I remember being a kid and somehow seeing the music video for The Ramones' Pet Sematary theme song before ever knowing what Pet Sematary was. I thought the song was awesome, and it led me down the path of being a huge Ramones fan. (If The Ramones aren't my top favorite band, they're at least in a close top three. It's also cool that they got the Ramones to do the theme since the novel had a few references to the band.) But the clips from the movie which were used in the video interested me, and I wanted to check it out. If the song for the movie was awesome, how awesome must the movie be?
Well, I didn't get to find out for a while. I remember being excited renting Pet Sematary. I'm just watching along, no big deal -- "Where's this movie headed?" -- and, for some reason, I got creeped out by the scene of a bloodied and wounded Victor Pascow being carried into the hospital. There's no real preparation for it, the movie's mainly been a dull sitcom of the Reeds' moving day, and then BAM, a bloody head filling the frame, with the commotion of panicked crowds and rushing helpers. I think there's something about the scene beginning in slow motion that I found off-putting, too.
OK, Kid Radu, suck it up, it's a horror movie. And then the second shock -- Louis pronounces Victor dead, and everybody leaves the room. Louis sits there, saddened, his first day on the job and already he couldn't save someone...and then, with a jolt, Victor grabs Louis, spouting guttural nonsense. I was ready to walk out of the movie then but wanted to stick with it. It was a simple little jolt scare, and looked like Louis' hallucination, I'm sure that's it for that character. And then the clincher...
The disgusting, grey, vein-y, rotting corpse version of Victor shows up in the doorway of Louis' bedroom, chipper, casual, but with that supernatural echo effect to his voice. "Hi, doc!" I don't know what it was that bugged me about Victor so much, but this part freaked the shit out of me, and I turned the movie off, with no intention of finishing it. I didn't know how that guy pertained to things, how it fit in with a pet cemetery, but I wasn't going to stick around and find out. That's not all...
Later that night I had a nightmare about Victor and was 100% convinced I woke up from that nightmare and saw Victor standing in MY bedroom doorway, same as in the movie. I don't know if this was actually the nightmare, or if I was half-awake when I "saw" him, but it still scared the shit out of me. I'm pretty sure I woke up in one of those over-the-top manners, like in that episode of M*A*S*H when a resurfaced memory of nearly drowning causes Hawkeye to wake up from nightmares screaming his head off and piss the bed. I never wanted to watch that movie again...
But I soon afterward did. And the funny thing about Victor, and what I've come to like about the character over the years, is that he's a complete good guy! He looks and sounds monstrous, but he's there to help Louis and, eventually, the Creed family. I just find that brilliant about the character, that someone so horrifying looking is actually just totally decent and kind. Victor was just a college student who was tragically hit by a truck; because Louis tried to save him and stayed with him in his final moments of life, when his soul departed, Victor's spirit returns to help Louis, whose own life, and the lives of his family members, are in danger. I'd say he's like a horror version of Jacob Marley, but Marley was a cruel character who tries to compensate by helping Scrooge as a ghost.
The other tragedy is that Victor completely fails in saving the Creeds. He warns Louis to avoid the Indian burial ground, but Louis doesn't listen. He tries to get through to the Creeds through Ellie and her Shining ability, but she's discredited as a kid just having bad dreams; and then he guides Rachel as she tries to return home to Louis as quickly as possible, to prevent him from harm or doing harm. There's a limit to how much Victor is able to intervene, his most direct contact being through Louis, who ignores him.
And when everything goes to pieces -- the supernatural Gage killing Jud and Rachel, Louis losing his mind -- Victor appears one more time to apologize to the now mad Louis, who's on his way to the burial ground to bury Rachel. Victor warns him one last time, and is again ignored. He was a good man, Victor Paxcow. The funny thing is, he's not entirely essential to the story. You can take him out and more or less have the same movie. But he's such an interesting addition, giving the movie just an extra shot of creepiness and at being so unsettling. As grotesque as he is kind, he's such a memorable character and part of the movie.
Actor Brad Greenquist does a great job with the role, providing the right amount of creepiness, but also eventually bringing the movie some of its only levity in the second half, without losing what makes this character so unnerving and distinct. And the make-up design and effects are both just disgustingly brilliant. I've long wanted an action figure for this character that haunted me, but ended up becoming one of my favorite horror heroes. I once again had to take it upon myself to have a custom made...
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