Screen to Scream: Grace and Pet Sematary

People might remember W. W. Jacobs’ short story “The Monkey’s Paw” (SPOILERS! for this particular story, if you haven’t already read it). The father uses the monkey’s paw to wish for a large sum of money, then his son dies in a factory accident, which pays off the exact amount the father had asked for. The father, knowing and having been shown that the paw’s wishes bring the worse kind of luck, wishes to have his boy brought back to life. The story implies that the son isn’t anywhere close to what he was in life (End of spoilers!).  Jacobs’ story is often used to talk about how you should never make wishes. EVER. But also consider what the story says about grief, particularly of parents, and what devil’s bargains, paw or no paw, parents would make to end that grief, particularly in today’s Screen to Scream pairing.

Look at the cover of the film Grace and you’ll simply see a blood-spattered baby bottle, which already tells the person who’s thinking of bringing this home that they are tackling some very mature subject matter, particularly for parents. Madeline is a young mother that thinks she is doing everything right by her baby, from eating the right foods to going to a respected midwife, but she loses her unborn child. Madeline insists on carrying the baby to term and Grace is born, alive and seemingly healthy. But there is the issue her particular diet of fresh human blood. So begins the metaphor of the vampiric Grace literally sucking the life out of her mother that offers a dark interpretation of motherhood’s sacrifices. Grace discovers what her daughter is by discovering, through typical parental trial and error, just what her daughter prefers for sustenance. Throughout the movie, apart from a bossy mother-in-law, there is no doubt of Madeline’s devotion to grace. Unfortunately, that devotion, a trait heralded among the best parents, actually becomes a tragic flaw.   

That flaw also exists in Stephen King’s Pet Sematary, with some minor differences. Madeline had birthed her child and accepted what it is and to sacrifice Grace would be as painful to Madeline as feeding her. The father in Sematary, Dr. Louis Creed, has pleasant memories of the child he lost. The readers also get to know him. When introduced to what the burial ground beyond the breakfall can do, it is a temptation that tugs at his broken heart and he willingly commits acts such as lying to his family up to burial desecration to try and heal that heart. He has the chance to go on, to try and heal himself, to hold onto his pleasant memories, to grieve, but he cannot bear the grief, which leads him to his bargain with the ground beyond the Pet Sematary and the tragedy that follows.

Both stories deal with subject matter that many of us, parents especially, do not like to think about: the possibility of outliving your children. For some, the scenario is too awful to contemplate, yet these stories have parental loss and grief as a main theme. To actually touch upon those subjects, some would say, should be unthinkable. But horror is often supposed to dramatize and give shape to the horrible, the unthinkable, if only to have the reader appreciate their lives once they close the book or turn off their DVD players. Who knows? Parents, after experiencing both terrifying tales, might appreciate their children more and understand the meaning they give to their lives, particularly if they are forced to contemplate what would happen if that meaning were taken away.