Pet Sematary
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Pet Sematary'' is a 1983
horror novel Horror is a genre of fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, or disgust. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror, which is in the realm of speculative fiction. Literary historian J. ...
by American writer
Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...
. The novel was nominated for a
World Fantasy Award for Best Novel In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...
in 1984, and adapted into two films: one in 1989 and another in 2019. In November 2013,
PS Publishing PS Publishing is an independent book publisher based in Hornsea, UK. Background PS Publishing was founded in 1999 by Peter Crowther.Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
, is appointed director of the
University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine or UMO) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Orono, Maine. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the Flagship universities, flagshi ...
's campus health service. He moves to a large house near the small town of
Ludlow Ludlow () is a market town in Shropshire, England. The town is significant in the history of the Welsh Marches and in relation to Wales. It is located south of Shrewsbury and north of Hereford, on the A49 road which bypasses the town. The t ...
with his wife Rachel, their two young children, Ellie and
Gage Gage may refer to: Measurement * Gage is a variant spelling of the word ''gauge'' *Stream gauge, aka Stream gage, a site along a stream where flow measurements are made People * Gage (surname) *Gage Golightly (born 1993), American actress Plac ...
, and Ellie's cat, Winston Churchill ("Church"). From the moment they arrive, the family runs into trouble: Ellie hurts her knee, and Gage is stung by a bee. Their new neighbor, an elderly man named Jud Crandall, comes to help. He warns Louis and Rachel about the highway that runs past their house, which is frequented by speeding trucks. Jud and Louis quickly become close friends. Since Louis's father died when he was three, he sees Jud as a surrogate father. A few weeks after the Creeds move in, Jud takes the family on a walk in the woods behind their home. A well-tended path leads to a
pet cemetery A pet cemetery is a cemetery for pets. History Many human cultures buried animal remains. For example, the Ancient Egyptians mummified and buried cats, which they considered deities, and the largest known dog cemetery in the ancient wo ...
(misspelled "sematary" on the sign) where the children of the town bury their deceased animals. The outing provokes a heated argument between Louis and Rachel the next day. Rachel disapproves of discussing death, and she worries about how Ellie may be affected by what she saw at the "sematary." It is explained later that Rachel was
traumatized Psychological trauma, mental trauma or psychotrauma is an emotional response to a distressing event or series of events, such as accidents, rape, or natural disasters. Reactions such as psychological shock and psychological denial are typical. ...
by the early death of her sister, Zelda, from
spinal meningitis Meningitis is acute or chronic inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, collectively called the meninges. The most common symptoms are fever, headache, and neck stiffness. Other symptoms include confusion or a ...
—an issue that is brought up several times in flashbacks. Louis empathizes with his wife and blames her parents for her trauma, who left Rachel at home alone with her sister when she died. Louis himself has a traumatic experience during the first week of classes. Victor Pascow, a student who has been fatally injured in an automobile accident, addresses his dying words to Louis personally, even though the two men are strangers. On the night following Pascow's death, Louis experiences what he believes is a very vivid dream in which he meets Pascow's
ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...
, who leads him to the deadfall at the back of the "sematary" and warns him not to go beyond there. Louis wakes up in bed the next morning, convinced it was, in fact, a dream—until he finds his feet and bedsheets covered with dried mud and pine needles. Nevertheless, Louis dismisses the dream as the product of the stress he experienced during Pascow's death, coupled with his wife's lingering anxieties about the subject of death. On
Halloween Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observanc ...
, Jud's wife Norma suffers a near-fatal
heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...
but makes a quick recovery thanks to Louis's help. Jud is grateful and decides to repay Louis after Church is run over outside his home around
Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden and ...
. Rachel and the kids are visiting Rachel's parents in Chicago, but Louis frets over breaking the bad news to Ellie. Sympathizing with Louis, Jud takes him to the "sematary", supposedly to bury Church. But instead of stopping there, Jud leads Louis farther on to "the real cemetery": an ancient
burial ground A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...
that was once used by the
Miꞌkmaq The Mi'kmaq (also ''Mi'gmaq'', ''Lnu'', ''Miꞌkmaw'' or ''Miꞌgmaw''; ; ) are a First Nations people of the Northeastern Woodlands, indigenous to the areas of Canada's Atlantic Provinces and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec as well as the nort ...
Tribe. There, Louis buries the cat on Jud's instruction. The next afternoon, Church returns home; the usually vibrant and lively cat now acts ornery and, in Louis's words, "a little dead". Church hunts for mice and birds, ripping them apart without eating them. He also smells so bad that Ellie no longer wants him in her room at night. Jud confirms that Church has been resurrected and that Jud himself once buried his dog there when he was younger. Louis, deeply disturbed, begins to wish that he had not buried Church there. Several months later, two-year-old Gage is killed by a speeding truck. Overcome with despair, Louis considers bringing his son back to life with the help of the burial ground. Jud, guessing what Louis is planning, attempts to dissuade him by telling him the story of Timmy Baterman, the last person who was resurrected by the burial ground. Timmy Baterman was killed in action during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Timmy's body was shipped back to the United States, and his father Bill buried Timmy in the burial ground. Timmy returned malevolent, terrorizing the people of the town with secrets that Jud asserts he had no earthly way of knowing. Timmy was stopped by his father, Bill, who killed Timmy and set their house on fire before shooting himself. Jud states that he believes that whatever came back was not Timmy, but a "
demon A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology, and folklore; as well as in media such as comics, video games, movies, ani ...
" that had
possessed Possessed may refer to: Possession * Possession (disambiguation), having some degree of control over something else ** Spirit possession, whereby gods, demons, animas, or other disincarnate entities may temporarily take control of a human body *** ...
his corpse. He concludes that "sometimes, dead is better" and states that "the place has a power... its own evil purpose", and that it may have caused Gage's death because Jud introduced Louis to it. Despite Jud's warning and his own reservations about the idea, Louis's grief and guilt spur him to carry out his plan. Louis exhumes Gage's body from his grave and inters him in the burial ground. Gage is resurrected, entirely different from when he was alive. Now malicious in both his words and actions, he finds one of Louis's
scalpel A scalpel, lancet, or bistoury is a small and extremely sharp bladed instrument used for surgery, anatomical dissection, podiatry and various arts and crafts (either called a hobby knife or an X-acto knife.). Scalpels may be single-use disposa ...
s and kills both Jud and Rachel. Louis kills both Church and Gage with lethal injections of
morphine Morphine is a strong opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin in poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as a analgesic, pain medication, and is also commonly used recreational drug, recreationally, or to make ...
from his medical supply stock. After burning the Crandall house down, Louis returns to the burial ground with his wife's corpse, thinking that if he buries the body faster than he did Gage's, there will be a different result. Following all of these tragic events, Louis has also aged in physical appearance, with white hair and wrinkles. One of his colleagues, Steve Masterton, notices him walking into the woods with Rachel's body. Steve, while fearful and concerned, is influenced by the power of the burial ground too, and even considers helping Louis bury Rachel, but he flees in terror and eventually moves away to
St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
. Later, Louis sits indoors alone, playing
solitaire Solitaire is any tabletop game which one can play by oneself, usually with cards, but also with dominoes. The term "solitaire" is also used for single-player games of concentration and skill using a set layout tiles, pegs or stones. These game ...
, and Rachel's reanimated corpse walks up behind him and drops a cold hand on his shoulder, while its voice rasps, "Darling."


