10 Craziest Ways Horror Movie Characters Have Returned From The Dead

3. Pet Sematary - Ancient Burial Ground

The Lazarus Effect
Paramount Pictures

For a while there, one of the most regularly visited tropes of the horror genre was the use of an ancient Indian burial ground.

While something like Poltergeist chose to explore the monetary greed of building over just such a site, Pet Sematary - originally a 1983 novel from the legendary Stephen King - opts to use a burial ground as a way to reanimate the dead.

Initially used to bring back dead pets, it doesn't take long before the tale uses its central MacGuffin to pose questions about whether or not it's right and proper to give in to our heartache and bring back our own deceased loved ones. In particular, that original movie sees the young son of the Creed family buried in the cemetery site and bought back to life after he was tragically mowed down by a truck.

Of course, things don't exactly go smoothly - with the resurrected Gage Creed being a murderous, demented brat.

A much-maligned sequel movie would follow in 1992, and last year saw King's original story given a fresh lick of paint with the Jason Clarke-headlined redo.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.