The Black Cat (1984)

THE BLACK CAT

THIS IS A DIFFERENT MOVIE.IT'S ON THE TAME SIDE.IT'S INTERESTING,AND SUSPENSEFUL.I ENJOYED IT.THE BLACK CATS WERE BEAUTIFUL!THE MAN WHO PLAYED THE MEDIUM DID AN EXCELLENT JOB!HE HAD THE PERFECT LOOK,EYES,ATTITUDE,AND AURA ABOUT HIM.THIS ISN'T SCARY.IT'S ENJOYABLE TO WATCH.IF YOU'RE INTO WATCHING DIFFERENT MOVIES-GET THIS! May 31, 2007

"My cat is dead, Inspector."

A Lucio Fulci film without popping eyeballs, perforated skulls, and oozing entrails? Who'da thunk it? Well, that's exactly what you get with The Black Cat (1984) aka El Gatto nero, originally released in 1981 (I believe 1984 was when it was released in the states). And you know what? It's actually not a bad film, although Fulci fans would probably disagree, seeing as how they were probably expecting the visceral, gooey mayhem found in some of his other films released around the same time, like Zombie (1979), City of the Living Dead (1980), and The Beyond (1981). Very loosely based on the Edgar Allan Poe story, the film was co-written and directed by Fulci. Appearing is Patrick `Shrubs for Eyebrows' Magee (A Clockwork Orange, Asylum), Mimsy Farmer (Four Flies on Grey Velvet, Autopsy), David Warbeck (Twins of Evil, The Beyond), and Al Cliver (The Beyond, The New Gladiators)...apparently Fulci himself was in the film, portraying a doctor, but those scenes got deleted...I'm curious as to why a director removes the scenes from his own film, scenes in which he appears in...couldn't he take direction from himself? Whatever...

The movie starts off in what looks to be a quaint, English town, and we see a man walking towards a car. We also get a point of view perspective from something low to the ground, so I'm assuming it's a cat, given the title...no great, intuitive leap there. Anyway, the man drives off, notices a huge, black cat in the back seat, which puts some sort of eyeball whammy on him, the car crashes, and the man's head has an untimely meeting with the windshield. As the auto bursts into flames, we see the cat slinking along, assumedly back to its abode, where we meet the town oddball Professor Robert Miles (Magee)...the cat and Miles obviously do not get along as the feline tags him good. Next we see a woman, later we find out her name is Jill (Farmer), taking pictures of some ruins, and discovering an underground passage to an old torture chamber, complete with cobwebby skeletons (hey, a giant hole in the ground, let's investigate!)...some stuff happens, and then we see a young couple sneaking into a boathouse to smooch...uh oh, here comes that darn cat. Some other stuff happens and now its night and we're in a graveyard with Miles, and he seems to be trying to communicate with the dead...oh bruther...anyway, Jill, being the exceptionally nosy woman she is, seeks out the nutter Miles, and gets an earful about what he's trying to do...some more mysterious deaths occur (seems the corpses have cat scratch fever), and Jill gets suspicious and even more nosy (just like a woman). Just what is the strange relationship Miles has with his pussy?

I did enjoy this film, but that's not to say it didn't have problems. There are some really wonderfully gothic location shots, along with some very creepy set pieces, but the story was fairly disjointed and required the viewer to make certain intuitive leaps without very much to go on...what exactly was the point of Miles efforts in talking to the dead and how did it fit in with the story? I really have no clue...it did serve to set up a meet and greet between Miles and Jill, but if that were the only reason for its inclusion, it was entirely overblown as there had to have been a much easier, quicker, more sensible device used to facilitate their coming together. And what exactly are these dead people telling him? "Well, I'm in a dark, dank, musty box, my bits and pieces are falling off, there are lots of bugs, and I just don't feel myself...anything else you want to know, brainiac?" This is one of those films where it seemed like all the pieces where there, but they just weren't put together to create a viable picture. As I mentioned earlier, fans of Fulci's more grotesque cinematic ventures will be disappointed with this film, as there's so little blood (there is some, along with some nekkiedness...the movie may not be full on Fulci, but it's still Fulci). I really didn't mind the film lacking in the visceral, as it was pretty cool to see what Fulci could do with a film sans the elements he's probably best know for...and like I said, he did all right. I haven't read Poe's short story this film is supposed to be based on, but I did get a sense a great deal of the material here wasn't in the original story (artistic interpretation can go far when it comes to movies based on previously printed works). Some aspects did feel incorporated like the relationship between Miles and the cat, and the bit near the end when Miles is doing the brick and mortar work in his cellar (looks like a union job to me)...that particular scene, I thought, was shot very well, from the point where the audience was behind the wall as he was building it up, the light slowly disappearing (actually, most all of the cellar sequences were pretty cool). If you got the claustrophobia this will really give you the creeps. As far as the performances went, I thought everyone did pretty well. The real standout was Magee, as he seemed locked into intense mode throughout the film, throwing his crazy man stare about. Was the film actually scary? Not really...there were some tense sequences, but nothing that stuck with me once the credits started rolling.

