Stephen King’s Pet Sematary Remake Had Cats From Shelters Who Were Trained To Become Cat Actors

We’re all probably familiar with Stephen King’s legendary horror stories. From The Shining to It, the stories are such a renowned global phenomenon, it’s small wonder that they’ve been adapted on screen time and time again. One of the more iconic pieces is the 1983 horror novel Pet Sematary that was turned into a horror-thriller and hit the screens in 1989. By this century, both the novel and the film are widely recognized as classics, and with the current “age of revival” where every well-known story is reshot or remade, it’s no shocker that Pet Sematary hit the silver screens once more.

Pet Sematary was released on April 5, 2019 and received mixed to average reviews. However, one thing was sure, people walked out of the theaters affected. And while some were quick to compare the 2019 remake with the original, others found a completely different venue to focus on. The feline movie stars on the screen.

Turns out, the famous cat Winston “Church” Churchill was actually played by multiple cats. They were all trained to do a specific thing and excelled at it, like hissing on command, or staring, or running very fast. Three of the adorable cats actually have Instagram pages and are hiking up followers to boost their careers as aspiring cat actors. JD, Tonic, and Leo were the three biggest stars and made the reanimated feline truly memorable (Tonic made his mark by playing the cutesy cat at the beginning of the movie, while Leo is the striking uncanny kitty in the poster).

The director later revealed in the interviews that all of the cats that portrayed Church were actually adopted from animal shelters. When the production team decided on Maine Coon cats for the show, they started looking through various shelters and rescue organizations and ended up with over 5 cats. After all of the felines were collected, cat training program went for 2 months to teach them specific tasks, which proved to be a successful mission as all the kitties shone in their specific roles.

The production team also revealed that some of these intelligent animals (like the stunning Leo) had to spend some time in the makeup chair. Why? Well, to look disheveled and.. um.. undead, the cats’ fur had to be covered in chalk and edible gunk, so it would be safe to ingest in case some licking happened.

After the filming wrapped, the team found all the participating cats a new home. Unfortunately, after the movie premiered, Leo’s handler Kirk Jarett shared some heartbreaking news. Leo passed away from feline arterial thromboembolism, also known as saddle thrombus, a condition that’s not rare among Maine Coons. Jarett’s message on Instagram said, “It is with deep sadness that we tell you that Leo has passed away. He will be forever missed by his human and fur family. May his star always shine bright!”