Onlinewsma Absolutely Brilliant!

HottWwjdIam There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Skyler Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

ben hibburd The Black Cat is directed by Lucio Fulci and is based on the Edgar Allen Poe story of the same name. The Black Cat sees Patrick McGee star as a cranky old medium Robert Miles. Miles has the ability to possess a black cat, and have it do his bidding and murder people he believes have wronged him. When the murders start to increase it's down to American tourist Jill Travers (Mimsy Farmer) and Scotland Yard Police Inspector Gorley ( David Warbeck) to find out what/who is causing these strange murders to happen.The Black Cat, is regarded as one of Fulci's lesser films, which is a bit unfair, as this film does have some good things going on. Firstly the restoration from Arrow Video is gorgeous to look at as always. The film has an excellent moody tone to it. As-well the kills and practical effects are well constructed, the fact that Fulci made a killer cat feel wholly believable is no small feat.The standout performer in this film is Patrick McGee, his haunting presence and piercing glares, help sell his off kilter character. Even when the screenplay makes absolute no sense. Unfortunately the rest of the cast are barley given any material to work with. Which in turn makes their characters feel slightly dull and forgettable, despite them all giving decent performances.The biggest issue this film has is the screenplay, at its best the script is nonsensical. Huge plot threads are unceremoniously dropped with no payoff or resolution given. We're also never given a reason as to why or how Miles is controlling the cat. Or if it's the other way round. There are other inconsistencies littered through-out the film, which makes the film frustrating to follow.However with the stylish direction from Fulci, Pino Donaggio's fabulous score, as-well as committed performances from the cast, they help to elevate a lacklustre and inconsistent script.

fedor8 "Based on an Edgar Allan Poe story", it says in the opening credits, meaning that both the movie and the story have a black cat in it. That's about it."The Uncanny" had already amused us with its rather silly theme of evil cats, but Fulci must have thought it wasn't enough, that there was more to be eked out of this sub-genre – and he was right. There is ALWAYS more potential when it comes to filming cats. (Just look at YouTube.) After all, a killer-cat is always funny, no matter how often you see it cause bloody havoc. Besides, on the absurdity scale of death-defying savage beasties with a predilection for executing bipedals, cats are certainly more credible than bunnies or rats, which had also been the stars of various "cute horror" flicks.Fulci added something we hadn't had before among murdering felines, and that's a cat-hanging! The cutest moment in the movie (as weird as that may sound) was seeing a tiny cat-noose being prepared, by none other than Patrick Magee. Imagine how silly that noose would look in a killer-hamster horror film. Magee then actually hangs the black cat, and I sure hope that Fulci didn't actually hang a real cat to shoot that scene (we see only the shadow). But not to worry, what Mike Myers can do, so can a black Italian cat: the vicious feline resurrects and soon continues its bloody path of mayhem and destruction. Magee, smart as he is, forgot that cats have nine lives. If only he had hung him eight more times.As is almost a tradition with Italian horror films, there are loose ends in the story. Magee stated that the cat was out to get him, but it's never even hinted at why this is the case. What caused the black cat to "hate" Magee so much? Did it not like "A Clockwork Orange"? That's hardly possibly, because as everyone should know by now, cats are intelligent animals hence presumably enjoy excellent movies. When Magee tried to take control over the American camerawoman early on, the cat attacked him thereby stopping the hypnosis. The cat didn't really have a motive to protect the woman from Magee. It did that simply because it felt like it? Still, TBC is much less maligned by holes in the script than the vast majority of other Italian horror films, and certainly superior in every way to Fulci's awful "City of the Living Dead". TBC overstays its welcome a bit, should have been somewhat shorter, but it does have a decent visual quality, a solid cast, and of course all those black cats working so hard together to flesh out the title character.

