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''Pet Sematary'' is a 1983 horror novel by American writer
Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror novels and has also explored other genres, among them Thriller (genre), suspense, crime fiction, crime, scienc ...
. The novel was nominated for a World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1984, and adapted into two films: one in 1989 and another in 2019.


Background

In 1979, King was writer-in-residence at the
University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Orono, Maine, United States. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the Flagship universitie ...
and the house his family was renting in Orrington, Maine, 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. 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 fiction, horror short story by English author W. W. Jacobs. It first appeared in ''Harper's Monthly'' in September, 1902, and was reprinted in his third collection of short stories, ''The Lady of the Barge'', late ...
" (1902), a short story by W. W. Jacobs about parents whose son resurrects after they wish for that to happen. The first draft was completed in May 1979. In June 1983, King published a short story, "The Return of Timmy Baterman", in the program for the event "Satyricon II" (also known as "DeepSouthCon 21"); this was incorporated into ''Pet Sematary''. 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.


Plot

Louis Creed, a doctor from
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
, is appointed director of the
University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Orono, Maine, United States. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the Flagship universitie ...
's campus health service. He moves to a house near the town of
Ludlow Ludlow ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire (district), Shropshire, England. It is located south of Shrewsbury and north of Hereford, on the A49 road (Great Britain), A49 road which bypasses the town. The town is near the conf ...
with his wife Rachel, their two young children, Ellie and Gage, and Ellie's cat, Winston Churchill ("Church"). Their elderly neighbor, Jud Crandall, warns Louis and Rachel about the highway that runs past their house, which is frequented by speeding trucks. Jud and Louis become close friends, with Louis viewing Jud as a kind of surrogate father. 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. Although the veneration and burial of beloved pets has been practiced since ancient times, burial grounds reserved specifically for animals were not common until the late 19th century. History Many hum ...
(misspelled "sematary" on the sign) maintained by the children of the town. Louis is charmed, but Rachel finds the concept of the pet cemetery disturbing. She herself finds it difficult to talk about death, following the traumatic death of her sister Zelda when they were both children. On campus, Louis is called to attend to Victor Pascow, a student who has been mortally injured in an automobile accident. Victor addresses his dying words to Louis, and seems to be warning him of something. The following night, Louis dreams that Pascow leads him to the deadfall at the back of the pet cemetery, and warns him not to go beyond that point. Louis wakes to find his feet and bedsheets covered with dried mud and pine needles. Around
Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in October and November in the United States, Canada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Germany. It is also observed in the Australian territory ...
, Ellie's cat, Church, is run over on the highway. Rachel and the children are visiting Rachel's parents in Chicago at the time, and Louis frets over breaking the bad news to Ellie. Jud takes him to the "sematary", supposedly to bury Church, but instead of stopping there, Jud leads Louis beyond the deadfall, to "the real cemetery": an ancient burial ground once used by the
Mi'kmaq The Mi'kmaq (also ''Mi'gmaq'', ''Lnu'', ''Mi'kmaw'' or ''Mi'gmaw''; ; , and formerly Micmac) are an Indigenous group of people of the Northeastern Woodlands, native to the areas of Canada's Atlantic Provinces, primarily Nova Scotia, New Bru ...
. Here, Louis buries the cat according to Jud's instructions. The next afternoon, Church returns home, but his whole manner has changed. The once docile cat is now an enthusiastic hunter, leaving the dismembered corpses of his kills for Louis to find. He also smells so bad that Ellie no longer wants him in her room at night. Jud confirms that Church has been resurrected, and admits that as a boy he went through a similar experience with a beloved dog. Louis, deeply disturbed, begins to wish that he had never listened to Jud. Several months later, two-year-old Gage is killed by a speeding truck on the same highway that caused Church's death. Overcome with despair, Louis considers bringing his son back to life in the same way he resurrected Church. Jud attempts to dissuade him by telling him the story of Timmy Baterman, the last person resurrected in this way. After being killed in action during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Timmy's body was shipped back to the United States, and his grieving father Bill buried Timmy in the secret burial ground. Timmy returned as an altered, malevolent version of himself, terrorizing the people of the town and revealing secrets that he had no way of knowing. Eventually Bill killed Timmy and set their house on fire before shooting himself. Jud believes that whatever came back was not Timmy, but a "demon" in possession of his corpse. He concludes that "sometimes, dead is better" and states that "the place has... its own evil purpose", and that Louis's knowledge of it may even have brought about Gage's death. Despite Jud's warning and his own reservations, Louis's grief and guilt spur him to act. He arranges for Rachel and Ellie to visit Rachel's parents, while he exhumes Gage's body and re-inters him in the burial ground. During this time Ellie has prophetic dreams, which spur Rachel to come home early. The resurrected Gage, who is no longer the child Louis knows, finds one of Louis's
scalpel A scalpel or bistoury is a small and extremely sharp bladed instrument used for surgery, anatomical dissection, podiatry and various handicrafts. A lancet is a double-edged scalpel. Scalpel blades are usually made of hardened and tempered ...
s and kills first Jud, then Rachel as she comes home. Aware that he has been manipulated, Louis kills both Church and Gage with lethal injections of
morphine Morphine, formerly also called morphia, is an opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin produced by drying the latex of opium poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as an analgesic (pain medication). There are ...
. Louis, driven insane by grief, burns the Crandall house down before returning to the burial ground with his wife's corpse, hoping that if he buries the body immediately, the result may be more favourable. One of his colleagues, Steve Masterton, sees him disappearing into the woods with Rachel's body. In the final scene, Louis sits indoors alone, playing solitaire, when Rachel's reanimated corpse walks up behind him and drops a cold hand on his shoulder.


