Someone Edited Deadpool Into The Avengers: Endgame Trailer, And You Can’t Unsee It

Someone Edited Deadpool Into The Avengers: Endgame Trailer, And You Can’t Unsee It

While we may not know the fate of everybody in the Marvel Cinematic Universe following the events of Avengers: Infinity War, it does appear that Deadpool survived, as a fan who has been making a habit of inserting Deadpool into Avengers trailers has now given the same treatment to the latest Avengers: Endgame trailer, and the result is actually pretty entertaining. Check it out.

The Deadpool-filled trailer gives us all of the video that we got with the new Avengers: Endgame trailer, but replaces all of the audio with commentary by Deadpool, or at least a reasonable facsimile provided by the Mightyraccoon! YouTube channel. If you've seen any of the previous trailers the channel did that added Deadpool, you'll know what you're seeing here. We get a combination of Deadpool making sardonic comments to the Avengers as well as becoming several of them at various points in the trailer.

There are a couple of rock solid highlights, which come when Deadpool actually becomes part of the trailer, in the flashback shot from Captain America: The First Avenger, Deadpool actually lifts the pre-super soldier Steve Rogers so that he can better see himself as a soldier, which is great, and a nice bit of video manipulation. Then, at the end, Deadpool gets clocked in the back of the head by Stormbreaker. It's a simple gag, but an effective one.

It's actually sort of nice to get this shot of humor in the Avengers: Endgame trailer. The Marvel movies usually have a good sense of humor to them, but the dour and desperate circumstances surrounding the new movie means that everybody is very serious and nobody is cracking a smile. There's probably some humor in the film, but showing it off in the trailers would almost certainly shift the tone quite radically.

Of course, with the expectation that the Disney/Fox merger will be officially complete as of later this week, one can't help but wonder if something like what we see here is actually in our future. The Deadpool movies are one of the few parts of the Fox/Marvel universe that are hits and likely to survive the merger without being rebooted. Does that mean we could see Deadpool along side the Avengers in a future movie? It seems like a long shot, but at this point pretty much anything is possible.

With this likely being the last trailer we will see before Avengers: Endgame hits theaters, it could be our last Deadpool-infused trailer. We have no idea at this point if there will ever even be another Avengers movie, or what characters it will include if we do see it. We're not sure what MCU movies we'll get after Spider-Man: Far From Home. While we now know that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will happen, it's going to come much later than originally planned.

Is Toy Story 4 A Great Idea Or Bad One? We Weigh In

Is Toy Story 4 A Great Idea Or Bad One? We Weigh In

This morning, a brand new trailer for Toy Story 4 sent the world into a spin of nostalgia and anticipation, as the latest adventure of Woody, Buzz, and the gang feels so much closer to happening now we know what it's about. Yet, as with any sequel to a storied franchise that keeps on chugging, there are some who are wondering just why Toy Story 3 wasn't a good enough ending for the saga that started Pixar's feature film empire. It's the type of question the internet loves to discuss, and we here at CinemaBlend are ready to discuss the pros and cons ourselves.

Weighing in from the positive corner is our own Dirk Libbey, while I, Mike Reyes, will hail from the opposing side of the issue. Both of our arguments will be laid out in meticulous fashion; but in the end, you'll have a chance to tell us what you think about Toy Story 4's existence. Don't forget to vote in our poll, and give us your extended remarks of feedback in the comments section below. Now, to give Dirk's Toy Story 4 opinions their day in the sun!

Dirk

Almost since it was first announced there was going to be a Toy Story 4, there have been voices asking, "Why?" It’s certainly true the third film ended things on a powerful note, but I’ve never been one who felt the franchise was untouchable. Thus, I'm excited by the potential of Toy Story 4.

