Lucio Fulci was a very strange man. This Italian auteur was both a dreaming Director and a work-for-hire one. These would sometimes come into conflict, but still his career thrived for over twenty years. Oddly, forgetting to take his insulin- or not wanting to anymore, as some claim- would do this man in during 1996. He has left behind a legacy of strange shit though. This film is one of those...
Getting the obvious out of the way, this is not an adaptation of the Edgar Allen Poe story. Well, it sort of is, but it isn't. That is the best I can do to explain it, honestly. Just read on and see.
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The film begins with a couple going off to have sex. This just tries to start off in a unique way, huh? They go off into a strange little park building and begin to do the deed. Suddenly, a black cat wanders over and uses leverage to lock them in. Then, I kid you not, it damages the heater, causing hot steam to flow into the room, using up all of their air. The pair suffocate and die. Is that unique enough for you? I haven't seen this level of animal ingenuity since Frogs.
We learn throughout the film a bit about the cat. Obviously, it is no ordinary tabby. It all has something to do with a guy dying and his soul taking over the body of a cat. It would not really help if I even began to explain how this happened or why he was killing people. Fulci movies- as you will learn in the next few days- exist in their own sort of reality where logic has ceased to exist. You simply go along for the ride.
One of the oddest scenes to me involves the reporter character running afoul of the cat. He is walking down the street at night and the film gives us lots of angle shots to show us the animal following him. After properly ratcheting up the suspense, the animal leaps down onto the man and begins to claw at his face. They cut away and the man is found dead. Did he die of those wounds? Is he allergic to scratches? Is he just the weakest man ever and was simply unable to pull the 10lb cat off of him? They never say.
Honestly, as far as fake Poe adaptations, you can do far worse. As much as I joked about the film being weird, it is entertaining. It will never make sense, but it will entertain. As you will see with Fulci, that is not always the case. Check it out if you like weird-ass stuff. Thankfully, Lucio found time between making Zombie films to produce this.
More obscure Fulci on the way. Nazi ghosts, zombie D.J.s and Donald Duck. Stay tuned...
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