Pets beyond the grave

Press, 12 May 1984, Page 20

Pets beyond the grave

Pet Sematary. By Stephen King. Hodder and Stoughton, 1984. 368 pp. $19.95.

(Reviewed by

A. J. Petre)

Stephen King is renowned for his vivid tales of the occult. “Pet Sematary” is satisfyingly bloodcurdling — a story of most fearful and horrible resurrections. Dr Louis Creed takes his wife and young family to Maine, where the doctor has a position at the university clinic. The family settles happily into an old colonial house and rapidly befriend their aged neighburs. Old Jud shows the family the “Pet Sematary” created by generations of local children in the woods behind the house. Near an ancient Indian burial ground, the pet cemetery has an air of mystery. There are whispers that some pets buried beyond it, in the land of the

Indians, have been seen again. When the loved cat of Creed’s daughter is run over, Jud and the doctor make a terrifying trip into the burial ground, and inter the cat there. It comes back — but it is oddly changed into an unpleasant creature that smells of dirt and corruption. There are dark rumours of people who have been buried up beyond the Pet Sematary, and who have been seen again. When death strikes the Creed household, it is understandable that the doctor, in his grief, should be tempted by such rumours, and even ignore the fearful warnings. King has produced another vivid, tautly-written chiller which will probably be regarded as a classic. Others write horror, but few do it as well or as convincingly.