I like the Toy Story movies well enough. I think they tell great stories and are full of fun characters, but there’s honestly a lot from Pixar that means more to me on a personal or emotional level than the Toy Story movies. Maybe I’m a little too old, I was almost out of high school when Toy Story came out, so I didn’t really “grow up” with the franchise. Maybe I just didn’t have a favorite toy that meant as much to me as Buzz and Woody mean to Andy. Either way, it seems that because I don’t hold these movies in such high regard that I’m actually more interested in another adventure with these characters. The first three movies were good, so as long as the fourth one is too, I’m in.

At the same time, even for those people for whom the Toy Story trilogy is perfect as it is, I still think there’s a value in Toy Story 4. Toy Story 3 perfectly rounded out an impressive trilogy of films, but so much of what the Toy Story movies do well is the way they reflect real life with the characters, and life rarely fits into a perfect three-act structure. After you’ve grown up and moved on from your childhood toys and begun your adult life, the story doesn’t end. Really, it’s just beginning.

Based on the new trailer, it feels like Toy Story 4 is going to be the “mid-life crisis” movie of the Toy Story franchise. Forky is clearly a character trying to come to terms with who he is and what his purpose in life is. We also see Woody beginning to question everything that he has known up to this point. Will he continue in the role that he has played for so long or is it time to move on and try different things, experience a different adventure?

As somebody who writes these very words now because I once asked myself very similar questions, I’m certainly intrigued by where Toy Story 4 could be going. There is always another story to tell and I’m excited to see this one.

Mike

As someone who was right at cusp of childhood and adolescence when Toy Story debuted in 1995, it's safe to say that the films were definitely a part of my formative years as a moviegoer. The visual spectacle of CG animation, mixed with some of the freshest storyline and dialogue to come out of an animated film in the '90s made me pretty damned happy as a kid. So it's that basis of fandom that has me wondering just why we need another Toy Story sequel, considering the last one was pretty questionable itself.

Toy Story 2 was the gamble of all gambles when it came out in 1999, but even as a high school kid, I was still with it. It was a rare sequel that matched, if not outdid, the original; and provided a nice ambiguous note of finality. So naturally, Disney/Pixar had to go ahead and push its luck with Toy Story 3.

It's not that I didn't like Toy Story 3, it's just that it felt to me like a step down from the heights of the franchise. The most redeemable factor, and the one thing that really helped keep me from writing it off completely, is that it brought closure to the series once and for all. And it did so in such a beautiful way that it still makes me cry when Andy tells Bonnie about his dear old friends.

Yes, there have been TV specials and shorts continuing the adventures of the Toy Story gang, but none of those fundamentally undid the ending of Toy Story 3, nor did they repeat story beats from throughout the series. We've already seen the toys wrestle with saying goodbye to a trusted kid in Toy Story 3, and we've already experienced the push and pull between what Woody wants to do with his own life, and what he'll do for Andy in Toy Story 2. But Toy Story 4 looks like it's ready to do both all over again, and I just wish Pixar had left well enough alone.

Sometimes, you just need to know when to leave a series alone, and Toy Story 4 looks to be living proof of that fact. Watching that trailer this morning which featured the manipulative shorthand of using The Beach Boys' “God Only Knows” wasn't even enough to crack my shell. I'll still see it out of curiosity, but at this moment, I think Toy Story 4 is a bad idea. If the studio really wanted us to know what Bo Peep was up to, then maybe she shouldn't have hastily been written out of Toy Story 3.

Ultimately, Toy Story 4 is happening, so really the only question is whether or not it will resonate with a fanbase that has stuck with it for decades. Still, there you have it: Both sides of the argument have been made, and now the floor is turned over to you, the audience. Take our poll below, and tell us why you think Toy Story 4 is a good or bad idea. As for the film itself, you can catch Toy Story 4 in theaters on June 21, 2019. But if you want to find some other animated antics to tide you over until then, head over to our 2019 release schedule, and find a new "pardner" for your next cinematic roundup!

Annabelle Comes Home Trailer Makes The Warrens Fight That Damned Doll's Friends

Annabelle Comes Home Trailer Makes The Warrens Fight That Damned Doll's Friends

Annabelle 3 is called Annabelle Comes Home, and the official trailer brings Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) back into the mix. The trailer is also a 2 minute, 24 second warning not to make friends.

