"Sometimes, dead is better."
I firmly remember the first time I saw Pet Semetary. I couldn't have been more than nine years old at the time and my Dad had rented the movie. He was watching it one weekend morning and I sneaked into the living room, sitting on the couch at the back of the room while my dad was lying down in front of the T.V. It wasn't until my mom came in towards the end and asked if he was really letting me watch the film that he noticed I was there. And I just remember him shrugging and saying, "Too late now."
The film opens with the Creed family moving into their gorgeous new home in the small town of Ludlow, Maine. The one downside of the property is that it is just off a very busy highway and trucks from the nearby refinery come barreling down it at regular intervals. Everything seems perfect. Louis (played by Dale Midkiff) is a doctor with a new job at the local university hospital. Rachel (played by Denise Crosby) loves their new home and thinks it's perfect for their two kids, Rachel (played by Blaze Berdahl) and Gage (played by Miko Hughes). They also soon meet their new neighbor Jud Crandall (played by Fred Gwynne, in a performance that has been frequently satirized on "South Park," most directly in the episode "Marjorine"). After the family is settled in, Jud takes the family on a hike up the path behind their house, which leads to the local pet cemetery. Rachel in particular finds the place unsettling
While the rest of the family is off on vacation for Thanksgiving, a bit of tragedy strikes when Jud and Louis discover the family cat, Church, is dead on the side of the road. Rather than let Louis tell Ellie her cat is dead, Jud takes Louis to a secret place beyond the local pet cemetery, an Indian burial ground that has resurrection powers. Of course, he doesn't tell Louis this until the cat re-appears alive and mostly well the following day. Curious, Louis asks if anyone has ever buried a person up there and Jud lies and tells him no. Of course, this being a Stephen King story, we know right where this is going. Now, I'm not going to divulge any more of the plot on the off chance one of my faithful readers has not seen this one yet. Let me just say that the movie is unmerciful towards it's characters who do things in the fits of nightmarish grief that would seem idiotic to sane people like us.
Pet Sematary is, as I've heard on more than one occasion, the only book Stephen King ever wrote that really scared him. He states when he finished the book the film was based on he had to put it away for awhile before he finally published it. It's easy to see why, considering how dark it gets as the film goes on. I know it's one that has stuck with me ever since I saw it as a wee one and is not one that I've watched a ton. It is certainly one of the most effective Stephen King adaptations out there, probably in no small part due to the fact that he wrote the screenplay and makes a cameo in the film as well.
Every year, my friends and I get together for an all night party we have dubbed "Horrorfest" during the weekend before Halloween. One year, I brought this one to watch and I have to say that was one of the best and most memorable Horrorfest experiences I've had. As the film went on, we got progressively more and more vocal chorus of variations of "No! Why would you do that?" I still look back on it and laugh that a silly horror movie could so successfully push all our buttons like that and get us so worked up.
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