10 Endings Stephen King Actually Got Right
5. Pet Semetary
Pet Semetary is an infamous little novel (and, for King, it is little!) for being the one that even King said was too much! On finishing the first draft, the manuscript went into a drawer, remaining there until he was in the right head space to attack it again.
The death of a child is a horrific thing for anyone to have to deal with, though when that person has access to a burial ground that can raise the dead, there really is only one way that the story is going to go.
The evil of the Semetary is something is akin to nature being corrupted. There is almost nothing more innocent than a toddler - so for a toddler to become the bringer of death is a supremely terrifying thing.
The final moments of the book are like a look into hell itself. Louis Creed has lost his son, regained his body but lost the boy's soul. Through his foolishness, he also loses his wife. Rachael, depicted throughout as struggling but trying to support Louis in his grief, falls victim to the being that has possessed Gage, her resurrected son.
Louis, trapped in his own hell, puts down his son but brings his wife's body up to the Semetary. In the last line of the book, her hand clasps Louis' shoulder and we know that he's damned.