10 Fascinating Stories Behind Stephen King's Most Famous Books

9. Pet Sematary Was Inspired By A Real Pet Sematary Near Stephen King's House

Pet Sematary tells the haunting, macabre story about a man named Louis Creed who uses the power of an ancient burial ground to revive his deceased son, Gage, after he's run over and killed by a truck. Gage comes back to life, but something about him has changed... for the worst. In the book, of course, the burial ground has long been used as the "Pet Sematary" of the novel's title - a place where children bury their pets after they've died.

It's a dark and complex novel with a gripping plot - one that Stephen King was inspired to write when he found himself in a situation similar to that of the book's premise.

Which is to say, the scenario is reminiscent of a period in the author's life in which he was living in Orrington, Maine as a university teacher - and next to a busy road that would often claim the lives of the neighbourhood pets. As a result (and just like in the book), the local kids built a Pet Sematary of their own in a field close to where King's house was located.

Here's where the parallels with the book grow really strong. King's daughter's cat, Smucky, was killed on the road, and she buried it in the Pet Sematary thereafter. This incident is echoed in the novel when Gage's cat, Church, is killed in the same way and later buried in the Pet Sematary. Then there's the big event that influence King - his son Owen was nearly killed running towards the busy road, which later influenced the idea of Gage's death.

Essentially, Pet Sematary was King framing incidents in his own life as a horror novel, but it's amazing to see how much of the book happened (or almost happened) in real life.