Bjorn (ODDBear) Somewhat atmospheric but ultimately a rather pedestrian affair from Fulci. The story is pretty lame and the pacing is off in this "re-imagining" of the Poe classic, which by itself isn't a bad thing 'cause the story has been filmed countless times.Made at the time when Fulci was at full force, making such classics as The Beyond, City of the Living Dead and House By The Cemetery and this one, all in two years time, it is reported that Fulci's heart wasn't all together in this project. Out grabbing a smoke this time around are frequent script collaborator Dardano Sacchetti and composer Fabio Frizzi and, honestly, they're sorely missed. Although Pino Donaggio contributes a solid score, the writing here is below par and Sacchetti, who more or less was responsible for Fulci's nightmarish visions in The Beyond and City of the Living Dead (two very effective horror films), would probably have injected more life into the proceedings and delivered some better dialogue.Dialogue wise, this is pretty stupid. Fulci has some fine talents here; Patrick Magee is menacing as the local medium who has a strange relationship with the black cat, Mimsy Farmer is always welcome in an Italian production and David Warbeck is always likable. But poor dubbing and shitty lines do count for much here, the actors own voices aren't even in sync. Another thing that bothered me here; the cinematography. Sometimes it's scope photography is very effective when it's focusing on the town village which is covered with fog and at times it builds up quite an atmosphere. But the insane (and very frequent) close-ups on the actors eyes is way too much. It happens nearly in every scene to some extent.The pacing here is off and it drags quite a bit, despite only just reaching 90 minutes. In the beginning the story looks promising when Magee is attempting to communicate with the dead (you immediately think of The Beyond and City) but it veers off in another direction altogether once the psychic link between him and the cat starts taking control. That part of the story never really gels (and it's here that the story is similar to Poe's original but it has a twist) and although some of the death sequences are handled well it doesn't make up for the remainder of the film which is a bit too slow and impassionately executed. The ending is also pilfered wholesale from Fulci's earlier The Psychic (aka Seven Notes in Black) and that leaves a nasty aftertaste.I must say, however, that the scenes with the cat are amazing. That's one impressive cat and a damn fine actor to boot. Quite the acrobat and problem solver and I'd be scared of him too.

MARIO GAUCI When a film by this title turned up on Cable TV, I hoped it would be the Fulci version; actually, it was Luigi Cozzi's 1989 stab at the venerable Edgar Allan Poe short story - which I then missed (and now regret having done so, after recently watching Cozzi's fine giallo THE KILLER MUST KILL AGAIN [1975]). Anyway, even if by the early 80s Fulci was well into his "gorehound" days, this loose adaptation of the much-filmed classic is a generally restrained affair - and all the better for it.Following a less than promising start (with a teenage couple shacking up in a remote cabin), the film settles down to being an atmospheric and fairly interesting psychological thriller (it's neither giallo nor straight horror) with slick cinematography by Sergio Salvati and a fine score by Pino Donaggio. The humans-threatened-by-a-feline plot recalls Hammer Films' THE SHADOW OF THE CAT (1961) and Roger Corman's THE TOMB OF LIGEIA (1964; based on another Poe tale); actually, Corman had filmed "The Black Cat" as part of his compendium TALES OF TERROR (1962) and, interestingly enough, Fulci borrowed the ending from it for his film - though the director's earlier giallo THE PSYCHIC (1977) had already featured a similarly claustrophobic finale (besides, here he revamped the attack-by-bats from his own A LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN [1971])! The familiar cast is well chosen: Italian horror regulars Mimsy Farmer, David Warbeck and (a plumper-than-usual) Dagmar Lassander are okay - but the film belongs to nominal star Patrick Magee (in one of his last roles), whose distinctive voice (making the English-language soundtrack, for once, the version of choice - not that I had any!) and intense countenance (particularly when engaged in his mediumistic activities and the ongoing battle of wits with the sinister title creature) are enough to enliven any film. The voices and sounds from the beyond which he records with his cumbersome and archaic equipment lend the film an eerie tone, which actually complements the supernatural idea that a cat may be able to control a person's actions or vice versa; still, the poltergeist scene following the feline's 'death' at Magee's hands - with its spirit apparently possessing the room inhabited by the Mimsy Farmer character - is rather baffling.In the end, THE BLACK CAT may not be top-tier Fulci but it's a satisfying, indeed underrated, chiller nonetheless - one that's actually superior to most of his better-known and effects-heavy zombie flicks!