Although the corpse of the boy does in fact re-animate, it is controlled by an evil demon bent upon the murder of surrounding mortals.
The father proceeds to re-bury the boy, Gavin, in a place known as Pet Semetary in hopes that the child will come back to life. In the novel, the father of a newly dead boy digs up the body hours after burial. The most famous example of a Gothic story which involves the theft of a corpse in order to bring it back to some form of life is Frankenstein: Victor frequents 'the dissecting room and the slaughter-house' for his 'workshop of filthy creation'-apparently his monster comes from some kind of assemblage.Ī more recent example of body-snatching comes from Stephen King's Pet Semetary (actually spelled this way).
Stevenson's 'The Body-Snatcher' employs the grisly profession of corpse stealing to weave a tale in which two grave robbers are horrified to find in their latest disinterred coffin the body of a man they had previously killed and served up to the medical profession.