Church is the iconic British Shorthair cat that featured in the very successful horror movie called Pet Sematary. It is inspired by a script written by Stephen King.
The story explores the themes of life, death, and what lingers in between. Church’s role is capable of giving horror chills to anyone who watches the movie.
Movie Synopsis
Louis Creed is a young doctor with a beautiful family. He along with his wife, daughter, and son move to a small town to start a fresh life. They also have a pet cat named Winston Church aka Church.
On one fateful day, Church meets a tragic accident and dies. Louis buries Church in his backyard, which according to local beliefs is an ancient burial ground with the mystical power of bringing the dead back to life.
Louis doesn’t believe in such stuff, so he gets shocked when he sees Church alive the next day in his garage. But Church was not exactly the same as he was before the accident, something’s changed for the worse.
Church’s Role in Pet Sematary
Winston Church, better known as Church is the lovely pet of the Creed family. He was a lively, cute, and playful cat who was very loving towards its owners.
But after he got killed in a road accident and reanimated back to life by the mystical powers of the ancient burial ground, he changed completely. He became very violent and killed small animals mercilessly.
His relationship with his owners also deteriorated as the family started avoiding him and left him to his own devices. The resurrection changed Church completely and it made him a vicious beast from a gentle feline.
Fun Facts About Church
- The director of the movie chose British Shorthair to play the role of Church because she found the breed to be ‘creepy looking’.
- There we more than eight British Shorthair cats used to play the role of Church.
- Even the writer of the Pet Sematary got scared of his own creation.
- According to the director, making the cat eat the pork chop on camera which is a major scene in the movie was the hardest scene to do.
- The glowing eyes of Church were done by putting light on the camera lens and then filming. The cat’s eye reflects light and looks bright as a result.
Church: A British Shorthair Cat
In this segment of the post, we compare the personality traits of the cat character with its breed. But since in this movie, the character of Church goes through two personality changes before and after the resurrection, it’d be fun to see when was Church’s nature most relatable to a British Shorthair:
- Before the resurrection, Church had a lovely and friendly personality which is also the case for any British Shorthair.
- British Shorthair is kid-friendly and Church too loved the kids in the movie before the accident.
- After the resurrection, Church became too vocalized and in general, British Shorthair is a vocal breed.
- After the resurrection, Church became very violent which is opposite to the personality trait of a British Shorthair as they are very mild-natured.
Movie Scene: Church gets resurrected after the accident
Catflix Review
At Cats Kingdom, we don’t like it when cats are associated with bad omens and stereotypes. But this movie takes a very unique spin on this topic and makes it very interesting to watch.
Church’s role in Pet Sematary is without a doubt the soul of the movie. The director and his team have done an outstanding job to capture highly precise shots of the British Shorthair cats that acted in the movie and everything was very smooth.
Though we wished for a little more screen time for our feline friend. All in all, it is a must-watch movie if you love cats and the horror genre in general.
