Cat's Eye (1985) Review

Cat’s Eye (1985) Review

Stephen King returned to screenwriting three years after Creepshow with Cat’s Eye, another anthology film, but with a much different style. A few members of the creative team were already familiar with King’s work. Child star Drew Barrymore was in Firestarter the year before, and director Lewis Teague brought Cujo to the big screen. Like Creepshow, it’s a mix of humour and horror, but in comparison, Cat’s Eye isn’t as funny, or scary. 

There are three narratives, all set in the same world, but only loosely connected, the bridge between them being a tabby cat that gets itself into some unfortunate situations. The movie begins with the cat being chased by Cujo (yeah, the Cujo) and running past a red car with a bumper sticker saying its name is Christine. There are a bunch of other random Stephen King references throughout (such as the name of the school and a character reading a copy of Pet Sematary), almost making it feel like Stephen King fan fiction, which is weird, because, well, King wrote it. 

The first story is about a guy (played by James Woods) trying to quit smoking, so he goes to Quitters Inc., a company that uses unorthodox and sadistic methods of yielding positive results. The cat gets captured and tossed in a room with an electric floor, so they can demonstrate to the guy what will happen to his wife if he sneaks a smoke. There are people watching him everywhere he goes, and he starts getting paranoid, all while craving a cigarette more and more.

In short, this segment isn’t anything special. I suppose it might have a greater effect on smokers or ex-smokers, but it gets really goofy at a certain point and in the end, doesn’t amount to many scares or laughs, but isn’t terrible, just average. 

The cat gets on a ferry and ends up in Atlantic City, where some gamblers bet on whether the cat can survive crossing the busy street or not. A crime boss ends up taking the cat home, and this story is about how he (the crime boss) kidnaps a guy who’s been sleeping with his wife and makes him walk around the ledge of his building hundreds of feet off the ground. If he can make it around, he gets his wife and a bunch of money, but if he falls, he dies, obviously. 

This story is more straight-forward than the first but actually more effective. It uses a simple fear, the fear of heights, to great effect, and is pretty tension-filled. The crime boss uses cheap, ridiculous methods of trying to make the guy fall, which are funny because they’re ridiculous, but it doesn’t ruin the suspense of whether he’ll make it or not. 

The cat escapes and moves on to the third and final story. In this one, the cat actually plays a significant role. A young girl (played by Drew Barrymore) finds it and names it General, and General protects her from a freaky little troll monster living in her wall that wants to steal her breath. Of course her parents don’t believe her, but General proves them wrong when it takes on the creature in a fight to the death.

It’s a pretty absurd premise and nothing like the first two stories, but it’s arguably the best part. The creature is creepy, and though some of the blue screen effects are dated, the miniature effects are really well done. Why the cat came to save this girl or even cares at all doesn’t really matter; it makes for a more-fun-than-scary finale. 

What’s slightly confusing is Drew Barrymore plays the daughter of the family in the third part, but also the daughter of James Woods in the first part. She has glasses and is dressed differently in part one, but other than that, looks and acts the same. In the end credits she’s just listed as “Our Girl”. Huh? Whose girl? The audiences’ girl? The filmmakers’ girl? It’s a minor point, but I just found it an odd choice. There’s a moment in the beginning when the cat sees a mannequin that sort-of comes alive as Drew and asks for help, but it’s never explained. Maybe that had something to do with it? I don’t know, I’m looking too far into this.

In the end, Cat’s Eye continues to get better as it progress and is enjoyable enough overall, even if each segment isn’t particularly strong on its own. It’s lighter in tone and content than Creepshow (with only a PG-13 rating, making it one of few Stephen King movies to sport this rating) but worth at least a one-time viewing.