When Dr. Louis Creed takes a new job and moves his family to the idyllic rural town of Ludlow, Maine, this new beginning seems too good to be true. Despite Ludlow’s tranquility, an undercurrent of danger exists here. Those trucks on the road outside the Creed’s beautiful old home travel by just a little too quickly, for one thing…as is evidenced by the makeshift graveyard in the nearby woods where generations of children have buried their beloved pets. Then there are the warnings to Louis both real and from the depths of his nightmares that he should not venture beyond the borders of this little graveyard where another burial ground lures with seductive promises and ungodly temptations. A blood-chilling truth is hidden there—one more terrifying than death itself, and hideously more powerful.
Pet Sematary Horror Book Review Blog
The year was 1989 when Pet Sematary was released in theaters, and I was just shy of my ninth birthday. By this time, I was already an avid fan of horror even though most of my experience watching horror movies involved an adult, usually my mother, with her hand obstructing my eyes from watching the nasty bits. Oh, but there were still the sounds of something horrific happening that piqued my interest and terrified me simultaneously. It was no surprise then when the trailer to Stephen King’s Pet Sematary launched on the tube that I begged my dad to take me to see it. Besides, how scary can a movie about a dead cat come back from the grave really be?
Needless to say, my dad took me anyway to The Dale movie theater on 233rd Street in the Bronx to see it. I remember it clearly as it was the first and only horror movie to make me cry like a baby. For those familiar with the movie, I’m pretty sure you know what scene I’m referring to. It was a moment etched into my mind for years to come, and to this very day, the scene is a punch to the gut every time I see it, which is not often enough. Part of me thinks that I deliberately avoid watching the movie because of said scene. Is the scene scary? No, it is terrifying in a realistic sort of way in that it could and, more likely than not, has, unfortunately, happened.
Shortly after I viewed the film, despite my being traumatized, I begged my dad, again, to let me purchase the mass paperback. It was beyond me why I wanted to possess this book that was sure, like the movie, to traumatize me yet again. But I never read the novel for the simple reason that the book was just too darned thick for my liking. Lord knows I tried, but the task was too daunting, and eventually, I gave up. I still have that very same paperback on my bookshelf. Pet Sematary was, as far as I can remember, the second Stephen King book that I owned. The first is a paperback copy of Night Shift, which I reviewed here not too long ago.
So many years later, now, as a married adult with two kids, I committed to reading and finishing Pet Sematary. While the film adaptation of the book is probably one of the better from King’s body of work, the novel is still better, as is usually the case. The one exception to this was Sometimes They Come Back, where I felt that the television movie was better than the short story it was based on as it was featured in King’s Night Shift collection of stories. Having never read Pet Sematary, I was not able to compare the film to the source material. Of course, now I can.
I cannot say that Pet Sematary is a timeless tale of good versus evil but, instead, after having read the book, it is a story about grief and loss and what we may be capable of doing to help cope with said loss. Louis Creed and his family move to the town of Ludlow, Maine, uprooting from their home in Chicago because of Louis’ new job as a doctor at the university. In the woods near their new home, there is a secret that awaits the unbeknownst family that will change the course of their lives. I can now say with certainty that the film adaptation of Pet Sematary was rather faithful to the book. As one would expect, there are changes. But, in my opinion, the changes are not too drastic to take away from the overall feel of the movie. However, the film took a more horror-esque approach, whereas the novel was slightly more tame in that manner in that King was able to bide his time with the horror, and it was not too in your face to distract you the narrative. Film being a visual medium relied on the jump scares, the special effects, the music, and well, the visuals to help move the story along, which is, of course, expected. There was, of course, that one scene mentioned above that had a significant impact, and it is here where the film really shines because it was at this moment that I really understood what the movie was about. Everything prior to this scene was horror porn. After this pinnacle scene in the film, the rug was pulled from under my feet, and I thought – that just happened! In essence, it got real in a heartbeat and extremely grim.
The novel shared this same sentiment. However, it was drawn out much longer, and I had a clearer sense of what Louis and his family were going through because King put us right in his head. As a father myself, the scene’s impact was that much greater, and I understand why King has stated that Pet Sematary may be his most frightening book. And yes, the book is frightening as the film omits a few things that give credence to the thing that might be the source of the power in the pet cemetery. I won’t spoil it. To this point, The Shining was my favorite Stephen King novel, that is until I finally got around to reading Pet Sematary. I absolutely loved this novel and has become my number #1 Stephen King book by far (thus far?)! King’s writing ability is a great testament to the craft he is a master at bringing his characters to life, no pun intended.
“Sometimes dead is better.”
Stephen King, Pet Sematary