Friends will go into the room in your home that you told them not to go in. They'll touch things they shouldn't touch. They'll free a creepy doll named Annabelle. And they'll let that doll become a beacon for other spirits. Those creepy spirit friends will crash at your house and torture you with jumpscares. Then your parents will have to jump in and save the day -- again. Behold the trailer:

Mckenna Grace! She is everywhere. Maybe that should be the next Conjuring movie -- The Warrens realizing that Mckenna Grace has been cloned and that's why she's in every movie and TV show these days.

Mckenna Grace plays 10-year-old Judy Warren in Annabelle Comes Home, the seventh movie in The Conjuring Universe. It's a sequel to the 2014 movie Annabelle, which was a spinoff from The Conjuring. This movie also follows the prequel Annabelle: Creation.

James Wan, who directed the first two Conjuring movies, produced Annabelle Comes Home. Because the Warrens are in this film and the doll returns to their home, Wan said the movie feels like a new Conjuring film.

Here's the synopsis from New Line Cinema:

Determined to keep Annabelle from wreaking more havoc, demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren bring the possessed doll to the locked artifacts room in their home, placing her “safely” behind sacred glass and enlisting a priest’s holy blessing. But an unholy night of horror awaits as Annabelle awakens the evil spirits in the room, who all set their sights on a new target—the Warrens’ ten-year-old daughter, Judy, and her friends.

In addition to McKenna Grace (Captain Marvel) as Judy -- who appears to have inherited her mother's gifts; Madison Iseman (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle) stars as Judy's babysitter, Mary Ellen; and Katie Sarife (Supernatural) plays Judy's troubled friend Daniela. This appears to be Daniela's fault, since she touched everything in the artifact room and set this all in motion. Then again, you could also blame the Warrens for keeping all that dangerous supernatural stuff in their own home.

Gary Dauberman -- who wrote the previous Annabelle films, IT, and The Nun -- made his directorial debut with this movie.

The Conjuring Universe is pushing movies out as fast as the DCEU and MCU these days. Before we see Annabelle Comes Home this June, we have the sixth film in the Conjuring Universe -- The Curse of La Llorona. That one is only tangentially connected to the world, but it does have an Annabelle link.

After Annabelle 3, we have The Conjuring 3 coming out in September 2020. That is being directed by Michael Chaves, who also directed The Curse of La Llorona. Aquaman director James Wan is now too busy to direct Conjuring movies, but he's still a producer in this world. After Conjuring 3 comes out, we should get more updates on The Crooked Man, which should be next.

Annabelle Comes Home will open in theaters (and IMAX) on June 28, 2019, as one of the many films to look forward to in 2019.

Avatar's Box Office Record Is Even More Impressive After Avengers: Endgame

Avatar's Box Office Record Is Even More Impressive After Avengers: Endgame

There has not been a movie event in our lifetimes quite like Avengers: Endgame. No amount of pie-in-the-sky box office forecasting or broken pre-sales records could have prepared the industry or us for the opening weekend of Marvel’s culmination film. By the time all the money was counted on Monday morning, Avengers: Endgame had obliterated the domestic opening weekend box office record by nearly $100 million and left a sea of exhausted movie theater employees in its wake.

Avengers: Endgame shot off like a rocket and the domestic opening weekend record was just the first major victim to fall to Marvel’s decade-in-the-making achievement. One by one, the Russo Brothers film climbed the box office charts, breaking records and felling many other massive movies, including those of the MCU, on its way to the top. Records are made to be broken, and like a blow from Stormbreaker, Endgame has done plenty of breaking.

But there is one record in particular left to break. One record that cements a movie as the biggest ever and the all-time box office champ. One film that stands alone. That record is for the worldwide box office gross, and it belongs to James Cameron’s Avatar.

