MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

As Stephen King’s 1983 novel, Pet Sematary, opens, Dr. Louis Creed is moving his wife, Rachel, and their young children, Ellie and Gage, to Ludlow, Maine. The Creeds are an ordinary family moving to an ordinary, albeit inexplicably un-fenced, house on a notoriously dangerous road. Soon, to their discomfort, they learn that local children maintain a “Pet Sematary” in the woods behind their home. Elderly neighbor Jud Crandall befriends Louis, letting him in on one of Ludlow’s many secrets: beyond the ritualistically maintained “Sematary” lies an ancient Micmac burial site, a place with the power to restore dead creatures to life. Bemused, Louis fails to understand that Jud is in the thrall of the force inhabiting the burial ground. Jud downplays the strength, reach, and nature of the evil feeding on vulnerable, bereaved people, allowing the demonic power to gradually seduce Louis.

When Ellie’s beloved cat, Church, is “used up” by the road while Rachel and the children are out of town, the empirical physician is unable to resist Jud’s invitation to bury the cat out in the mysterious beyond. The Church who returns is a creature distasteful and foul. He lurches. He lumbers. He kills animals of increasing size and power, dismembering them at Louis’s feet with great relish. He is a revenant in a cat’s body. Although more gruesome and tragic events occur as the story progresses, the transformation of Church is rich material. This paper pays close attention to Louis’s relationship with Church to provide insight into the ways that the supernatural power exploits his insecurities and fears. Ultimately, the success of the demon out in the beyond relies on its ability to contact, control, and conquer the inner demons of its victims.