Synopsis
A stray cat is the linking element of three tales of suspense and horror. (via IMDB)
The horror world of the 80s spent a brief amount of time putting together films that contained multiple stories in them. It was a small obsession for some reason that brought some of the more interesting short stories to the big screen that ended up better than not. George Romero’s Creepshow started it off in 1982 telling horrifying tales straight from a 50s comic strip, as well as a scary Leslie Nielsen (he exists out there). Joe Dante, John Landis, George Miller and Steven Spielberg followed suit with Twilight Zone: The Movie in 1983, recreating some of the original show’s tales for a modern audience, including George Miller’s intense remake of Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, which featured John Lithgow. Then came Stephen King’s Cat’s Eye in 1985, written by King and directed by Lewis Teague, which did its best to tie in some pretty horror-filled stories with a sprinkle of suspense and thrill. In short, this brief episodic film structure was the thing to do in the early 80s, though short in stint, which could be quite magnificent at times, if done right.
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Cat’s Eye, as much as I loved watching it as a kid (my parents were incredibly irresponsible and I can’t thank them enough), I have come to realize that it’s probably not the best of the three major films mentioned above. The main issue with the film is the wrapper that brings it all together, which is the cat. In Twilight Zone and Creepshow, the wrappers brought the content together with a single connection. This means they have one story that runs through all of them somehow, which begins the film, stays with it and then ends it. Cat’s Eye has a cat that literally runs through it, but sadly contains no solid connection to any of the stories whatsoever. The film wanted to have some connection, at least director Lewis Teague wanted it, but it didn’t make the final cut. What that connection was is not clear, but the fact there is no connection is clear. That said, because of this disconnection with the wrapper, the story kind of flounders on its own, but does its best to make itself interesting through its individual parts.
The first story revolves around a man named Dick Morrison (James Woods), who is trying to kick the smoking habit. His friend sends him to an organization that is run by the mafia, specifically Dr. Vinny Donatti (Alan King), who has ‘methods’ to help smokers kick the habit. Those methods include electrocuting , not to death, wives, children and then doing worse things if that doesn’t help. While admittedly the story is goofy as hell, the suspense and terror of Woods’ Morrison being followed and eventually caught is unnerving. Woods steals the show with this portion of the film and actually outperforms the script given to him, which is tough to do (Hades can handle it, though). It’s a good, brief story that is written terribly (at least dialogue-wise), but acted well.
The second story is probably my favorite of the bunch. A rich man named Cressner (Kenneth McMillan) finds out that his wife is cheating on him with her tennis coach, Johnny Norris (Robert Hays), and wants to teach Norris a lesson. The lesson? Never mess with a rich man’s wife. Cressner brings Norris up to his penthouse suite in Atlantic City and gives him a choice — either walk a very windy ledge of Cressner’s hotel without falling to earn his survival, as well as Cressner’s wife, or be pinned for drugs planted by Cressner’s people in Norris’ car and go to jail for a very long time. The story is simple, but it’s very well-written and performed. There is so much suspense, tension and a bird you want to kick so very badly. Credit Hays for selling the drama and McMillan (I miss that guy) for pushing it. Again, the best of the bunch in my opinion.
The last story in the trio is about the cat.
The cat, which has been wandering through the stories with seemingly no real connection to any, finds its way to the house of a girl named Amanda (Drew Barrymore) on a relentless quest to stop some evil that has entered the girl’s house in North Carolina. The evil turns out to be a troll that comes out at night to suck the breath out of Amanda in attempt to kill her (I think). Barrymore is terribly cast in this role and her lack of acting to this point, outside of E.T. (where she is adorable) and Stephen King’s Firestarter (where she is more action than dialogue) shows some of her young inexperience in the field. She looks uncomfortable in the role of a loving child of a typical 80s family and never really sells the part. The script just seems to not be her and she does her best to work through it (I know she is talented, so the script might have been simply incompatible),as she fights an uphill battle with the dialogue, which comes out unnatural. The story is less exciting as the previous two and less tense, which equals out to ending the overall movie on a weak note. Had there been some solid connection with the cat from the beginning of the film to the end, then maybe the drama would have been at its zenith by the time the film gets to the last story. Maybe we would have some better understanding about the cat’s reasoning for seeking out the girl. Sadly, there isn’t a reason and we just get a weak third story that doesn’t play off the previous and turns out simply the odd one out.
Anyway, two out of three ain’t bad and the Cat’s Eye isn’t a horrible film, despite its critical reception. It’s just a typical 80s movie that is certainly the weaker of the 80s multi-story bunch. Regardless of my opinion, if you haven’t seen Cat’s Eye, then maybe you should give this one a go. It’s still very Stephen King and it still brings some good stories more than it brings bad ones.
On the Blu-ray side of the equation, Warner Home Video actually did a good job of transferring this to HD. Surprisingly, the picture is quite gorgeous and the sound is quite beautiful, even though there is a heavy amount of synth driving it all (80s, man).
In addition to a film and pretty picture, you get some features in the form of commentary from Lewis Teague and a trailer of the film. Teague’s audio is good.
Alright, onto the summary!
