In the history of disturbing stories, Pet Sematary gets the nod for being one of the more disturbing of the lot. Stephen King created a story that was undeniably horrific in its application since the idea of bringing the dead back to life is nothing new, but bringing something back with them is a thought that one can’t help but think is uniquely terrifying. The fact that each person and animal brought back in the cursed ground exhibits aggressive to murderous tendencies is enough to make a person believe that this story would have spread throughout the community and beyond quite easily. But the fact is that small towns do know how to keep secrets, and the period in which this story was written makes it clear that this particular secret wasn’t going to get out so long as the locals knew how to keep things under wraps. But there was a lot more to this than was shown in the initial movie, or even in the reboot that was released in recent years. Therefore, a prequel could be a very good idea.
If nothing else it could shed a little more light on the idea of why the area beyond the cemetery is cursed, and why the town has kept the secret for so long. Many people are no doubt able to remember that this was explained in the first version of this movie, but there has always been the idea that there is far more that needs to be revealed. There is a risk that too much could be revealed and that the mystery of this story could be ruined. But there’s also the desire to see more, and more, and more until there’s nothing else to be seen. The tipping point, when one shows too much of the story and doesn’t hold anything back, is when a story could find another direction and thereby retain its allure, or when it could end up becoming empty and utterly useless to many people.
In terms of the movies and limited series that have been made from King’s stories, there have been good representations and bad ones, and then there have been a few that are kind of tough to lift up or try to forget. A lot of folks have claimed that the Pet Sematary movies aren’t worth the effort of watching, and yet plenty of others have made it clear that even if the movie isn’t true to the book, it’s still entertaining enough to enjoy. Thinking about a prequel brings up a lot of questions and the murky, unknown tale that’s yet to be told since King didn’t go this deep and made it more apparent that the mystery was to be kept in the shadows rather than be revealed entirely. But a prequel could possibly peel back the curtains just enough to get people on board with the idea of how the cemetery started, and why the town kept the secret for so long. There are obvious reasons to be certain since towns can rise and they can die by their secrets and how they’re received by others. But in the modern era, when people are demanding one story after another and want to know how everything works, keeping the secret of a story is becoming a bit more difficult.
A prequel to Pet Sematary isn’t a bad idea, since it does feel as though the depth of this tale could be stretched, if needs be, to accommodate what fans will want. But to be fair, it’s easier to think that the average writer will, at this point, throw up one explanation or another that will serve as a way to wall away the uncertainty that might come with a bigger reveal. The intricacies of this story are detailed enough to think that they could afford a writer the chance to go in one direction or another and not trip over their own feet when attempting to explain one part of the story in relation to the original tale that’s already been told. In other words, there is a lot of wiggle room left in this story to come up with a tale that would fit in a way that would please the audience and keep the mystery at the same time.
At the end of the day, this is a good idea, but the hope is that it won’t become a bad one since there’s a great deal of room for error as well. The unfortunate realization is that with a Stephen King story the expectation is that something will end up being subpar since this is just typically how things go. From the first movie that was based on one of his books to this current era, it’s fair to say that the track record has continued. But things have gotten better in some ways, and hopefully, this prequel will continue that trend.
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