Anchor Bay Entertainment provides a very good-looking anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) print on this DVD, along with a suitable Dolby Digital mono audio track. I did notice some lines in the print, on the right hand side of the screen from time to time, but it didn't happen often, so no big shakes. There are some extras, including an original theatrical trailer, a Lucio Fulci bio, liner notes by Travis Crawford (located on the flipside of the DVD cover artwork), and a 5X7 reproduction of original poster art on the DVD insert, the flipside featuring the chapter stops. If you're interested in buying this DVD, I'd suggest doing what I did and buying the Anchor Bay DVD Fright Pack: Man's Worst Friends, which features six films including Parasite (1982), Lucio Fulci's The Black Cat (1989), Slugs: The Movie (1988), Bruno Mattei's Rats: Night of Terror (1984), Zoltan, Hound of Dracula (1978), and Dario Argento's The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971). It's available here on the Amazon website, at a really good price, and cheaper than buying the individual releases.

Cookieman108

By the way, I don't think I've ever seen a film that featured as many shots of cat's eyes as this one did...if you're a fan of that kind of thing, Heaven awaits...
September 29, 2005

Didn't really seem like a Fulci film.

The Black Cat (Lucio Fulci, 1981)

Always remember, the title credits say the film is �freely� adapted from Poe's story. �Freely� may be the understatement of the year. Best not to think on Poe's tale until the final ten minutes.

The killer kitty is at the center of the story, causing a series of accidents in a small Scottish town whose inspector, Wilson (Fulci regular Al Cliver), gets expsterated and calls Scotland Yard. They send in Inspector Gorley (David Warbeck, who also teamed with Fulci for The Beyond the same year). Gorley and Wilson, with the help of plucky American photographer Jill Trevers (sixties biker bad girl Mimsy Farmer), try to solve the crimes while working out what an aging, eccentric mystic (Patrick Magee) has to do with it all.

And now, the part that will make Fulci fans wonder who really directed this movie: there's no eye scene, and there's no spider scene. In fact, it's almost as if Fulci wanted to tone down the gore and make an atmospheric, gothic horror/romance, but without the romance (except for one sex scene that would barely rate a PG-13 today).

Fulci himself considers this movie a disaster. Who am I to disagree? Well, I will, at least in part. It's certainly watchable enough, if confused. It's not Zombi or The Beyond, but it's got its endearing points. Worth a free rental. ** ½ January 30, 2004

Fulci meets Poe

Directed by horror master Lucio Fulci (NOT Luigi Cozzi as it says on this site) THE BLACK CAT is unrelated to the old Karloff movie, but is "freely adapted" from the Poe story.
The plot centres around a black cat (obviously) whose appearance to people soon leads to gruesome fatal "accidents" ranging from suffocation and impaling to premature burial. Naturally police are called in to investigate and they seek the help of a psychic, Myers (Patrick MaGee from CLOCKWORK ORANGE). But unknown to them, Myers has a strange power over the cat which enables it to hypnotize people.
THE BLACK CAT contains some good shocks for horror fans but the poor English dubbing makes the movie seem daft. The story is also rather slow and pretentious and Pino Donnagio's score is irritating, but the movie is still good late night viewing. March 15, 2003

This IS Fulci's film!

Look at the way this film is directed.Only Lucio Fulci can make a film wich is like this one. It is hard to explain with words how the fealing is in Fulci's movies, but it it is there in all his films, and if you are a true Lucio Fulci fan, you know that "The Black Cat" is only made by him. Not by Luigi Cozzo!! June 6, 2002

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