User blog comment:HumboldtLycanthrope/Horror and the American Family/@comment-5632489-20150130012736/@comment-26030957-20150130184532

I agree as well. Gage was killed by a semi-truck which could be seen as a metaphor for American consumerism. Once the family unit was destroyed by this the father tries to patch it up with a method that brings his son back, but now he is brain dead and a monster- how many parents see their teenagers becoming brain dead monsters from American Consumerism? Also, again Indian burial grounds and their desecration is a part of the destruction of the American family.

Stephen King said he came up with the premise (obviously based on the old classic the monkey's paw) early on but couldn't bring himself to write it because the idea of a parent's desperate grief over a dying child was such a difficult topic for him.

You ever see that movie Slither? A lot of strange family stuff going on in that little gem.