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The Black Cat [1981] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
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Our Price: £3.85 (subject to change)
A HIGHLY UNDERRATED FULCI EFFORT
Review date: 2007-10-27 Rating: 8 out of 10
Arriving in a sleepy English town, Jill Trevers, (Mimsy Farmer) starts her new book about gravestones and meets eccentric loner Robert Miles, (Patrick Magee) who lives alone with his black cat. Both are called together by police officers Inspector Gorley, (David Warbeck) and Sergeant Wilson, (Al Cliver) to solve a series of grisly murders in the sleepy hamlet. As they delve into the murders, she believes that his cat is the culprit, and after several more victims turn up, they start to believe the story. Racing to find the cat before it attacks again, they find that there's a psychic connection between the cat and one of the residents of the town and they are using the cat to extract revenge on the town for events done in the past, and put a stop to the wave of killings.
The Good News: As far as Fulci films go, this one is a slightly underrated effort. One of it's best features is that the mood and atmosphere in here is quite nicely done and resemble a prime-era Hammer film. The countryside locale, the Victorian designs on the buildings and the general feel and tone capture it quite nicely, and there are times when the film can be quite creepy. The slow creep up on the police officer who feels they're being followed and is eventually done in after a very nice sequence, and the initial kill, where is victim is forced to crash their car into a tree and go flying through a windshield with a surprise survivor of the accident leaving the scene giving it a strong resonance. The wonderfully-realized photography, which prowls along the ground, soars over rooftops, creeps into dark, dusty corners as well as numerous carefully-planned crane shots, and the cat's POV are wonderfully rendered and give it a really great look to it that has rarely been matched. The various kills here aren't that terrible, including a dive off a ledge onto a bed of spikes below, stuck inside a cramped room, being gnawed by rats, the flying through the windshield and various body parts, including arms, hands, face and legs being severely scratched up with deep wounds and such. It's one moment of pure chills is the reanimation sequence, which is quite creepy and chilling, and is a real moment of dread in the film. The fiery climax, which wouldn't feel out-of-place in a Corman-era "Poe" film or a Hammer film, is it's most action-packed, full of some thrilling moments that come about due to the situation, and some not so terrible escape suspense set-pieces that are quite thrilling. This had some really worthwhile moments all-together.
The Bad News: Even being an underrated work, this is still one of the lesser works in Fulci's cannon. The excessive use of close-ups gets very tiring very quickly. The human character's eyes and nose ridge are on-screen more than the cat is. There's an extremely alarming amount of them spread throughout by just about all of the characters, and they become distracting after a while. Another big problem is the almost in-credulousness of the plot. The fact that the cat is never really dismissed as a potential suspect is quite troubling, as the fact that a little cat can take out as large victims as the ones portrayed is passed off as being plausible from the very start. Strangely, in a film like this, it needs to hedge the doubt about it a little more, especially from the police inspectors to make their contributions a little more believable. The film's biggest problem, though, is that the pacing is way off. There's far too much time spent on characters doing pretty much nothing other than discussing what is painfully obvious all the time. Other time is spent on the following of the cat around as it does nothing, and only interest really is held when it's doing something. However, since much of the time is spent with people doing nothing, it can at time really drag itself out and seem a little on the slow side. As to how gory it is, there's some in here and it does seem to fit in with the type of film, and those expecting it to be a full-on blood-n-guts splatter-fest, then they'll come away with a sense of disappointment since it doesn't have much of that going on. It fits the style, which doesn't really have a lot of gore on display in them, but it can be a problem for some of the more intense followers of his bloodier films.
The Final Verdict: While nowhere near his classic zombie films, this is a severely underrated Fulci effort that is quite nice when it wants to be, but is still hurt by an overlong period of inactivity and some needless sequences. Give it a shot if you're into the Gothic films Hammer excelled at or more adventurous Fulci fans, but seek caution if you're into him for the gore.
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Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Al Cliver
Patrick Magee
Mimsy Farmer
David Warbeck
Dagmar Lassander
Creators:
Al Cliver (Primary Contributor)
Mimsy Farmer (Primary Contributor)
Sergio Salvati (Cinematographer)
Pino Donaggio (Composer)
Director(s):
Recording label: Blue Underground
Manufacturer: Blue Underground
EAN: 0827058109499
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Colour, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC,
Release date: 2007-04-24
Universal product code (UPC): 827058109499
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Region code: 1
Running time: 92 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1981
Language: English (Original Language)