Thursday Thrillers: Stephen King's Pet Semetary
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Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons,
Back in the 1990s, I purchased a VHS cassette of the movie Pet Sematary. I cannot count how many times I saw the film back then. It was a big part of my life, especially since I loved Stephen King's novels. And when I met Denise Crosby some years later at a Star Trek convention, my conversation was more about Pet Sematary than the U.S.S. Enterprise. But oddly enough I had never picked up the novel and read it. With the current film offering fast approaching I decided to buy a copy of the book and finally see what the original source material had to offer me.
Pet Sematary is written by Stephen King and is published by Pocket Books, an imprint of Simon and Schuster. Based on King's own experience living near a road with monstrous trucks barreling down its expanse, this 1983 classic fright fest has captured the imagination of horror fans worldwide. The story revolves around the Creed family, Louis and Rachel Creed, and their children Ellie and Gage. Having moved from Chicago to Maine, the family finds their new home to be comfortable, with lots of land for the kids to play on. Their elderly neighbors, the Crandalls, are welcoming and the couples become fast friends. But the threat of the Orinco Fuel trucks speeding by their home quells any happiness the Creeds may be feeling. With Gage a wandering toddler, Ellie becoming more independent, and their cat Churchill constantly running around, the road is a glaring danger sign to the young couple. But Louis and Rachel keep an eye on things to prevent any future issues with the roadway.
On Thanksgiving when Rachel and the kids are visiting her parents, Churchill is found dead by Jud Crandall. Since Ellie is attached to the feline, Jud suggests burying Church in the pet cemetery near their home. However once they reach the location Crandall keeps going upward, climbing a deadfall of trees to another location. In a murky and foggy area overlooking the pet cemetery, Jud instructs Louis to bury the cat. Hours later when Louis is preparing for the return of his family, Church returns to the Creed home, alive and stinking of the grave. Jud later tells him that the area they buried the cat in was a Micmac Indian burial ground. It is then the warnings of Victor Pascow become clear.
Several weeks prior a jogger was hit and mortally wounded by a car near the college campus where Louis works as a doctor. As Victor Pascow died he began to say things to Louis about not going further than the pet cemetery. Haunting Louis at night in what appeared to be dreams, Pascow continued his warning. With the return of his daughter's dead cat, Louis knows that the warnings should have been heeded. But the nightmare has only begun as Church begins to silently stalk Louis and toy with him. What has come back from the grave is malicious, cunning, and playing by its own rules. As Louis begins to research the Micmac burial ground, he begins to realize the mistake he has made. But the wheel of Fate turns and death takes someone dear to Louis. Will Louis do the unthinkable and bury his beloved in the Micmac cemetery? Or has he learned the lesson that sometimes dead is better?
Pet Sematary delivered shock, chills, and thrills as it unfolded quietly and almost unassumingly. King wraps the story around the reader in a comforting narrative. New home. New life. New friends. The Creeds are open to a wonderful future in their new state. But underneath the comfort lies a dangerous history of the town of Ludlow, Maine. Death, resurrection, and the supernatural slither through the town's history, kept hushed by the surviving locals who remember past events. The result of the town's questionable veracity was a relentless tour of insanity and terror that culminated in a finale that was jaw-dropping.
Pet Sematary also delivered an excellent family story that seemed to pull from King's love for his own family. As we see Louis Creed's slow descent into madness, we are treated to a first-person account of his thoughts and rationalizations. As I read Louis' narrative I began to agree with his actions, even though what he was doing was crazy. The anguish he felt was painful to read. I saw the longing he felt to return to better times, and I felt for him. King's treatment of child loss was accurate and heartbreaking. While Rachel's recollections of caring for her dying sister will resonate with anyone who has been a caregiver. This is one of the reasons why I am a Stephen King fan, his ability to write well-rounded characters that could be the family down the street. Even though this is horror, King knows the importance of offering the reader relatable and likable characters.
When I set out to read this book I knew that I would do so with the narration of actor, Michael C. Hall (Dexter). His performance added a new dimension to this thirty-six-year-old tale. I felt as if there were more than one person reading the novel. His delivery of accents, voices, and tension made me fly through this book faster than I had expected. I am happy that he was chosen to read this classic horror tale. I look forward to more audiobooks read by him.
In the end, Pet Sematary was a five-star tale of terror that stayed with me long after I read the last word. And even though I had viewed Mary Lambert's film many times, I was still surprised and chilled by King's novel. This is a great read for anyone not looking for a typical scary book, but a story filled with relatable characters and excellent character development that just happens to be a horrifying classic tale.
Have fun reading this week. Let me know in the comments below what you are reading.
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All written content (c) Copyright 2023 by Thomas Bahr II
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