Background

In 1979, King was a "writer-in-residence" at the
University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine or UMO) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Orono, Maine. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the Flagship universities, flagshi ...
and the house he was renting was adjacent to a major road where dogs and cats were often killed by oncoming trucks. After his daughter's cat was killed by a truck along that road, he explained the death of the pet to his daughter and buried the cat. Three days later, King imagined what would happen if a family suffered the same tragedy but the cat came back to life "fundamentally wrong". He then imagined what would happen if that family's young son were also killed by a passing truck. He decided to write a book based on these ideas, and that the book would be a re-telling of "
The Monkey's Paw "The Monkey's Paw" is a horror short story by English author W. W. Jacobs, first published in the collection '' The Lady of the Barge'' in 1902. In the story, three wishes are granted to the owner of The Monkey's Paw, but the wishes come with ...
" (1902), a short story by
W. W. Jacobs William Wymark Jacobs (8 September 1863 – 1 September 1943) was an English author of short fiction and drama. His best remembered story is "The Monkey's Paw". He was born in Wapping, London, on 8 September 1863, the son of William Gage Jacobs ...
about parents whose son resurrects after they wish for that to happen. King has gone on record stating that of all the novels he has written, ''Pet Sematary'' is the one which genuinely scared him the most. The first draft was completed in May 1979.


Adaptations


Films

The first film adaptation, ''Pet Sematary'', was released in 1989. Directed by Mary Lambert, it starred
Dale Midkiff Dale Alan Midkiff (born July 1, 1959) is an American actor, best known for playing Louis Creed in the horror film ''Pet Sematary'' (1989) and Captain Darien Lambert in the TV series ''Time Trax''. Career Midkiff acted in off-Broadway plays lik ...
as Louis,
Fred Gwynne Frederick Hubbard Gwynne (July 10, 1926 – July 2, 1993) was an American actor, artist and author widely known for his roles in the 1960s television sitcoms ''Car 54, Where Are You?'' as Francis Muldoon and as Herman Munster in ''The Munsters'' ...
as Jud,
Denise Crosby Denise Michelle Crosby is an American actress and model known for portraying Security Chief Tasha Yar mainly in season one of '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', and Yar's daughter, the half-Romulan Commander Sela, in subsequent seasons. She ...
as Rachel, Brad Greenquist as Victor,
Miko Hughes Miko John Hughes (born February 22, 1986) is an American actor known for his film roles as a child, such as Gage Creed in ''Pet Sematary'' (1989), ''Kindergarten Cop'' (1990), ''Apollo 13'' (1995), ''Spawn'' (1997), '' Mercury Rising'' (1998), ...
as Gage, and
Blaze Berdahl Blaze Autumn Berdahl (born September 6, 1980) is an American actress best known for her roles as Lenni Frazier in the children's television series ''Ghostwriter'' and Ellie Creed in the film ''Pet Sematary'' (1989). Early life Berdahl was bo ...
as Ellie. King wrote the screenplay and had a cameo as a minister. Male actor Andrew Hubatsek portrayed Zelda because the filmmakers felt that a grown man playing a disabled, deformed teenage girl would make the character more hideous and frightening. The film received mixed reviews, but it was a commercial success. A sequel, '' Pet Sematary Two'', was released in 1992. A second film adaptation of the novel was released on April 5, 2019. Directed by Dennis Widmyer and Kevin Kölsch, the film stars
Jason Clarke Jason Clarke (born 17 July 1969) is an Australian actor. He has appeared in many TV series, and is known for playing Tommy Caffee on the television series ''Brotherhood''. He has also appeared in many films, often as an antagonist. His film ro ...
as Louis Creed,
Amy Seimetz Amy Lynne Seimetz is an American actress and filmmaker. She has appeared in several productions, including AMC's '' The Killing'', HBO's ''Family Tree'', and films like '' Upstream Color'', '' Alien: Covenant'', ''Pet Sematary'', and ''No Sudde ...
as Rachel Creed,
John Lithgow John Arthur Lithgow ( ; born , 1945) is an American actor. Lithgow studied at Harvard University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art before becoming known for his work on the stage and screen. He has been the recipient of numerous ...
as Jud Crandall, Jeté Laurence as Ellie Creed, and twins Hugo and Lucas Lavoie as
Gage Creed Gage William Creed is a fictional character created by Stephen King who is the primary antagonist of his 1983 novel ''Pet Sematary''. In the novel, Gage is an innocent child who is killed by a speeding tanker truck accidentally. Gage's grieving f ...
. In March 2019,
Lorenzo di Bonaventura Lorenzo di Bonaventura (; born January 13, 1957) is an American film producer and founder and owner of Di Bonaventura Pictures. He is best known for producing the G.I. Joe and ''Transformers'' film series. The films he produced have earned over ...
stated that discussions of the development of a prequel
Pet Sematary (2019 film) ''Pet Sematary'' is a 2019 American supernatural horror film directed by Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer and written by Jeff Buhler, from a screen story by Matt Greenberg. It is the second adaptation of the 1983 novel of the same name by Step ...
had begun. In February 2021, the film was officially
green-lit To green-light is to give permission to proceed with a project. The term is a reference to the green traffic signal, indicating "go ahead". Film industry In the context of the film and television industries, to green-light something is to ...
with Jeff Buhler and di Bonaventura returning in their roles as screenwriter and producer, respectively. The project will be released via
streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...
, as a
Paramount+ Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...
exclusive film. On December 7, 2021, director
Guillermo del Toro Guillermo del Toro Gómez (; born October 9, 1964) is a Mexican filmmaker, author, and actor. He directed the Academy Award–winning fantasy films ''Pan's Labyrinth'' (2006) and ''The Shape of Water'' (2017), winning the Academy Awards for Be ...
said that he would love to make his own version of ''Pet Sematary'' saying "You know the novel that I would have killed to adapt, and I know there’s two versions of it, and I still think maybe in a deranged universe I get to do it again one day is Pet Sematary. Because it not only has the very best final couple of lines, but it scared me when I was a young man. As a father, I now understand it better than I ever would have, and it scares me a hundred times more." del Toro also pointed out scenes from King's book that were left out of both film versions. "For me, the best scene in that book is when ouisopens Gage’s coffin, and for a second he thinks the head is gone, because this black fungi from the grave has grown like a fuzz over the kid’s face. … I think you cannot spare those details and think that you’re honoring that book. One of the things I thought about Pet Sematary that we would do in post is when the dead return, when Gage returns, I’d spend an inordinate amount of money taking out the sheen from his eyes. So that the eyes are dull.”


