American Horror: Wilderness in 19th Century America and Pet Sematary

This is a short essay I wrote utilizing various sources from my History of Horror Films class. In it I discuss the ideology of "American Horror", the concept of "the Wilderness" within American Horror, and how these concepts are demonstrated in Pet Sematary, a contemporary American Horror film.


HIS357
Troy
30 July 2009

American Horror Short Essay: Wilderness in 19th Century America and Pet Sematary

As covered in some of the readings for class, the “American Gothic” tradition in horror differs from that of European horror in several ways; one notable difference is the idea of “Frontier Gothic”, and in particular, the idea of the wilderness as dangerous. When America was first settled, the country was one great big wilderness, inhabited by tribes of Indians and species of animals, all unknown and many potentially dangerous. Even today, large areas of the country are still uninhabited, rugged terrain, the kind you wouldn’t want to be stranded in without food or water. Yet the temptation to explore such a vast wilderness fraught with danger often proves irresistible for the characters in horror stories.

In Alan Lloyd Smith’s essay on American Gothic Fiction, he underscores the importance of the concept of wilderness as treacherous especially when compared to what had, until then, been considered dangerous in European mentality (Castles and the like). Smith quotes Charles Brockden Brown’s consideration of the significance of the wilderness to Americans: “the incidents of Indian hostility, and the perils of the…wilderness, are far more [frightening to an American audience]” (Smith 79). Yet in spite of all this imminent danger there is an inherent yearning of the human spirit to not only explore and conquer the wilderness, but also to retreat to it as a means of getting in touch with one’s inner self.

In Pet Sematary, a 1989 film directed by Mary Lambert and based upon a novel by Stephen King, our hero (?) Dr. Louis Creed believes himself to be above falling prey to such superstitions. A man of science, he chooses to enter the wilderness (in this case, a burial ground long-ago abandoned by Indians, who recognized the power there as inherently evil). Because Louis Creed is a scientist, like so many European explorers that came before him he callously disregards any sort of religious or supernatural belief (as evidenced by his discussion of heaven and hell with his daughter). By the end of the film, he has committed a number of ethically questionable deeds — the murders of his wife and neighbor are a direct result of his actions — yet Louis still does not learn from his transgressions and continues to disrespect the very real beliefs of the Indians. Even though the resurrecting power of the graveyard is clearly unholy and must never be used, Louis still fancies himself somehow more powerful. Louis ultimately believes he can tinker with the Indians’ supernatural force of resurrection of the pet sematary, and bend it to suit his wishes. He believes he can go wherever he wants and do whatever he wants. In a sense, he believes he can play God. Of course, he is wrong, and the moral of the story is never to fancy oneself greater than the wilderness or to disregard someone else’s beliefs, as you will always lose out in the end.

According to David S. Lovejoy in his essay “Satanizing the American Indian”, the European colonists considered the Indians of America to have had two prevalent spirits, one good and one bad. Lovejoy informs us that “emphasis” was (and, to a certain extent still is, as we see in Pet Sematary) put on the latter, whom the Indians “feared and propitiated” (Lovejoy 611). Smith also talks about the importance of “the self” in the Frontier Gothic/American Gothic movement. With increased space such as the wilderness of America, people were no longer confined to small areas. People were finally able to “get away from it all” and presumably to use the meditative isolation of the wilderness to find themselves. The problem with this idea is, we may not like the person we find when get there. The potential awfulness of finding oneself in a tortured “inward state of mind” (Smith 79) therefore becomes a classic characteristic of American horror. In the writings of Henry David Thoreau (whose Walden was a virtual instruction manual on how to use the wilderness to gain inner peace and enlightenment), that this desire to explore nature is thus ingrained in each of us, and thus we are willing to risk the perils of the wilderness that we may be able to understand it better. From this concept is born the story of wilderness as horror in the American tradition, in which our protagonists struggle to find themselves in the wilderness, always finding themselves somewhere between enlightenment and jeopardy. The “wilderness” in Pet Sematary — and by extension the religion of the Indians— is clearly a force greater than the “self” of the human protagonist who has chosen to violate it; in this instance, having ventured into unknown territory ultimately causes Louis’ descent into madness. Pet Sematary is an interesting example in that it embodies not only the idea of horror as “the other” (the mystical Indian religion, the evil force of the cemetery, the threat of the wilderness itself) but also of “the self” (Louis’ internal ethical struggle and his ultimate descent into madness), both of which are characteristics of modern Gothic storytelling and which therefore make Pet Sematary truly a tale of American Horror.