Pet Sematary Puns

https://www.cinemablend.com/movies/theres-a-stephen-king-classic-that-guillermo-del-toro-wants-to-adapt-and-it-sounds-amazing

I'm sure this adaptation is just another name on the long list of movies Del Toro wants to make, but never will make, but I can't help but get excited thinking about what he could do with the novel. The original flick was well intentioned by hampered by some really bad acting and cutting out of a lot of the most horrifying parts of the novel. The newer adaptation is a hot mess with no real redeeming value.

If Del Torro went all in, gave us a scary Gage, gave us the Wendigo, gave us that overwhelming sense of dread and grief... Just thinking about the possibility gives me goosebumps. Sort of like those loons down by Prospect...

I know this isn’t exactly an original take and King in the forward even remarks that it is one of his most hopeless novels. This story really hurt me in a way I feel I could never re-read it. I went in expecting a story about zombie pets terrorizing a young family, and was given a much more morbid story about the reality of death, loss, and the randomness of it all.

I think what really scarred me about is how King tapped into that “invincible” feeling so well. “Death doesn’t come to our circle”. I know personally as someone who has experienced losing loved ones, but not in tragic ways, that idea sometimes come to me. You read about a family dying tragically or a young kid losing his life in some horrible way, and it’s sad but in your mind it’s just “oh that’s just some other family. Oh that wouldn’t happen to me” but Pet Senators shows how it can, and how random it could be. Take away the ghosts and the Wendigo and the resurrections, and a story about a happy young family losing their toddler to a speeding trucks is just too much

Im about to finish 'Salem's Lot and I really can't choose between these two books, pls help guys.

I needed a few moments to gather my thoughts after I set this book down. I have just turned the last page, and I can already feel Stephen King's prose haunting at me and taking root.

Spoilers below.

Stephen King's strong point was never in his endings. However, that is not true for this novel. There is something so incredibly masterful about Pet Sematary: it builds and builds and builds at that grief and at that fear.

What is experienced with this novel was a peculiar kind of horror. Not horror at gore, at spooky things that hide in the woods (though these spooky wood creatures are present), but at something that is instead so human and relatable.

What Stephen King showed me here is the horror of love. Love, present in Louis's every thought and action. Even in his resentment there is a deep love. For Rachel, for his children, for stupid little cat Winston Churchill. Then he showed us the capacity of that love, the depths it dragged Louis down to. The worst part is that now we have seen the depth of Louis's love, and instead of anger at his actions, we just feel a tragic understanding.

There was no way, once he had been introduced to the true power of the Pet Sematary, that Louis would not have done what he did. There was no world where he would not have made that first perilous and horrible journey to bury cat, and then the even worse one to bury Gage. There is also no worlds where he would not have done the same with Rachel's body, and waited patiently for her to return.

The thing about Louis's love is that it is desperate. It makes excuses. It clings, and it clings so hard that there is no choice but to climb that downfall with a corpse in his arms.

Bravo, King. King and death go hand in hand- the thoughts he has surrounding it, the conclusions he comes to. Pet Sematary, I believe, is King's thesis on death, love, and grief.

Slow clap

I'm just sitting here both upset and a bit... Tired. So bleak. I never thought it would be bleaker than revival, but I now fully believe that this should be listed as his best work.

I'm off to try and read Salem's Lot now, and imagining a world where Rachel had turned the car over the Jerusalem's Lot instead.

I just finished pet sematary and that ending was fucking chilling. Like Jesus Christ man.

It was the mid-80s and I was a junior in HS and a huge Stephen King fan. One day, I just fell terribly ill and things just got progressively worse from there. After a couple days of being really, really sick, my parents took me to the hospital, where I was quickly admitted and examined.

The doctors who were examining me happened to be from another country, and were speaking to each other in a foreign language, so I had no idea what was being said until I heard two words of English: “spinal meningitis”.

My parents showed no recognition, but I had read Pet Sematary. I knew nothing about the disease except how terrible King made it sound when describing Rachel’s sister. So I immediately panicked and told my mom that I was going to die, because I had a sickness I’d read about in a Stephen King book, and it was BAD. She tried to calm me down by pointing out that his books were fiction, but I explained that it wasn’t like some supernatural fictional situation in the book. It wasn’t even a main character in the book. It was a traumatic story about a relative whose sickness was so bad it disturbed the main character for life.