Radio

In 1997,
BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
broadcast a dramatization of the story in six half-hour episodes, later re-edited into three hour-long episodes. It was adapted by
Gregory Evans Gregory Thomas Evans, (June 13, 1913 – May 23, 2010) was a Canadian judge and the first Integrity Commissioner of Ontario. Born in McAdam, New Brunswick, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Saint Joseph's University in 1934 and gr ...
and starred
John Sharian John Sharian (born John Shahnazarian) is an English actor of Armenian descent. He appeared in the film '' The Machinist'' (2004). Education John Sharian attended the Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut and later the Kenyon College in Gambier ...
as Louis Creed, Briony Glassco as Rachel Creed and
Lee Montague Lee Montague (born Leonard Goldberg; 16 October 1927) is an English actor noted for his roles in film and television, usually playing tough guys. Montague was a student of the Old Vic School. Montague's film credits include ''The Camp on Bloo ...
as Jud Crandall. The production was directed by Gordon House.


Music

The
Ramones The Ramones were an American punk rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first true punk rock group. Despite achieving a limited commercial appeal in the United ...
recorded a song of the same name as the theme for the 1989 film adaptation. It appeared on their album '' Brain Drain''. It was later covered by the band Starcrawler for the 2019 film.


References


External links

* {{Authority control 1983 American novels American horror novels American fantasy novels adapted into films American zombie novels Demons in written fiction Fiction about cemeteries Ghost stories Novels by Stephen King Novels set in Maine Novels set in Chicago Doubleday (publisher) books Novels about spirit possession Novels adapted into radio programs Fiction about resurrection Third-person narrative novels