Mini-Review: Shadow of the Cat (1961)

Shadow of the Cat is a neat little horror/thriller hiding away on the final disc of the final volume (so far) of Scream Factory’s Universal Horror blu ray sets. This is a little odd, as it’s actually a Hammer movie rather than a Universal one, even if it was distributed by Universal.

The film tells the story of a group of greedy relatives and staff who murder an elderly woman for her money, but there was a witness – her cat, who is now out for revenge. The film opens with the elderly woman reading aloud The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe, which is rather fitting, as there is quite a lot of Poe’s influence in this film, from the feline starring role through to the theme of revenge, and the suggestion of guilt being manifest through another object – in this case, a tell-tale moggy rather than a tell-tale heart.

Roger Corman’s Poe cycle had already begun the year before this release, and has clearly influenced the script and production, although Shadow of the Cat is filmed in stark black and white rather than lurid colour. But there are other influences, too. There are elements of Gaslight here, and maybe a little of Footsteps in the Fog, and certainly hints here and there of The Cat and the Canary, even if the present film has a very different feel to the Bob Hope movie. Well, if you’re going to borrow, you might as well borrow from the best.

What is perhaps surprising is that a rather straightforward idea doesn’t seem stretched to breaking point during its eighty minute running time. In fact, it zips along quite nicely, and is both engrossing and deliriously good fun. The cast includes Barbara Shelley and Andre Morrell, both of whom were regulars in the Hammer series. Directing duties fell to John Gilling, who also directed one of my favourite Hammer movies, The Plague of the Zombies. I confess I’m not a huge Hammer fan, but Shadow of the Cat doesn’t really feel a great deal like a Hammer film. But it’s thoroughly enjoyable, and ticks all the boxes for late-night viewing.

Shadow of the Cat is available on Universal Horror Collection, Volume Six blu ray set (USA only).

Mini-review: The Remains (2016)

The trailer for The Remains gives a very good indication of the film itself: this is going to be, pure and simple, a haunted house movie. There will be nothing original, but it will attempt to give ninety minutes of entertainment, and there is comfort to be had from all the stock elements.

The film itself delivers on that – for the first half, at least. There is a prologue, which shows us a seance that took place in 1891. This is relatively effective, although one has to wonder at the basics of research not having been completed. A gramophone record of Daisy Bell is seen and heard playing. Not only was the song not written until 1892, it was not recorded until 1893, and then only on a wax cylinder. Commercial gramophone players didn’t come into being until the mid-1890s, and only started taking off around seven or eight years after that. Such mistakes don’t bode well.

After the credits, the film moves to the present day, where a family moves into the house, consisting of a widowed father and his three kids. It is three months since the wife has died, and he has decided to move his family because he thinks it will “be best for them.” We don’t know why he thinks this, but we’ll skip that oversight. Once the family moves in, things go bump in the night, and then during the day as well. The next-door neighbour seems to know something about the house’s secret but decides not to disclose it.

And so it continues for forty-five minutes or so. It’s cliched, unoriginal, but perfectly watchable. Then, one day, the youngest kids wake up and are acting strange. The teenage daughter doesn’t seem to notice – she’s too busy listening to music with her headphones on, of course. A box of leftover objects from the seance is found in the attic. And then the film falls utterly to pieces – there is no real explanation or logic as to what is going on, none of it is remotely frightening, and the decent performances of the first half go out of the window – possibly because the actors didn’t understand the script either.

I don’t expect originality in horror films. There is often much fun to be had with the established format, just as there is with a whodunnit, for example. But I do expect them to make sense. The Remains really doesn’t. Despite the film looking decent enough in a straight-to-streaming way, the second half is virtually unwatchable. Sadly, you only realise this when it comes to an end and find there’s no explanation for the events you have just watched for ninety minutes.

The Remains is available on Amazon Prime, should you be mad enough to seek it out.

Mini-Review: Vicious Fun (2020)

Vicious Fun rather lives up to its name. Evan Marsh stars as Joel, a young writer for a horror film magazine, who follows the new boyfriend of his housemate, after having a hunch that he’s a wrong’un. He ends up at a bar in the middle of nowhere, and getting drunk with the aforementioned boyfriend. Joel eventually passes out, only to find the bar is now housing a self-help group for serial killers – and one of them is out to kill the rest. No, I didn’t see that coming either.

This is, as you may have gathered, a (very) black comedy, but it’s a fun ride. All of the action (except for a brief coda) takes place during the course of twenty-four hours, something which helps to keep this rather anarchic film in check. There are no big star names here (Julian Richings is the most recognisable face), and this is a middle-budget indie effort, but there are good performances, and writer/director Cody Calahan manages to keep the film moving at all times, and sets up some suitably vicious kills along the way, for those who are into such things.

Vicious Fun isn’t ever going to win any major awards, but that was never the intention. The first thirty minutes or so don’t give much indication of where the film is going to go, and that’s what makes the rather bonkers final hour so entertaining. If you don’t expect a masterpiece, this is well worth your time.

Vicious Fun is showing on Shudder.