After an opening weekend that got it over 40% of the way there, and after it sunk James Cameron’s other box office stalwart Titanic, it seemed to many like it was a matter of ‘if’, not ‘when’ Avengers: Endgame would break Avatar’s record. That inevitability might have been premature though.

Avengers: Endgame currently sits at $2.713 billion worldwide, but Forbes’ Scott Mendelsohn does not see it having enough juice to make it to the $2.788 billion and beyond needed to match Avatar and claim the worldwide box office crown. Instead, he predicts that it will top out at a staggering, but still second-place, total $2.766 billion.

It is still a monumental achievement and no one involved has anything to hang their heads over if the film has to ‘settle’ for being 2nd to James Cameron’s 2009 film. Yet, regardless of whether the MCU film ultimately claims the top spot on the worldwide charts or comes up just short, Avatar’s box office record is even more impressive after Avengers: Endgame.

I think we sometimes hand wave Avatar’s record and take it for granted because it has become a constant in our minds. We all know that Avatar is the biggest movie of all time, but the abstract nature of that fact has made it seem at times less like something that the film achieved and more like something that just is. That detracts from how impressive its run really was.

First, it must be addressed how long Avatar’s record has lasted. Avatar was released in December of 2009 and since it ended Titanic’s reign at the top, it has never once been so much as threatened until Avengers: Endgame. That’s nearly a decade of dominance where the biggest films Hollywood could muster all failed to even sniff Avatar’s record.

The Na’vi held off the reboot of the Jurassic Park franchise, a franchise whose original 1993 film once held the worldwide record before Titanic. The end of Harry Potter, the animated phenomenon Frozen and the MCU’s finest and biggest films all fell short. Even the return of Star Wars, an incredible cultural and cinematic moment, with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, wasn’t enough.

Hollywood may have become more myopically focused on tentpole blockbusters since 2009, but in that time it still couldn’t craft one that could to bring down Toruk Makto. And if Avengers: Endgame too falls short, Avatar’s long reign will continue on.

Domestically, Avengers: Endgame beat Avatar and currently sits at $815.7 million according to Box Office Mojo. That makes it the second film, after Star Wars: The Force Awakens (which made $936.7 million domestically, a record Endgame definitely won’t be beating) to best Avatar’s $760.5 million take.

Consider this though: Avatar got to $760.5 million domestically and that current Number 3 spot with a max domestic theater count of 3,461. At the height of its run Avengers: Endgame enjoyed a theater count of 4,662. That’s over 1,200 more theaters than Avatar had to achieve what it did. And according to the National Association of Theater Owners, the average U.S. ticket price was $7.50 in 2009 versus $9.11 last year.

Inflation means that movie tickets were less in 2009, which would be to Avatar’s benefit, but James Cameron’s movie was also the first, and arguably last, 3D event, and thus demanded premium ticket prices from audiences wanting the full experience. So to be fair, that issue gets a bit financially muddled. And domestically, when adjusted for inflation, the movie that sold the most tickets and remains and will forever remain the GOAT is Gone With the Wind.

Also, while Endgame started out with a massive bang at the box office that got it a lot of its haul very quickly, it also burned out faster. Whereas Avatar was a slow burn at the box office, with small percentage drops week to week that saw it methodically build its total. Avatar did also have a special edition re-release in the summer of 2010 that added $10.74 million domestically to its final tally.

Endgame debuted with a stunning $357.1 million and held on to the top spot on the domestic charts for 3 weeks. Avatar didn’t even crack $100 million opening weekend, making $77 million. That puts it in 97th place for opening weekends. But it stayed in first place for seven straight weeks and didn’t leave the top 10 until week 15. That’s crazy, and internationally Avatar’s accomplishments are just as impressive.

Avengers: Endgame has opened to a record $866.5 million overseas and to date has made $1.897 billion. Compare that with Avatar, which opened to a meager $164.5 million and went on to make $2.029 billion. And although blockbusters often make a huge chunk of their gross internationally, the foreign box office of 2009 wasn’t what it is today.

