This is a misleadingly titled giallo thriller in the tradition of Dario Argento’s THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE, FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET, and CAT O’NINE TAILS. Director Antonio Bido also borrows several stylistic tropes from Argento, particularly from DEEP RED: harsh violence; point-of-view shots; a repetitive, insistent main theme performed with a pop music arrangement instead of a traditional symphonic score. Consequently, CAT WITH JADE EYES (known in the U.S. as WATCH ME WHEN I KILL) is too derivative to stand on its own four furry paws, but it has enough feline grace to thrill fans of the form.

The story begins with a pharmacist being murdered. A nightclub dancer named Mara (Paola Tedesco) tries to enter the pharmacy, but a voice inside tells her the store is closed. When she later realizes that the voice belongs to the murderer, she enlists the aid of her boyfriend Lukas (Corrado Pani) instead of relying on the police. Coincidentally, an acquaintance of theirs is receiving threatening phone calls from the same unidentified voice. As the bodies pile up, suspicion initially turns upon a recently released convict - the victims sat on his jury - but later evidence points the amateur investigation in another direction, having to do with a grim secret related to the past. Continue Reading »

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Cats are the perfect international horror movie stars. Like the genre itself, they make their impact with visuals, not dialogue, which is why horror travels well from country to country. A unique example of this is THE GRUDGE, an American remake of the 2003 Japanese production JU-ON: THE GRUDGE. Remaking a Japanese horror film had previously been successfully accomplished with 2002’s THE RING, but in this case the American version retained the original director, some of the actors, the Japanese setting - and of course the memorable cat-and-ghost-boy combo that sent shivers down so many spines. Continue Reading »

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Fine technical craftsmanship and solid performances fight a losing battle with rampant stupidity in this entertaining Mexican horror film, which is alternately atmospheric and silly. The story follows a reporter named Ricardo (played by the film’s producer, Abel Salazar) who comes to a small town seeking an interview from Samuel (Enrique Rambal), a world-famous pianist who inexplicably abandoned the concert stage. Ricardo arrives in town just in time to find a blond woman who has been gored to death by some kind of monster inside the house where the pianist lives with his mother Cornelia (Ofelia Guilmain) and his young pupil Laura (Martha Roth). Despite the fact that the locals seem to have a superstitious dread of the place, the police see no reason to make any connection between the dead woman and Samuel. Ricardo makes little headway into the mystery, but a flashback eventually reveals that Samuel offered his soul to the Devil in exchange for becoming the world’s greatest pianist. He then killed his rival Alejandra (also Roth) and keeps her body locked in the closet of his paino room. There is a catch, however; when Samuel plays the piano, he turns into a hairy monster. Continue Reading »

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This semi-sequel of sorts to BATMAN RETURNS spins the popular Catwoman character off into her own film - the would-be beginning of a franchise that failed to materialize, thanks to dismal box office returns. An almost unmitigated disaster, this major studio production with a major star in the lead (the Oscar-winning Halle Berry) comes across like a direct-to-video production, complete with ultra lame computer-generated effects and clueless direction by someone who signs himself “Pitof” (whose previous experience lay mostly in directing visual effects - which makes the lousy work on display here all the more confusing). The film feel like a low-budget knock-off, something Warner Brothers pumped out on the cheap, hoping the sight of Berry in her Catwoman costume would suck in foolish ticket buyers, regardless of the amateurish quality. Continue Reading »

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The little, low-budget opus belatedly attempts to cash in on CAT PEOPLE, but it has little of the subtlety and none of the style of the 1942 Val Lewton production. In a strange way, CAT GIRL seems more old-fashioned than its model: the limited production values, melodramatic tone, and outdated attempts at spooky atmosphere suggest a cheap British rip-off of Universal’s 1930s horror classics. (Ernest Milton, as the demented Uncle Edmund, comes across like a poor man’s version of Ernest Thesiger - the actor who camped up James Whale’s THE OLD DARK HOUSE and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN.) Released a few months after CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN - Hammer’s bold color reinvention of the horror genre - CAT GIRL must have seemed like a dated relic in its own time. Decades later, it earns some points for effort, but its most significant claim to importance lies in the casting of Barbara Shelley - a fine actress who would give strong performances in several Hammer horror films (such as THE GORGON). Continue Reading »

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With Universal likely to be the last oar-rower on the HD-DVD lifeboat, their choice of releases on the format becomes that much more interesting. Other than Warner Bros, who recently abandoned ship in favor of the greener pastures of Blu-ray exclusivity, Universal was the only studio keeping up a steady stream of catalog title releases. Many fondly remembered films from the ’80s: THE THING, DUNE, and even THE LAST STARFIGHTER have found their way onto HD-DVD, leaving one to wonder just exactly what kind of wonderful madman was put in charge of title selection. But even with a track record as eclectic as this, the arrival of 1982’s CAT PEOPLE left many dumbfounded. Certainly there had to be better candidates than this? Even keeping to that same era and studio, CONAN THE BARBARIAN would have had much stronger sales, and FLASH GORDON (just re-released on DVD) would have been better suited to HD, with its eye candy sets and costumes. But, wishing and $2 will get you on the subway – CAT PEOPLE is what we were given, so CAT PEOPLE is what we’re going to talk about. But first, back to 1942. Continue Reading »

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Hardly dull but not necessarily good. 

By Steve Biodrowski 

This is a typically outrageous, action-packed flick from Hong Kong, in which characterization and coherence play second fiddle to throwing anything up on the screen that comes into the writer’s mind. With so much going on, the film is hardly ever dull, but that does not necessarily mean it is good. The violence and gore safely pushes the story into horror film territory, but the whole thing is too silly to take seriously, so no real thrills emerge. The cast of characters is rather generic, and the obligatory twist ending is so perfunctory it barely has any impact at all. Continue Reading »

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One of the joys of Hong Kong Cinema is the sheer uninhibited exuberance of their fantasy films. ”Make-believe” seems to be the operative term when it comes to these over-the-top opera; unconstrained by credibility concerns, the filmmakers feel free to fly with every imaginative idea that floats through their creative minds. The results can be wildly outrageous and entertaining - or, in some cases, they can be a complete mess. LAO MAO (”The Cat”) offers definite proof that “wild and crazy” can result in “stupid and boring.” This haphazrd combo of horror, sci-fi, mystery, and action is such a botch that even hardcore Hong Kong film fanatics may have trouble sitting through it. Fortunately, there is at least one outrageous scene that makes uneasy jumble worth at least a single viewing: a knock-down, drag-out kung fu battle between a cat and a dog! Continue Reading »

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Friday Cat Blogging is an Internet tradition not much associated with cinefantastique, but we are doing our best to change that. Not so long ago, we did an installment dedicated to Stuart Gordon’s MASTERS OF HORROR adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat.” This week, we’re taking a look at producer-director Roger Corman’s TALES OF TERROR, a 1962 anthology film that includes an episode inspired by the very same story. Continue Reading »

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Stuart Gordon’s MASTERS OF HORROR episode “The Black Cat” came out on DVD this week (I reviewed the film here), so it makes sense to make that the focus of this week’s episode of Friday Cat Blogging.

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