Reception

The novel received mixed reviews: '' Kirkus'' describes it as over-long, and "moving so slowly that every plot-turn becomes lumberingly predictable." By contrast,''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' praises the: "subtlety of (the) behind-the-scenes malevolence." The ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' comments wryly on "the downright silly title", while saying: "if Mr. King's aim in writing ''Pet Sematary'' was not entirely serious... then why, somebody please tell me, was I holding on to his book so hard that my knuckles had begun to turn white?"


Adaptations


Films

The first film adaptation was released in 1989. Directed by Mary Lambert, it starred Dale Midkiff as Louis,
Fred Gwynne Frederick Hubbard Gwynne (July 10, 1926 – July 2, 1993) was an American actor, artist and author, who is widely known for his roles in the 1960s television sitcoms '' Car 54, Where Are You?'' (as Francis Muldoon) and '' The Munsters'' (as Herm ...
as Jud, Denise Crosby as Rachel, Brad Greenquist as Victor, Miko Hughes as Gage, and twins Blaze Berdahl and Beau Berdahl 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 as Louis Creed, Amy Seimetz as Rachel Creed, John Lithgow as Jud Crandall, Jeté Laurence as Ellie Creed, and twins Hugo Lavoie and Lucas Lavoie as Gage Creed. A prequel to the 2019 film was green-lit in February 2021 after producer
Lorenzo di Bonaventura Lorenzo di Bonaventura (; born January 13, 1957) is an American film producer and the founder and owner of Di Bonaventura Pictures. He is best known for producing the ''G.I. Joe (film series), G.I. Joe'' and Transformers (film series), ''Transfo ...
laid out plans for a prequel prior to the release of the 2019 film. '' Pet Sematary: Bloodlines'' was released on October 6, 2023, as a
Paramount+ Paramount+ (formerly known as CBS All Access in the United States and 10 All Access in Australia) is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, stream ...
exclusive release. Taking place fifty years prior, the film follows a young Jud Crandall played by Jackson White. On December 7, 2021, director
Guillermo del Toro Guillermo del Toro Gómez (; born 9 October 1964) is a Mexican filmmaker, author, and artist. His work has been characterized by a strong connection to fairy tales, Gothic fiction, gothicism and horror fiction, horror often blending the genres ...
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. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...
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 and starred John Sharian as Louis Creed, Briony Glassco as Rachel Creed and Lee Montague as Jud Crandall. The production was directed by Gordon House.


Music

The
Ramones The Ramones were an American punk rock band formed in the New York City neighborhood Forest Hills, Queens in 1974. Known for helping establish the punk movement in the United States and elsewhere, the Ramones are often recognized as one of th ...
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. Ice Nine Kills recorded a song called Funeral Derangements based of off the book and the movie. A music video was released, being an adaptation of the story.


References


External links

* {{Authority control 1983 American novels 1980s horror novels American horror novels Ghost novels Third-person narrative novels Adaptations of The Monkey's Paw Novels set in Maine Novels set in Chicago Novels about cats Novels about death Novels about spirit possession Fiction about cemeteries Fiction about resurrection American fantasy novels adapted into films American novels adapted for radio Novels by Stephen King Doubleday (publisher) books