Cat in the Brain [DVD]

 

 

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Finally grindhouse release Fulci's last truley great film on dvd, and as usual they have done an amazing job!
The film follows The maestro himself as he suspects he is having a mental breakdown and may be responsible for several murders, unaware he is under the hpynotic influence of a deranged psychotherapist.
If the brief synopsis makes this movie sound mad, well it is, with Explosions of gore, filler scenes from other movies and the now legendary glove puppet cat shredding fulci's brains in the openingthe film seems totally of the wall at times(but we eurohorror fans dig that!) That said the film actually plays rather well as a dissection of fulci as a director, with the overt uses of gore and accusations of mysogyny, and questions what sort of person makes these films and what kind of affect do they have on an audience. While on a purley technical aspect this film is pretty flawed and does not show anywhere near the level of flair from films like The beyond and house by the cemetary, it does serve as an excellent footnote to Fulci's career, and provides enough gore and madness to satisfy genre fans.
The Print is uncut and definately the best i have seen in the correct widescreen ratio and option of italian or english dub, and the disc is loaded with extras including interviews with the legend himself and a booklet with essays from antonella fulci, david schow and eli roth. Overall no self-respecting fulci fan should be without this disc in their collection!

Bought this not expecting much really but I was quite surprised!The only other Fulci film I have seen is "The Beyond" which I thought was pretty disappointing....and as that is considered by many to be his masterwork I didn't care to look any further.But as a self-admitted gorehound I thought I would give this one a go(knowing at the very least there would be some gruesome thrills).It is actually a pretty cool film!I mean,some of the effects are dated and the acting/dubbing is questionable in places but this is one of those situations where this all works in the film's favour.It gives it a certain charm.
"The Beyond" has all these things but the repeating,somewhat atonal piano melody REALLY gets on my nerves(plus I am a pretty serious arachnophobe so it loses points for the spider scene-which I can't actually watch!).The music in this film is great though,it is quite rock-orientated with lots of nice guitar work(I'm a guitar-nut so I'm admittedly biased!).
The gore is splashed about all over the place!...there are some really great,juicy effects sequences that, like I said,are somewhat dated but still conceptually pretty nasty(aswell as the usual Fulci eye-mutilations which always make me laugh!).In fact,almost straight away we see a cat-puppet clawing away at loads of squishy brain-matter.....they just don't make 'em like they used to!!!!
The story is cool aswell and Fulci is actually not that bad in front of the camera!The guy who plays the psychiatrist/murderer does so in quite a cheesy,pantomime way which just adds to the fun.Speaking of that guy,his secretary is DAMN sexy(anyone who has seen "Demons" will immediately recognise her,as she is one of the leading girls-the one with the curly hair).I was thinking some pretty bad thoughts of my own whenever she was on-screen(especially the end..oh baby)!!!!
So yeah,not the finest example of horror cinema,but if you are just in the mood for some 80's-style juicy gore and sillyness,then not a bad waste of 90 mins.Films like this take me back to my youth,where I would have sleep-overs and stay up all night watching stuff like this!!!!

"Un Gatto nel Cervello"/"Cat in the Brain" is probably one of the goriest horror movies ever made. It's a series of extremely violent sequences knitted together by a plot that feels more like an overview, describing director Lucio Fulci's most notorious years of film-making. The movie could also be seen as a dark comedy of sorts, effectively spoofing the various claims that violent cinema causes violence in real life. Fulci goes even further than that and casts himself as the star, the central figure of the film showing the audience who is the man behind all the cinematic gore. "Cat in The Brain" is not about presenting a clear story and following it. Instead it pokes fun at some of the clichés that have been surrounding the horror genre for years. Lucio Fulci plays himself as a horror director struggling to keep his humanity intact. Years of violent film making have finally began to reach him. It starts slowly, steaks and meat in general begin to disgust him, his colleagues assure Fulci that all he needs is some rest. But that doesn't help and soon the grotesque ideas for his movies begin to overwhelm his daily thoughts. In an attempt to find a cure for his dangerously maddening mental state Lucio starts going to the local psychiatrist. Unfortunately that does more wrong than good and Fulci is thrown into an even bigger mess, as the psychiatrist turns out to be a psychopath, who mimics the murders from Fulci's films in real life.

The film retains all the trademarks of Italian splatter cinema, good or bad they are all here. So any comments about the acting or the technical aspects and budget constrains are quite irrelevant as to the quality of the film. It is a visual experience, no doubt about it. Fulci throws in an incredible amount of violence easily surpassing pretty much everything he's made. Amputated by chainsaw limbs, cannibalism, child murder, decapitation, these are just some of the many grotesque acts witnessed in "Cat In The Brain" and they definitely look great. Some of them are obviously recycled from a few the director's less profile movies but they don't stand out of the context, and actually feel quite at home here. As I said before the movie exists much better as a satire of the genre rather than a serious piece. The way some of the violence is presented does help establish that idea. Such sequences shortly after climax are rejected by the reality in the film, as they are revealed to be actually scenes inside a movie that Fulci's character is directing. This sort of "film in film" presentation lessens somewhat the impact of the gore. But in no way does it make it an easy to watch film. Oh no this is far beyond and above the levels of gore found in mainstream horror, and gorehounds will in no doubt be satisfied with that fact. Cat in the Brain is a very underrated film, even by Fulci fans. But I loved this movie and have watched it many times already. It is sad that Fulci didn't get a chance to direct anything worth while after this but nonetheless this is a great film and I do recommend it to any Fulci fan, but it is definitely an acquired taste as it's not for those who have a weak stomach or those who are easily offended.

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2.0 out of 5 stars Mee-awful
Cheesy music, poor dubbing, glaring continuity errors, dodgy acting (not the least from Fulci himself) and buckets of often less-than-convincing gore. Read more

Published on 27 Aug 2009 by Cartimand

1.0 out of 5 stars Cat in the bin
I was foaming at the mouth when I happened to stumble across the DVD version of this uncut video nasty. Read more

Published on 23 Mar 2004 by reznor84666

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