We often cite the ever-growing importance of the China market for Hollywood films, but Avatar only made $204.1 million there. That’s because back then China only had less than 5,000 movie theater screens. Today the Middle Kingdom has around 60,000 according to The Washington Post. That incredible market growth has given blockbusters like Avengers: Endgame greater opportunity to make money. Endgame did just that, with $614.3 million in China so far, triple what Avatar did.

More screens equals more money, and because it played on fewer screens worldwide, Avatar had to do more with less, which makes the fact that it is still Number 1, whether it stays that way or not, all the more impressive.

Those are all just quantitative measures though and when you consider the qualitative factors of Avengers: Endgame and Avatar, the latter’s worldwide record is even more admirable.

While we sing the praises of Avatar’s record, it must be said that for all the factors like inflation and theater count, James Cameron’s film did have some distinct advantages that Avengers: Endgame did not enjoy. The most obvious of those is that Avatar released in December of 2009, years before studios decided on a year-round blockbuster season. That’s something Avatar arguably started, Disney continued with Star Wars and will soon alternate holiday seasons between Star Wars movies and the Avatar sequels.

In the weeks and months that followed Avatar’s release, Sherlock Holmes, The Book of Eli, The Wolfman, Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief and Dear John were released. It wasn’t really until March of 2010 when a true blockbuster arrived in the form of Alice in Wonderland. Endgame was given no such quarter, with Detective Pikachu, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, Aladdin and Godzilla: King of the Monsters all following in the month or so after its release.

Nevertheless, despite its advantageous release month, Avatar still had more work to do than Endgame to reach the heights it did. Avatar was an original movie, from the filmmaker who made Titanic sure, but it had no real star power beyond James Cameron and Sigourney Weaver in a supporting role. We’ve seen other original sci-fi blockbusters from name filmmakers and some with even more star power fail to launch, and Avatar could have easily gone the way of Jupiter Ascending.

It had to succeed by selling audiences through its marketing and in the theater, and it did so with fantastic word of mouth and repeat viewings from audiences that fell in love with the spectacle of the film and wanted to live in Pandora.

Conversely, Avengers: Endgame was always guaranteed to be huge. Before we saw the first trailer, I’d say it had a good chance to snag the opening weekend record. That’s because it was the culmination of a franchise and characters audiences have invested in for over a decade. Everyone had already made up their minds to see it a long time ago.

It has the powerful Marvel branding and is the biggest film in the MCU, which is the biggest franchise in movie history. Those factors made Avengers: Endgame a true monoculture event that everyone wanted to be a part of, and the frenzy opening weekend is testament to that.

So the fact that it had all that going for it and it still might not surpass Avatar, and if it does it will be close, throws into stark relief just how impressive what Avatar did was. That’s not to take anything away from Avengers: Endgame, which has been a monumental achievement and no matter what film holds the top spot, Disney is the winner in all of this with Fox’s Avatar now under its umbrella.

That Avatar has finally been challenged though shows just how much it takes to beat it and looks to be a truly herculean and perhaps Sisyphean task. The question then becomes, if something like Marvel’s biggest film can’t beat it, can anything?

Sonic The Hedgehog’s Director Promises That Design Changes Are Coming

Sonic The Hedgehog’s Director Promises That Design Changes Are Coming

Two days ago, the first trailer for the Sonic the Hedgehog movie was released, and the reception has… not been stellar, to put it lightly. Most of the backlash has been directed towards Sonic himself, as the Ben Schwartz-voiced version of the Sega character looks radically different than how he’s been traditionally depicted.

Well, don’t let it be said that fan complaints have never resulted in a movie being changed. Sonic the Hedgehog director Jeff Fowler has seen and heard the negative reactions towards the upcoming video game movie, and he’s promised that improvements are on the way. Here’s what Fowler announced to the world:

While I’m usually not a fan of audiences having a say in how an upcoming movie should look or flow, it is rather refreshing to see a creative mind recognize criticism and, rather than continue on full-stream ahead with the original plan, is willing to make adjustments. For Sonic the Hedgehog, one would think that things can only improve from here, although hopefully this doesn’t result in a slippery slope where filmmakers are caving to the demands of the public more often.

