Stephen King continues to be one of the best and most popular horror novelists out there, and his books have haunted the dreams of millions of fans around the world. The same can be said of the bone-chilling movies and shows that have been based on his works, although some, such as the disappointing adaptation of The Dark Tower, have troubled fans for all of the wrong reasons.
Many of King's works have been based in the fictional town of Derry, Maine, but that doesn't mean there are no real-life connections to the books he has written. Some of them have been based on the author's own experiences although not in the way you would imagine.
He has never had to battle a shapeshifting monster called Pennywise, for example, and he has never lived in a town overrun by vampires. But King did once say he was inspired to write Cujo after meeting a St Benard dog that took a disliking to him. And the author has also said that Annie Wilkes in Misery was a representation of the cocaine that once held him captive.
There are many other behind-the-scenes secrets from King's works that are worth knowing about, including the true story that inspired him to write the 1983 novel, Pet Sematary. We aren't suggesting his cat came back to life to terrorize him and his family but there are some similarities to his experiences that are in the book and the films.
'Pet Sematary' Is Stephen King's Darkest Novel
Stephen King wrote Pet Sematary early on in his career but due to the similarities to his own life, it took King four years to unleash the book onto the world. It was too dark and disturbing, even for him, not least because of the unrelenting darkness depicted within the book's tale of family tragedy and grief. Not only does a cat come back to life after being buried in the purposefully misspelt pet sematary, but a child does too.
In the 1989 movie, it was 2-year old Gage who rose from the grave, in scenes directly based on the novel. And in the 2019 movie, it was 8-year old Ellie that came back to life in a twist on King's original tale. The scenes that take place within both the book and the movies are hard to watch because of what happens to the young protagonists, so it's little wonder that King hesitated before releasing his book.
Thankfully, the scenes that relate to the author's life are far less disturbing than those portrayed on the page and the screen.
The True Story That Inspired 'Pet Semetary'
There is an ancient Indian burial ground in King's story and it is used by local children as a cemetery for their deceased pets. In both the book and the films, it is misspelled as 'Pet Sematary,' and this became one of the inspirations for King's dark tale of death and resurrection.
There really was a misspelled cemetery behind the author's house in Orrington, Maine, and it was a burial ground for local children to lay their dead pets to rest. Thankfully, none of them came back to life (as far as we know) so it wasn't the sinister place that was depicted in King's novel. In fact, it was a rather nice place according to an interview King gave to Entertainment Weekly, and he had cause to bury his daughter's cat there.
"My daughter’s cat died. And we buried it in the pet cemetery. That was Smucky. She made a little cross that said “Smucky — he was obedient.” And I mean, he was a cat. He wasn’t f—ing obedient! [Laughter.] But she loved that cat."
Sadly, Smucky died in a similar way to the Church, the cat that came back to life in King's work of fiction. There was a major truck route not far from the author's house and this is where his daughter's cat was killed. He then had to explain what had happened to Smucky to his daughter, as the father did in the fictionalized story.
On the Stephen King website, the author explains how his son Owen (now a novelist himself), could have been another casualty. He talks about this in relation to his book and the various ways his real-life experiences tied into the story that he eventually brought to the page.
"I can remember crossing the road, and thinking that the cat had been killed in the road--and (I thought) what if a kid died in that road? And we had had this experience with Owen running toward the road, where I had just grabbed him and pulled him back.
And the two things just came together--on one side of this two-lane highway was the idea of what if the cat came back, and on the other side of the highway was what if the kid came back--so that when I reached the other side, I had been galvanized by the idea, but not in any melodramatic way. I knew immediately that it was a novel."
King added his customary dose of the supernatural to the book he eventually wrote, partly inspired by a book he had read about the Wendigo, an ancient evil spirit that could allegedly possess people and drive them to cannibalism. Thankfully, this appears to be nothing but Indian folklore but it did provide the basis for the terrifying moments that appeared on both the page and the screen.