Suddenly, my mom got the point and went into panic mode, babbling to the doctors about Stephen King and pet cemeteries…the doctors thought she was a complete lunatic. 🤣🤣

Spoiler alert: I lived, and while it definitely wasn’t fun, it wasn’t quite as bad an experience as Mr King made it sound. I’m just glad the movie hadn’t come out yet at the time, or I’d have been even more freaked out.

Hi all, just joined this page so I hope I’m bringing a fresh theory to the table. I literally just thought of this as my fiancé and I were discussing book to movie adaptations.

My theory is that Jud is the bad guy. He’s portrayed as the helpful old neighbor next door, but let’s be honest here: he knew exactly what can of worms he was opening when he told Louis what to do with Church. He had seen what happened when things were buried at the burial ground. He knew what terrible things could come from it, and he suggested it anyway. Over a dead cat. I think Jud was some sort of protector of the burial grounds, placed there to ensure that the burial ground continued to get fresh bodies.

Specifically with Rachel - do you think Louis was right in assuming he waited too long with Gage? Do you think Rachel came back pretty much herself, or do you think she was "wrong"?

Hi there, so I read the book today and promptly proceeded to watch the 2019 film adaptation. How did you guys feel about the movie? The ending was sure alternative huh? I was not expecting that but it seemed quite an interesting ending nonetheless.

And what a roller coaster. I’ve seen the 80’s version a few times, so I new most of the big beats going in, but you know how things change when they get adapted (or are buried in tainted land). I was fascinated by the descriptions of the pets not being quite right after they came back, and how Judd’s parents immediately knew what he had done.

I’d have liked to get a historical story of someone else being brought back, as a lead in to the direct experience Judd shared.

I know some people hate ambiguity, but I loved not knowing caused Victors spirit to be bound to Lewis and Ellie. Or how he had knowledge of the burial ground and how it would twist what it brought back.

I also feel the book ending is better than either of the movies. The cliff hanger just hits better than seeing Rachel with the knife, or the zombie family.

I know the new one is very hit or miss, I thought it was ok but haven't seen the original in a while. I remember the changes they made but don't fully remember which one I would consider "scarier". My girlfriend hasn't seen either so I was wondering which to show her first? The original or the newer? I know it's very subjective, but just wanted to get some fellow horror fans thoughts?

Does it repair the dead who are buried there?

I ask primarily because of Gage and the manner of his death. The kiddo was hit by a semi and then dragged for 100ft. Realistically he'd be nothing but meat and a streak of gore, yet he comes back whole when buried.

I know the book mentions "There was nothing that could have been done for Gage even if Louis and Rachel did believe in dressing up their dead like mannequins and caking them in powder and makeup," and his casket is closed.

But realistically he'd be destroyed, as much a terrible death as that is for the little guy, I'd imagine he was mostly...meat...sealed in a leak proof bag (I've studied mortuary stuff in my spare time).

King doesn't shy away from Louis knowing what death does when he fears Pascow came back again, fearing he'd see an even more rotted and distorted corpse, so why would he think Gage would be whole enough to revive?

Did the Wendigo plant the idea and then repair Gage's body to use as a vessel?

Imo, Ari Aster should've directed the Pet Sematary remake. After seeing "Hereditary" I think he would've done the movie justice and gave us a movie adaptation so much closer to the novels' tone and subject matter.

Does anyone have a pet sematary fanedit? someone posted an extended version of the movie here on this subreditt but deleted the account and now the link is no longer available.

I had a huge reading block for years before I picked up Pet Sematary and read it in one day without being able to put it down. It was the first Stephen King book I had read so I figured I’d read another of his after. I started IT but I wasn’t a fan. I actually really don’t like horror, and IT was too scary for me. I don’t know why Pet Sematary didn’t scare me. But I would like something similar in terms of writing style and how well it flowed that I got so sucked in. My all time favourite author is Haruki Murakami. I quite liked the often mundaneness of Pet Sematary. Maybe there’s another King novel similar to Pet Sematary in terms of style and lowkey horror? I’m currently reading The Power of the Dog and enjoying it, but not anywhere near how much I enjoyed Pet Sematary. I am welcome to any authors!

Is there any sort of undead similar to the revived dead of Pet Sematary? In the story there is an old Native American burial ground that was "soured" by the presence of a Wendigo.

Any dead creature, be it animal, or human, who is buried there is revived, but they come back...wrong.

Animals will generally just act off. Church the cat was hit by a car, his neck broken. When revived his neck was healed but he was clumsier, no longer having the grace of a feline, and was far more vicious and sadistic in his hunting, killing and dismembering small animals seemingly for fun.

