The Horror Cats

A Celebration of Felines in Horror Movies and Television

[thehorrorcats]

Demonia (1990)

Shortly after startling Liza (Meg Register), three snarling cats attack their caregiver Lilla (Carla Cassola) in a particularly horrific manner.

Not to be too clichéd or anything, there just has to be a mangy-looking one and an obligatory black cat. Well, it is a Lucio Fulci movie after all.

Considering that the close-ups use a rubber head and obviously stuffed cats, it's equally as realistic as domestic cats ever clawing the eyes out of humans in the first place. They just don't, and there are no reported cases of any such thing ever happening.

[thehorrorcats]

Premature Burial (1962)

Artist Guy Carrell (Ray Milland) has his anxiety about premature burial increased when another Poe element is introduced into the story in the form of a small but very noisy cat trapped behind the wooden panelling of his drawing room. You can be sure that Roger Corman intended the pun about catalepsy.

Emily Gault (Hazel Court) gives the "poor wee thing" a cuddle to make up for her ordeal.

[thehorrorcats]

Dr. Cyclops (1940)

In the first Technicolor sci-fi movie, Satanos becomes the precursor of all cats who appear gigantic to miniaturised humans. Although megalomaniac Dr. Alexander Thorkel (Albert Dekker) does very homicidal things, the story is largely comical with plucked violin strings in the background music which are reminiscent of cartoons from the same period.

Apart from an obvious reinterpretation of the Homeric story of Polyphemus and Odysseus at the climax, the movie is also famous for the amusing scene where Satanos tries to catch the tiny scientists before being chased away by a dog. It's just like something out of "Tom and Jerry" but with live action, rear projection and giant cacti.

Blink and you'll miss it, but there's even a real big cat who is almost eclipsed by a flash of lightning during the brief tropical storm which follows.

In the epilogue, set months later with everyone back to normal size and in civilisation, Steve Baker (Victor Kilian), the formerly terrified but pushy mule trader, enjoys yelling "Scat!" at a completely innocent cat just to make himself feel big again.

[thehorrorcats]

Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth (2000)

You just know that there'll be something silly involving cats when you see a Kit-Cat clock in a horror-parody.

The first to appear by jumping in front of Barbara (Julie Benz) is a standard black cat named "Cheap Shot".

Although clearly not responsible for the mess in the kitchen, having established her gender, Dawson (Harley Cross) and Martina (Majandra Delfino) have a small conversation with this very vocal ginger tabby.

Last but not least, after Slab's messy death, Dawson is tempted to take his frustration out on the final jump scare cat but is told by Martina, "Dawson! No! There's no point in beating Dead Horse." Thus, we get a satirical punchline on the overuse of cat scares in horror movies.

[thehorrorcats]

Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (1972)

Nothing really needs to be said about Sergio Martino's sexy giallo version of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat".  It's not as if everyone doesn't already know the story, so here are some more pictures of Pluto, I mean Satan, instead.

You probably won't want to watch what happens to Satan after his bird killing spree, but rest assured that the cat has the last laugh when justice is served at the end.

[thehorrorcats]

The Mummy (1999)

Cats are the guardians of the underworld. Thus, it's the cat which Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) is scared of rather than its lack of piano playing skills.

Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser) surprises Imhotep with the same white cat later.

[thehorrorcats]

Scary Movie 4 (2006)

This sweet little kitten attacks a very sensitive but enormous part of Tom Logan (an uncredited Charlie Sheen) following the latter's mistaken ingestion of a whole bottle of Viagra pills. Things don't end well for either of them as the scene spoofs the beginning of "The Grudge". From the aftermath, we can assume that the kitten landed on his feet and walked away unscathed unlike Tom's unfortunate demise. Incidentally, Bill Pullman, who played Peter in the original scene from "The Grudge", also has a role in "Scary Movie 4" as Henry Hale.

[thehorrorcats]

Frankenstein (1931)

Little Maria (Marilyn Harris) is clearly told by her father, "You stay and play with the kitty now, huh?" Nowhere in that line is it suggested that she should let The Monster (Boris Karloff) pick her up and throw her in the lake, but that's exactly what happens with tragic consequences. Like any sensible creature would do, the kitten struggles free of being hugged and scarpers as soon as The Monster makes his appearance.

Ignoring the re-release of "The Phantom of the Opera" with sound, "Frankenstein" is the first Universal horror "talkie" with a cat in it.

[thehorrorcats]

X-tro (1983)

There's a panther in this former "Video Nasty", but there's nothing nasty about that.

[thehorrorcats]

Bloodtide (1982)

A snarling cat provides a jump scare for Neil (Martin Kove) and Suzanne Grice (Mary Louise Weller) when a gang of Greek kids decide to test the theory about cats always landing on their feet. This one does, but he's clearly not very happy about the experience.

[thehorrorcats]

Trick or Treat (1986)

The Weinbauer's fluffy ginger cat adds nothing to the movie other than a moment of cuteness although she may have been the first to hear the news of rockstar Sammi Curr's death. You can see how much she cares about that too.

[thehorrorcats]

Uninvited (1988)

Here's a cat with a secret. On the outside it may look like a normal ginger tabby, but inside is another more vicious mutant cat which comes out of its mouth to kill people.

Having escaped from a test laboratory, the cat gets on board a gangster's yacht and kills most of the passengers. Bad kitty! It makes you wonder exactly what kinds of tests were being performed in the laboratory, doesn't it? All animal testing is wrong anyway. Cats get very frustrated with the multiple choice questions.

[thehorrorcats]

Funeral Home (1980)

Originally called "Cries in the Night" but renamed as "Funeral Home" two years after its initial release, William Fruet's Canadian "Psycho" clone features a black cat who would be more at home in an Edgar Allan Poe adaptation.

Although it seems that Mittens (who was trained by Karl Mitchell) only appears just to scare Heather (Lesleh Donaldson) for no apparent reason, eventually it becomes clear that the cat is trying to tell her something.

When ill-fated handyman Billy Hibbs (Stephen Miller) follows the noisy cat into the cellar, a macabre secret is revealed.

[thehorrorcats]

The Crater Lake Monster (1977)

No, neither of these black cats are the Crater Lake monster. That would be silly even in a Z-grade "Creature Feature" like this. It's actually a ridiculous stop-motion plesiosaur who is eventually responsible for the demise of Arnie (Glenn Roberts) their caregiver.

[thehorrorcats]

The Fly (1986)

In this deleted scene from David Cronenberg's remake of "The Fly", Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) uses his teleporter to fuse a cat with a baboon. The results are tragically predictable.

[thehorrorcats]

Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986)

Carol Anne Freeling (Heather O'Rourke) leaves "Val's Pets" empty handed in spite of the kitten telling her that he wanted to go home with her.

[thehorrorcats]

Revenge of La Llorona (2006)

A black cat walks along a wall outside the haunted house in Terrence Williams' low-budget ghost story.