WARNING! This article contains SPOILERS for Pet Sematary: Bloodlines!
Taking the timeline back 50 years, Pet Sematary: Bloodlines answers plenty of burning questions about Ludlow, the cemetery’s origins, and Jud Crandall himself. Jackson White leads Pet Sematary: Bloodlines’ cast and characters as young Jud Crandall, with this era in Ludlow’s history exploring the story-within-a-story told by older Jud in King’s 1983 Pet Sematary novel. Having lived in Ludlow his entire life, Jud was highly familiar with the powers of the Pet Sematary and the evils that lurked beyond the deadfall, but the critically-panned Stephen King prequel spinoff reveals that Jud’s connection to the burial ground is much deeper than the novel suggested.
In the original Pet Sematary story, Jud Crandall and his wife Norma meet the Creed family and ultimately warn of the Sematary’s evil nature, with Jud uttering the iconic line, “Sometimes dead is better.” When warning of the Pet Sematary’s powers, Jud recounts the tale of Timmy Baterman from his youth, but Bloodlines proves that Jud omitted some crucial details about his personal link to the area. Before Pet Sematary: Bloodlines’ ominous ending, Jud discovers that he’s a descendant of one of Ludlow’s founding families, whose bloodlines the cemetery feeds on more strongly. Not only does this explain why Jud never left Ludlow, but it also gives more context to an unanswered question about his marriage to Norma.
Pet Sematary: Bloodlines Reveals Why Jud & Norma Crandall Never Had Kids
One significant question about Jud and Norma Crandall’s marriage from the original Pet Sematary story is why the couple never had children, as Jud essentially becomes a father figure to Louis throughout the novel. While King’s book doesn’t explain this, Pet Sematary: Bloodlines offers a tragic answer. Bloodlines sees Jud Crandall dreaming of finally leaving Ludlow, only for him to be pulled back at any effort. Jud’s father later explains that Ludlow won’t let the Crandalls leave, as the founding families’ bloodlines have essentially been cursed with intrinsic links to the Pet Sematary’s powers.
With Jud coming to the realization that his bloodline is cursed in Ludlow and will always be preyed on by the Wendigo, it makes sense that he wouldn’t want to pass on this fate to any children. Pet Sematary: Bloodlines reveals that Jud’s future wife Norma also experienced some of the harshest consequences of the Pet Sematary’s “sour ground,” as she was attacked by a resurrected dog, attacked by a resurrected Donna, and tied up and nearly killed by the reanimated Timmy Baterman. After experiencing these events in 1969, Bloodlines suggests Jud and Norma became more dedicated to guarding the town and preventing this from happening again – until Pet Sematary’s events 50 years later.
Jud & Norma’s New Origins Makes A Deleted Pet Sematary Scene Even More Bizarre
While Norma died of an illness and was never put in the “sour ground” in Stephen King’s novel, the 2019 movie adaptation gave Jud’s wife a different, more sinister fate. Collider confirmed that a deleted scene from Pet Sematary revealed that after Norma died, Jud couldn’t bear to live without her, so he buried her in the Pet Sematary. The scene suggests that Jud had to put down the reanimated Norma, proving he regretted his grief-motivated decision. However, after revealing Jud’s experiences with the Pet Sematary’s powers and his bloodline connection to the location, the notion that he would later subject Norma to such a fate is more absurd.
Not to mention how ridiculous it is that Jud would later tell Louis about the Pet Sematary to revive the Creeds’ departed cat Church, it makes no sense that he would willingly put a human in those grounds. While it’s possible that the Wendigo fed on Jud’s weakness in his grief, compelling him to lay Norma in the sour ground to give it another victim, Pet Sematary: Bloodlines indicates that Jud had learned to fight back against its powers. Considering Jud had seen how the evil consumes the resurrected bodies after laying them in the ground, it’s far more twisted that he would let the Wendigo do the same to Norma.
