The Black Cat (1984)

Such a frustrating disappointment

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

(58%) A Lucio Fulci movie in the category of movies that make at least some sort of sense - well apart from the fact that this is about a killer moggie. And if it is a killer cat movie you're after then this is certainly one of the very best that really does offer what you'd expect. At its best this is a very well shot, creepy, Hichcockian man vs beast nightmare with the great Patrick Magee getting plenty of screen time, well, at least his eyes do. But at its worst it's a bit tepid, and once you've seen the cat strike, which happens very early on, then you've seen more or less all this has to offer. But this is still too entertaining, well made, and at least somewhat connected to Poe's grisly short to dismiss. For giallo fans this is a must watch, while everyone else could do a heck of a lot worse than watch this.

If this was any other director, I would probably have given this a higher rating, but this is Fulci and, frankly, we expect better things.A mad old guy - played by Patrick Magee, the guy in the wheelchair from A Clockwork Orange - owns a cat, which he uses to kill people he isn't too fond of, but gradually the cat develops a mind of its own and is not so easy to control. Those pesky felines and their wily ways.I'll admit, there are some spooky moments, and the effects occasionally border on the gross - though nothing compared with his more famous work - but overall it has the feel of an above average Hammer movie.Not bad, but not great either.

I Thought that The Black Cat was a good Italian horror directed by Lucio Fulci. The film is about Strange things that are happening in a small English village. It all starts when a man driving a car suddenly notices a strange black cat in the back seat of his car. The cat suddenly stares at the man and causes the man to crash his car into a lamp post, killing him.The black cat then walks off back to its home, which is an old house which is owened by Robert Miles (Patrick Magee), Robert is a former college professor of the supernatural and he is also a medium and he lives alone except for his black cat. He spends his time making audio tape recordings at the tombs of people who have recently died. He uses the cat on his enemies. suddenly a photographer who works for the local constables begins to notice cat scratches on some of the accident victims. I Thought that this was a good horror Lucio Fulci who has made a lot of good horror films. RECCOMMENED.

A disturbing series of shocking fatal "accidents" occur in a sleepy small English village. Stalwart Scotland Yard Inspector Gorley (solid David Warbeck) and snoopy photographer Jill Trevers (the always charming and lovely Mimsy Farmer) investigate the rash of grisly deaths. The most probable suspect turns out to be haughty medium Professor Robert Miles (marvelously played by the great Patrick Magee), a sour outcast who's been trying to communicate with the recently deceased. Director Lucio Fulci, very loosely adapting Edgar Allen Poe's classic short story, ably creates his trademark potently brooding ooga-booga gloom-doom creepy Gothic atmosphere and stages the expected brutal murder set pieces with his customary lip-smacking sadistic flair. Sergio Salvati's sumptuously slick and sparkling cinematography makes exquisitely fluid use of smoothly gliding tracking shots. Pino Donaggio's beautifully chilling and eerie score further adds to the overall spooky tone. Fulci regular Al Cliver pops up as a friendly local police sergeant and poor Dagmar Lassander suffers a memorably fiery demise. The titular cunning, deadly and lethal feline qualifies as one genuinely scary and nasty piece of ferocious work. One of Fulci's most unjustly neglected and underrated fright features.