It was always going to be a difficult creative endeavor adapting the cartoonish Sonic into a CGI character who looks like he belongs in the “real world,” but it’s safe to say that most people are not digging his humanoid look for the upcoming movie. His human teeth are especially unsettling, but at least Ben Schwartz’s voice is still a good fit for the super fast extraterrestrial rodent.

There’s only six months to go until Sonic the Hedgehog’s release, so it will be interesting to see how much the eponymous character’s design can be changed in that time. It’s doubtful this will be a total overhaul, otherwise the movie would likely need to be pushed back. Ideally whenever the next Sonic the Hedgehog trailer drops, some, if not all of these changes will be noticeable.

If Jeff Fowler and his team are looking for inspiration on how to improve Sonic the Hedgehog’s design, there’s no shortage of fan creations to be found online. For example, here’s one from Twitter user Edward Pun that’s making the rounds:

For his first movie, Sonic finds himself on Earth trying to collect his rings (just like in the video games), evade being captured by the U.S. government and defeat the maniacal Dr. Ivo Robotnik, a.k.a. Dr. Eggman, played by Jim Carrey. Sonic will be aided by James Marsden’s Tom Wachowski, a former officer from the San Francisco Police Department who is now Sheriff of Green Hills, Montana. The movie’s cast also includes Tika Sumpter, Adam Pally and Neal McDonough.

Sonic the Hedgehog races into theaters on November 8, so stay tuned to CinemaBlend for continuing coverage. As for what else is coming out this year, check out our 2019 release schedule.

How Shazam! Changed An Important Sivana Scene During Its Reshoots

How Shazam! Changed An Important Sivana Scene During Its Reshoots

Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS for Shazam! are ahead!

Although the original plan for Shazam! was to have the eponymous protagonist face off against Black Adam, the clash is being saved for the future, as the villain/anti-hero also known as Teth-Adam will first debut in his own movie. Instead, Shazam! used Mark Strong’s Doctor Thaddeus Sivana as its main antagonist, and he definitely showed off his intimidation chops.

This was best demonstrated when Sivana killed everyone inside of a boardroom, including his own brother and father, using the Seven Deadly Sins. As it turns out though, that wasn’t originally the scene that showed just how frightening Sivana could be. I recently spoke with Michel Aller, the editor of Shazam! and frequent collaborator with director David F. Sandberg, and she informed me that during principal photography, Sivana’s display of incredible power happened in a different location. Speaking about the boardroom scene, she said:

It was a later addition. Originally the way Sivana confronts his family was completely different. It was at a Christmas party in his mansion. And so the whole idea of him confronting his family was re-conceived. So that was part of the additional photography.

The Christmas season can be a dramatic time among certain families, but killing your relatives and all the attendees of a holiday party is an entirely different beast. Something like that feels more appropriate during the Airing of Grievances in a Festivus celebration. But as Michel Aller explained to me, during Shazam!’s reshoots phase, it was decided to change things up, which is how the boardroom slaughter came to be.

In case you need a refresher, after Thaddeus Sivana, against the wizard Shazam’s protests, stole the Eye of Sin from the Rock of Eternity and became the new vessel for the Seven Deadly Sins, he traveled to Sivana Industries to confront his father and brother. Both of them had been emotionally abusive towards Thaddeus growing up, with his brother, Sid, blaming him for the accident that paralyzed their father. Now that he had the power to exact revenge, Thaddeus tossed Sid out the window and had the Seven Deadly Sins murder Mr. Sivana and everyone else in the room.

For those curious to see how this massacre was originally supposed to play out at the Christmas party, Michel Aller states that there’s a good chance this will be one of the deleted scenes included on the Shazam! home media release, although obviously the visual effects effects won’t be complete. In her words:

Yeah, I mean, I’ve submitted it and I believe that they’ll include that for sure.

