La maldición de Cathy

Cauchemars (nightmares in french, no "e" in word) was made using the tax credits afforded by Quebec and Canada governments; even if in co-production with France, it was made in English, in Westmount (rich English section in Montreal) with a ridiculous budget(The production co. doesn't exist anymore). Acting is really bad (but I suppose acting direction was also!). This is a bad "b" movie. Only for collectors of such genre (90% of action evolves in or around the house!). French actor Hubert Noel, who played the role of the doctor, dubbed the voice of Prentiss Hancock in the french (Quebec) version of Space:1999. You can find this movie in DVD collections (like 20 movies on 10 double-sided discs). Won't make history...

Low budget Canadian knock-off of superior major releases such as "The Exorcist" and "The Omen" is nonetheless fairly pleasing on a "so bad it's good" level. It begins in the 1930s, as a man (Peter MacNeill, "Crash", "A History of Violence") and his young daughter perish in a car accident. 40 years later, the girls' now grown-up brother George (Alan Scarfe, "Double Impact", 'Seven Days') moves into the old family home with his wife Vivian (Beverly Murray, "Street Smart", "The Carpenter") and their kid, Cathy (Randi Allen). Soon, the kid is behaving strangely, the wife is coming unglued, and various bizarre & macabre things are happening.

"Cathy's Curse" is NOT without entertainment value: it's slipshod - and hysterically scripted - enough to make it pretty amusing in spite of itself. The acting is pretty bad from just about everybody, but that doesn't mean that it isn't enjoyable. The pretty Murray is the worst offender; she seems incapable of delivering a good performance if her life depended on it. Young Allen is a hoot, especially as the story progresses and the movie gets more and more priceless.

Special effects and gore are kept to a minimum, with French-born co-writer & director Eddy Matalon ("Breakout", "Sweet Killing") struggling in vain to give his movie some semblance of gravitas and atmosphere. But ultimately, "Cathy's Curse" is entertaining because of it being so laughable. It's hard to say whether this was intended; the actors, as underwhelming as they are; do largely play the material straight. Roy Witham ("Agency"), as old caretaker Paul, is amusing, as is Mary Morter ("The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane") as the medium. Best of all is when the dialogue suddenly turns vulgar, and the kid is hurling insults at her elders.

A must if you're eager to delve into the cheesier side of Canuxploitation, but don't go in expecting anything resembling a good film.

Filmed in Quebec.

Five out of 10.

A lot of the IMDb reviews for Cathy's Curse mention the lousy VHS picture quality, but the copy I found online was actually rather good, making me wonder whether the film has since received the remastered treatment for DVD or BluRay. The film itself, however, is still a steaming pile of amateurish garbage, and why anyone felt that it deserved an upgrade is a mystery to me. Still, there are quite a few laughs to be had at the expense of the community theatre cast, the woeful special effects, and the total lack of film-making acumen from director Eddy Matalon.

The film opens with a father arriving home to find that his wife has left him, taking their young son George with her. His daughter Laura has been left behind, so daddy pops her in his car and drives away at speed into the snowy night (where he's going is not explained). When a rabbit runs in front of the car, the man loses control and crashes the vehicle, which goes up in flames killing the occupants.

Scoot forwards a few decades, and George (Alan Scarfe) moves into his old family home with his neurotic wife Vivian (Beverly Murray) and their daughter Cathy (Randi Allen). Exploring the house, Cathy finds a portrait of Laura and the dead girl's old rag doll, after which she begins to act very strangely, playing 'car crashes' with the neighbourhood kids, and attempting to poke out a girl's eye with a nail. She also develops supernatural powers, including telekinesis, teleportation and the ability to make food go rotten in seconds.

A local medium, Agatha (Mary Morter, putting in a truly awful performance), suspects that something is wrong, but Cathy sends her flying out of a first storey window, which causes Vivian to have a breakdown. George leaves Cathy in the care of creepy handyman Paul (Roy Witham), who gets plastered, after which the girl makes him hallucinate (rats, snakes and spiders). When Paul decides to burn Cathy's rag doll, she kills him (but only after he delivers the hilarious line "Go on, you filthy female cow-make us laugh!").

More weird stuff happens, none of which makes any sense. No explanation is given for Cathy's newfound powers, but one assumes that she is possessed by Laura's spirit; why Laura is so malevolent is never made clear. What is abundantly clear is that this lame Exorcist inspired Canadian horror is inept in almost every way imaginable, but for fans of z-grade trash, it'll be just about worth a watch for the unintentional LOLs.

No, I'm not insulting your mother with that summary. That golden prose is actually uttered (poorly) by Cathy's drunk driving father to his psychic/psychotic child in the first five minutes of the film. It's a pretty good encapsulation of what you're getting yourself into.

Amazingly, I forced some friends to watch this and they actually made it to the end. Unfortunately, some of them only squeezed by, relieving their frustration by punching chairs, screaming into pillows and then, when all else failed to relieve their seething rage, they physically attacked me. Lets just say, I'm not allowed to pick the movies at the video store anymore. Along with the freakish "Pieces" and Doris Wishman's "A Night to Dismember", this film is basically the worst horror film ever made. That might be a pretty bold statement, but Cathy's Curse is a pretty bold movie. The car crash at the beginning of the film is so poorly shot and edited, it will probably give some of you seizures.

Of course the only way to watch this film is on the worst print you can find. I strongly suggest the Brentwood release. The full-frame, non-pan and scan makes the dialogue even more hilarious when it's coming from talking noses at opposing ends o the screen.

As a Canadian, there's no excuse for this exercise in crap.

I'm not sure what the goal was with Cathy's Curse. It's a mix up for The Exorcist, The Bad Seed, and about a million other evil kid movies. The wintery atmosphere is a nice touch and, for a bit, one could be fooled into thinking this might end up being some lost 70's classic. Nope.

Cathy's Curse manages to get everything wrong from the hammy acting to the not-so-special effects to Cathy's "curses" that she hurls at people. "Cow" can't quite compare to some of the insults Regan threw at people in The Exorcist.

Don't let me confuse you - Cathy's Curse also has a lot to recommend. It's rarely boring and with such a short run time, I could think of worse ways to kill some time.