Le Chat noir

This is one of those rare Italian movies where it doesn't pay to have beers during it's playing time, because if you do, you'll be in a coma by the halfway mark.

That's not really a criticism though, because the Black Cat is a nice change of pace from the splatter of early eighties Italian horror. Rather than spend the running time making people vomit up their own guts, Lucio Fulci has sought to bring back the Gothic tone of those late sixties supernatural movies (The Ghost, Blancheville Monster etc).

Patrick Magee (love those eyebrows), is a cantankerous medium taken to wandering graveyards at night, recording the voices of the newly dead. There's plenty of newly dead in this sleepy English town too, which has got something to do with Magee's Black Cat. The two of them spend an awful lot of time staring at each other.

Meanwhile, Mimsy Farmer, a visiting American (I think) photographer, gets interested in Magee and spends her time annoying him at his house, just as cop David Warbreck arrives in town, to help local bobby Al Cliver search for some missing teenagers.

I'm surprised that Fulci managed to create something so coherent during the run of films that included House By The Cemetery and Manhattan Baby. Although not gore-filled, the first half of the film does consist of the cast being stalked and wasted in a variety of ways, and the only time the film falters is when it starts actually following the story of Poe's Black Cat. Plus, you've got great B-movie fodder in the form of Al Cliver (err...great dubbing there), Daniella Doria and the aged, but still lush, Dagmar Lassander.

It wouldn't be a Fulci film without some daftness though, eh? Well, apart from people acting terrified of a cat (although a teleporting, hyper-aggressive cat might be a bit scary), you've got Lassander trying to put out an inferno with a cushion, an absolutely awful bat attack, and I'm still not sure whether to be impressed or start laughing every time Magee appears on screen.

Good enough for any Fulci collection, just don't expect gore. Great soundtrack too!

Director Lucio Fulci's THE BLACK CAT kicks off with a vehicular death, involving the felonious feline of the title. Enter photographer, Jill Trevers (Mimsy Farmer) who makes an odd discovery while taking pictures of some local ruins. As more "accidental" deaths occur, the police are baffled, and call in Inspector Gorley (David Warbeck) of Scotland Yard, who soon enlists Jill's talents.

What, if anything does all of this have to do with the town medium, Professor Miles (Patrick Magee) and his alleged communications with the dead? What is his relationship with the killer kitty?

Another example of Fulci's mastery of bizarre, supernatural horror, this film offers his typical gore-drenched sequences and terrifying set pieces. It's a great mystery / thriller as well. The Director's penchant for eye closeups is used well, adding intensity, and making the cat come across as all the more malevolent and dangerous.

A fantastic movie made during Fulci's "horror cycle" prime. This is true, even with the glaring bloopers, such as the visible hands of the wrangler holding the cat during an intense scene, and the glaring wires holding the rubber bats!

Co-stars Al Cliver as Sgt. Wilson.

P.S.- Poe fans will love the finale...

Italy's 'godfather of gore', Lucio Fulci, serves up less splatter and more atmosphere than usual in this surprisingly enjoyable movie (loosely based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe) about a malevolent moggy murdering people in rural England.

Fulci's directorial decision-making is sometimes questionable (just how many close-ups of eyes do you need in one film?), but with a reliable cast that should be familiar to fans of Italian horror, some nice cinematography, several creative deaths (which, whilst not as quite as gory as in other Fulci efforts, are still quite horrific), and a wonderful score from Pino Donaggio, this often overlooked Gothic tale is actually pretty good.

Set in a small English town, The Black Cat sees the titular feline causing a series of deaths after tapping into the suppressed hatred of its psychic owner (Patrick Magee). When the crazy medium finally cottons on to what is happening, he tries to do away with the cat, drugging it and then stringing it up from a tree. But the whiskery menace is no ordinary puss, returning from the dead to exact revenge on its ungrateful owner.

Mimsy Farmer also stars as a pretty American photographer caught up in the supernatural mystery, along with David Warbeck as a police inspector from the city who is called in to help solve the mystery, and Al Cliver as a local rozzer.

A lot of Fulci fans might be put off from watching this effort by the fact that it doesn't contain graphic scenes of eye impalement, head drilling, or gut vomiting, preferring instead to concentrate on generating an eerie vibe. I suggest, even if your love of Fulci is purely down to his usually over-generous servings of gore, that you still give The Black Cat a chance.

The death scenes in this one might not be as violently OTT as in his better known films, but Fulci doesn't entirely wimp out on the nastiness: there are a couple of burnings, an impalement, and one unfortunate couple get nibbled on by rats. Plus, you get a story that mostly makes sense.

And in a Fulci film, you can't really ask for much more than that.

"The Black Cat" is an interesting and atmospheric 'stab' at being an English Gothic film. The first half is has more gore and succeeds in heightening the suspense only for a rather ineffective summation and climax. Patrick Magee plays the part of a median who controls the mind of a cat.

The deaths are suitably impressive and deserved by the characters concerned aside from the supremely sexy Mrs Grayson (Giallo/Sleaze/Horror favorite Dagmar Lassander) who never fails to 'light up' the screen.

Not Fulci's best; but reasonably enjoyable nonetheless.

6/10 (I refuse to grade films out of four stars)

Before anyone who hasn't seen this film gets excited that the adaptation of a short story helps Fulci keep hold of his often slippery grasp on the plot, "The Black Cat" has very little to do with Poe's tale until the last 15 or so minutes, and thus is full of the narrative craters B horror fans know and love.

The basic plot of the film is that a Scotland yard detective (David Warbeck) and an American photographer (Mimsy Farmer) investigate a series of "accidents" in a quiet English village. All clues point to an eccentric local medium(Patrick Magee), but the real mystery is the connection between the psychic and the black cat that seems to show up at the scene of each crime.

Lacking the trademark Fulci gore(what there is is very brief), the film focuses on atmosphere. There are a few nice touches (in widescreen format the cat's eye view stalking scenes and the close ups of character's eyes to show emotion work very well), but what keeps the mood from ever really taking off is the cat itself. Given enough screen time to be billed as a full cast member, Fulci never really succeeds in making the animal look possessed or menacing.

In most of its close ups it looks like your average house cat, albeit a bit peeved that you were late with the kibbles and bits. The cheesy snarling sound effects every time it attacks don't help either.

The humans leads are no better (across the board wooden acting), with Magee forced to carry viewer interest in the film by hamming it up as much as possible. Helped along by the overly zealous score, it's amazing that this movie manages not to be as silly as "Touch Of Death".

Overall an amusing trifle, but those looking for gore are better served by just about any other Fulci horror film and those interested in atmosphere are much better served by watching "The Beyond", where the director truly mastered the form.

4.5 stars