Doctor Sivana didn’t get to enjoy his partnership with the Seven Deadly Sins for very long in Shazam!. Thanks to the World’s Mightiest Mortal and his adoptive siblings, who were able to become superheroes thanks to Billy Batson sharing his power, the Sins were contained back in the Eye of Eternity and redeposited to their prison in the Rock of Eternity, which is now officially the Shazam family’s lair.

However, don’t think this is the last we’ve seen of Sivana in the DC Extended Universe. In the Shazam! mid-credits scene, he was shown obsessively scrawling ancient runes on the walls of his prison cell, desperately trying to go back to Rock of Eternity to reclaim his lost power. However, he was then approached by Mr. Mind, who promised him that there are other ways to obtain power, and by working together, the two of them will be able to conquer the Seven Realms. In other words, Sivana’s days of slaughtering innocents probably aren’t done yet.

Be sure to read CinemaBlend’s review of Shazam! and stay tuned for updates concerning Shazam! 2. In the meantime, catch up on all the other DC movies in development by looking through our handy guide.

Pet Sematary Director Explains Why The Film’s Ending Was Changed

Pet Sematary Director Explains Why The Film’s Ending Was Changed

Warning: SPOILERS for Pet Sematary are discussed in this article. If you haven’t seen the film yet and want to stay unspoiled, please bookmark and come back once you’re current.

In the 2019 remake of Pet Sematary, there’s a pretty big change to how the famed Stephen King story ends. It arrives off the back of a lot of smaller changes that build up to the big finale, with the end result being something so pitch black that it hits harder than the entire third act of the 1983 novel. And as it turns out, there was another ending that was shot and audience tested, which would have been even bleaker, according to the film’s directors.

When speaking in a recent interview about the film, directors Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer talked about a lot of material that was cut from Pet Sematary’s final cut. Amidst remarks about deleted content that fleshed out the relationships between Louis and Jud, as well as Louis and his daughter Ellie, an entire alternate ending was shot for the film; an ending that, according to Dennis Widmyer’s remarks below, was pretty hard to cut:

That [alternate] ending we shot first, and then we decided, you know, to have this other ending – so the studio could test two different endings…We [edited] them both and both endings [test] scored pretty equally. They’re both disturbing and dark. [But] I would say that the current ending [in the final film] sends off the audience with a smile on its face, while at the same time though, [they’re saying] ‘That was that was messed up!’ Whereas the other one, I don’t think anyone would be smiling. The other one has more of a bleak, kind of sad tone to it.

While we’ve covered the ending of Pet Sematary’s 2019 in depth, here's the short version: Ellie turns out to be the kid who dies in this version, and she comes back to life with a bit of an agenda. That agenda includes killing and resurrecting her mother, who then kills and resurrects her husband. The final shot of the film sees Ellie and her parents returning home, with Church in tow, in order to retrieve the youngest member of their family, Gage.

It can be understood that the filmmakers and studio heads behind Pet Sematary didn’t want to send fans out of the theater with a sense of horrible unease. The subject matter is pretty grim, no matter which version you partake in, and being completely honest, the implication of that ending’s darkness kind of does put a smile on your face in the way that Widmyer specified while speaking to Slashfilm. But if that’s the ending that turned out to be the lighter of the two, what the hell is the other ending supposed to contain?

Frankly, our guess is that it’s ether a slightly extended ending where we see Gage being carried off by his undead family, or it’s something so horrific we haven’t even thought of it yet. If there’s any justice, this curiosity worthy of killing the cat just might lead to the satisfaction of an alternate Blu-ray cut of the film, including all the other content that was hinted at by the directors. But at the very least, the facts that the deleted material is already being teased as being part of the home video release, with the ending hitting the internet shortly before then, is something that does make us happy about this particularly grizzly scenario.

Pet Sematary is in theaters now, with a home video release hinted at some point in July.