General could join Roland’s Ka-Tet. It would give Oy another friend to hang out with.
Cat’s Eye has been a guilty pleasure since my childhood, and I’ve often regarded it as my favorite horror anthology. There’s something comforting about the matter-of-fact lunacy of Teague and King’s darkly comic vision. Yes, this time around I could see its flaws, which aren’t glaring, but rather a generally lightweight tone which sometimes doesn’t take full advantage of King’s often ingenious ideas.
Even when I’d get blank stares while mentioning Cat’s Eye, somehow almost everyone I’d talk to had seen the “Quitters, Inc.” segment and loved it. Maybe they were just dunderheads who thought the movie was over. Hell, I once showed a South Park episode to my family with the commercials already edited out, so when the screen went to black for the first non-existent commercial break, they asked if it was over. Pricks. Quitters is the strongest as far plotting goes. Woods and King are terrific, the in-jokes and fantasy bits are fab, and it’s such a delightfully twisted idea that one can’t help but follow it through to the deliciously devious conclusion.
“The Ledge” has always remained the oddball of the trio. There’s nothing inherently wrong with it and McMillan never gave anything less than a despicable, magnetic performance while the production does the best they can in depicting such a tricky, life-threatening scenario. It’s all calibrated properly, but it’s far from a harrowing nail-biter. Maybe the lighter but no less horrific tone was meant to draw in fans of Drew Barrymore, for whom this was meant as a vehicle. Either way, it keeps you on your toes and when he wanted to, King could deliver very well in the payback department.
As I expected, my daughter wasn’t enthralled by the mostly adult-centric first and second segments, but her love of cats kept her going and I correctly gambled that “The General” would still be a winner. It’s everything you’d want from a gateway horror/modern fairy tale hybrid. Rambaldi’s ugly, fiendish troll is a perfect nemesis for the heroic and adorable silver tabby and Giorgio Postiglione’s spectacular production design from the breath-stealing bastard’s perspective is totally rad. The final battle, scored to a Chipmunk version of The Police, leads to one of my favorite conclusions as the satisfaction of proving one’s parents wrong is one I’ll always relish.
Special in its own unique way, Cat’s Eye is quick, painless, and like a cozy kitteh settling on your chest to take a long snooze.
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