“Pet Sematary” is a haunting, horrific, and hellacious take on what can be considered the most traumatic aspect of life- death. What gives “Pet Sematary” the kick that pushes it beyond a run of the mill horror film is how it approaches death. It exploits death. Personifying it and thereby placing it front and center. And unapologetically so. Much like in life, there’s no escaping death in “Pet Sematary.”
Death can easily be seen as the main antagonist in “Pet Sematary.” But it’s in how people handle death that is truly frightening. Mans’ inability to accept the unacceptable and face grief straight in the face is the true villain. Push a man far enough past his breaking point and his actions- despite all reason become the true personification of horror. Insane appears sane and the like. Death isn’t the real villain of this film. The actual villain is grief.
When watching this film you will no doubt have an inescapable, heavy feeling of dread. Through the eyes of Louis Creed, the film’s protagonist, that feeling comes first in the form of Victor Pascow. The victim of a car accident, Pascow dies shortly after arriving at the University of Maine where Louis is on his first day of work. Shockingly, Pascow addresses Louis by name right before dying. It’s only later that night when Pascow- now dead- comes to visit Louis when he takes him to the Pet Sematary and simultaneously introduces and warns him of it Remarking how the ground is sour yet almost tempting Louis and raising his awareness and intrigue to the site.
Pascow is the first of a number of memorable characters to come to life throughout the film.
Pascow plays the role of the weary traveler; always popping up like a blinking yield light as if to warn characters to proceed with caution. Fred Gwynne aka Herman Munster steals the show. Perfectly embodying the wise, old sage, Gwynne as neighbor Jud Crandall further builds on the mystique of the Pet Sematary. When the family cat Church is killed by a speeding eighteen wheeler, he assists Louis in burying Church in the Sematary. And wouldn’t you know it- Church comes back. Just not the same. A notion that will play to even more brutal results later in the film.
Dale Midkiff in a scene from “Pet Semetary” (Paramount Pictures, 1989).
It’s crazy Louis would bury the cat there. Much like Louis’ sanity, the film goes completely off the rails following the death of the Creed’s youngest child, Gage. Eerily similar and a fantastic payoff to the earlier foreshadowing, Gage dies in the same way as Church at the hands of a speeding truck. That scene is so unsettling words cannot even do it justice. And Louis’ face. It’s just so, so unsettling.
Despite Pascow’s earlier ambiguous warning and Jud’s story of a local boy who died only to be resurrected in the Sematary to monsterous results, Louis, in a state of complete grief and despair actually digs up his son and buries him in the Sematary. Like every girl in her early twenties, I can’t. I mean, he knows what will happen but he does it anyway. It’s insane. But you see, this is what I meant by grief being the true villain of the film. Louis knows what he is doing will not work. He has clear cut first-hand accounts and even saw it with Church and that wretched smell he came back with. But grief, man. It’s a bitch. Louis may have won the battle by using the Sematary to bring Gage back, but grief won the war.
Gage comes back like a real life Chucky. He’s small but packs a mighty punch. If you want to cringe out of your skin, just watch the scene when Jud comes to his demise. I’m going to be sick just talking about it. And Rachel. Louis’ wife Rachel. Poor, poor Rachel. The character who owns this movie and my nightmares to this day is Zelda. Her spinal-meningitis inflicted sister who she let choke to death as a child. Zelda’s appearances are brief but her impact is not. The creepy factor just never lets up with these characters
The definition of insanity some will say is repeating the same act over and over but hoping for different results. The same mistakes repeatedly haunt Louis each with worse and worse consequence. There’s so much death it’s hard to keep track. So, for those keeping score at home. A Car/Truck Kills Pascow, Church and Gage. Rachel “kills” Zelda. Gage Kills Jud and Rachel. Louis kills zombie Gage. Louis then- inexplicably, ridiculously, and against any possible remaining ability to comprehend common sense buries Rachel in the Pet Sematary only for her to come back and kill him. Insane! Louis was clearly driven insane but looking back, I question his sanity from that earlier scene with Pascow on.
Grief: One. The Creed Family: Zero. As hard and impossible as it may seem, sometimes against all odds, you need to find the inner strength to move forward. Sometimes you need to face the impossible and take time and look for a way to carry on. And above all you need to realize, that sometimes, dead is better.
– by Joe Hughes
