (man)
Shot by
Peter Stein (man)
Edited by
Mike Hill (man), Daniel P. Hanley (man)
Music by
Elliot Goldenthal (man)
Production design by
Michael Z. Hanan (man)
Costumes by
Marlene Stewart (woman)
Cast by
Fern Champion (woman), Pamela Basker (gender not listed)

The crew, department by department

  • Sound

    0 women, 9 men, 10 not listed

  • Other crew

    2 women, 5 men, 3 not listed

  • Production

    3 women, 5 men, 2 not listed

  • Art

    2 women, 4 men, 1 not listed

  • Editing

    0 women, 4 men, 3 not listed

  • Directing

    3 women, 2 men

  • Camera

    0 women, 1 men, 3 not listed

  • Costume & Make-Up

    1 women, 2 men, 1 not listed

  • Women
  • Men
  • Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit G: how old the stars were

Women: 27 on average. Men: 36 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Blaze Berdahl 8, Denise Crosby 31, Susan Blommaert 41

Men

Miko Hughes 3, Dale Midkiff 29, Brad Greenquist 29, Kavi Raz 36, Michael Lombard 54, Fred Gwynne 62

Exhibit H: the money

It made 5.0 times what it cost.

Budget
$11.5 million
Box office
$57.5 million

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 632 scenes and 851 lines of dialogue. How the test works

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