Later when Gage, a 2yo boy hit by a semi is buried there, he comes back seemingly whole (although the book describes his injuries as devastating and requiring a closed casket). He and other humans brought back are evil.

They know secrets of those they encounter that they shouldn't, they show healed wounds in disturbing ways, can change their voices to those of others to gain an advantage over victims, and seem to excel in physical and psychological torture.

Essentially they are zombies...but not mindless undead, and do seem to have supernatural powers.

If nothing matches this I wouldn't be surprised, but I think it'd be an interesting concept for a story in PF.

and this update has the bonus of my autocorrect foresight to not spell Sematary as Semarang repeatedly.

It gets very scary. Very. And so good. One of his best I’ve read yet! Thank you all for the reassurance and push to finish it.

The thing about Zelda and what made her scary was that she was never a monster but she was seen as a monster by her sister, Rachel, and it was through Rachel's eyes that we are left terrified. But was Zelda a monster? Did Rachel intentionally kill her sister after being forced to take care of her by herself and she created this image of her sister to excuse what she did?

That ambiguity wasn't shown in PET SEMATARY but the original was able to still make Rachel's arc into the most terrifying segment of the movie. I know some people find Denise Crosby a ham in it but I thought she was great at making us feel but also wonder about Rachel.

And the Zelda they had in that movie was genius. I know people hated it because Zelda should look like a sick kid and had her be this grown man playing a little girl but you see, everything we see about Zelda comes from Rachel so we're not meant to see a sick child, we're meant to see a horrifying figure from Rachel's mind and a child's view is often one of extremes.

A remake of my earlier edition with the same title which I made in 2019. This one is extended, with all the cut and extended scenes. The music re-score is from the same soundtrack but also some overdubs of others. This is also on request, but the remake was done anyway. In the earlier cut, I used Zelda from the original, but I stick now with the Zelda from 2019. The idea is to use one flashback from the original when Jud talks about Tim Batterman, but I must see of this works. However, this is from an import blu-ray and with the same sound in DTS 7.1 It will be ready this month and when it's done I give another post. That's it.

I read Pet Sematary when I was very young and don't remember much of it. I was probably also too young to fully appreciate all it's themes, and I've since heard people praise it a lot.

I can’t get a grip on everything that happened. First thought was did Louis really get away but then everything I read hit me and I know he couldn’t have but at the same time did he win? And what is winning in this book?! This goes further than not everything is black and white, like I can’t even despise what he thinks he’s doing. Ugh. My heart.

Edit: I spelt Louis wrong… 🙃

...and I think it is one of my favourites from SK. Really enjoyed whole thing - the setup and the initial tone, dreamelike parts on the burial grounds, stress when retriving the body and dramatic final. Great book! Which one of Kings novels do you consider similiar?

I read Stephen King's original novel and I loved it, watched this movie and actually thought it was damn good. However, I haven't seen the original 1989 movie so maybe that changed how I viewed this movie.

Just finished this... roller-coaster horror ride of a novel. Definitely a bit shellshocked at the moment but really pleased with the ending.

Anyhow, I was just curious about something that was mentioned really early in the novel but never mentioned again.

"His (Louis's) one visit to a whore in Chicago six years ago seemed like that now; they were equally unimportant[...]"

I really thought this would come up again? Why did he cheat on Rachel randomly one time, and have it never crop up in other ways in King's depiction of Louis's and Rachel's marriage?? And did she know? and why didn't Louis reminisce about this occurrence when Jud mentioned his experience with prostitutes? I thought it was really weird and out of place.

Additionally, I wonder at the infidelity on Jud's behalf as well. Again, seemed really out of place and random... and I wonder if the purpose is just to add further bleakness and hopelessness to the story? Like even this old couple had the husband periodically cheating on his wife.

And lastly, what are everyone's thoughts on Norma's alleged infidelity, claimed by devil-Gage right before he kills Jud? Is it true? I personally doubt it and feel that evil-Gage was just trying to catch Jud off guard, feeding off his paranoid conscience that is so typical of someone who has been unfaithful to there SO.

Anyways, killer book (pun not intended) and I'll not forget it any time soon!

Looking for these major items on wishlist! Doctor Sleep, Inception, Alien, Endgame, Pet Sematary 2019/1980, all Best Buy/4k. Sealed is preferable but not required. Thank you all in advance

What's everyone's opinion on it? I just finished the novel and decided to watch the 2019 version. I personally didn't like it. I hated what they did to the characters.