Paramount Pictures
Starring: Dale Midkiff, Fred Gwynne, Denise Crosby
Directed by: Mary Lambert
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!
Synopsis: Doctor Louis Creed (Dale Midkiff) moves to a country home with his family. The house is situated on a small road frequented by fast-moving trucks which causes the constant deaths of local pets. Their new neighbor Jud Crandall (Fred Gwynne) explains the “Pet Sematary” located behind the home, then later shows Louis another graveyard further back which is eventually put to sinister use.
Cinema Cat: As is the case with many classic horror tales by Stephen King, one of the most iconic images in the film is the Creed’s smokey gray pet cat named Winston Churchill (affectionately called Church). Church is Louis Creed’s daughter Ellie’s (Blaze Berdahl) pet and as such is seen sleeping in bed with her in the earliest scenes.
Kitty Carnage Warning! Unfortunately Church is the victim of one of the fast-moving vehicles on the road outside the Creed’s home and is found by Jud, who calls Louis over. It is then that Jud takes Louis to the secret Indian burial grounds where he instructs Louis to bury the girl’s beloved pet, knowing full well that the animal will return but not exactly as the same lovable cat.
Sure enough Church returns but is stand-offish and hisses a lot. When Louis picks up the revived cat to take a look at him Church scratches him in the face. Even Ellie doesn’t show as much affection for Church after his return, saying he smells.
Eventually the Creed’s young boy is tragically killed by a truck and Louis buries him in the burial grounds as well. When the child returns the cat is close at hand, following the boy as he starts attacking people.
At the end of the film Louis must destroy his son but first he encounters Church and as a way of foreshadowing what he plans to do to the boy we see Louis inject Church with something that kills the cat . . . again. This time Church remains dead.
Church was reportedly played by seven different cats, each trained to perform a specific action. And according to online accounts, the story was inspired by a real-life event in Stephen King’s life when his daughter’s cat was killed by a vehicle.
Final Mewsings: Zombie cats make great pets for zombie children.
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