Pet Sematary, quite evidently, touches upon one of the most basic of all archetypal taboos, and as such, warrants comparison to a staggering number of narrative treatments — ranging from such ancient accounts as those of Icarus and of Eve's fateful decision in the Garden — to the contemporary medical horror novels of Michael Crichton and Robin Cook. Certain of the premises which underlie Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818), a work which also, albeit from a radically different perspective, focuses upon reanimation of the dead, seem to have bearing on King's work, while the novel undoubtedly owes something to W. W. Jacobs's classic tale of terror, "The Monkey's Paw" (1902). The zombie, though not nearly as frequent a visitor to horror literature as ghosts, werewolves, and vampires, does have his own tradition in the genre, and it may be worth noting that the zombie films of director George A...