The Black Cat (1981) ***
Lucio Fulci's The Black Cat (1981) is a bit of a mishmash, full of non sequiturs and disparate ideas that don't get satisfyingly explored. Using only very basic elements from the 1843 Edgar Allan Poe story of the same name, the film follows a medium (Patrick Magee, intense as usual and one of the film's strongest components) who is linked to the titular feline through a kind of supernatural hatred—similar to David Cronenberg's The Brood (1979) [review].
As far as adaptations of this story by Italian directors go, Dario Argento's version in Two Evil Eyes (1990) [review] has a slight edge over this one for sheer spectacularity, but I still prefer Sergio Martino's Your Vice Is A Locked Room And Only I Have The Key (1972) [review] best (though all three are fairly loose adaptations).
On one hand, The Black Cat has excellent camerawork by Sergio Salvati (with perhaps more closeups of eyes than any other Fulci film, yet oddly no ocular trauma, a Lucio staple!) and a superb score by Pino Donaggio (both taut and playful), but it also unfortunately contains a producer-mandated Exorcist rip-off that serves no purpose, as well as some kill scenes that feel like they belong in a different film.
Sandwiched between City Of The Living Dead (1980) [review] and The Beyond (1981) [review], The Black Cat has neither the levels of gore of those two superior films, nor the same phantasmagoric atmosphere, making for a restrained Fulci experience (similar in that way to 1977's The Psychic [review]), but it's a good, rewatchable movie that has its merits.
As far as adaptations of this story by Italian directors go, Dario Argento's version in Two Evil Eyes (1990) [review] has a slight edge over this one for sheer spectacularity, but I still prefer Sergio Martino's Your Vice Is A Locked Room And Only I Have The Key (1972) [review] best (though all three are fairly loose adaptations).
On one hand, The Black Cat has excellent camerawork by Sergio Salvati (with perhaps more closeups of eyes than any other Fulci film, yet oddly no ocular trauma, a Lucio staple!) and a superb score by Pino Donaggio (both taut and playful), but it also unfortunately contains a producer-mandated Exorcist rip-off that serves no purpose, as well as some kill scenes that feel like they belong in a different film.
Sandwiched between City Of The Living Dead (1980) [review] and The Beyond (1981) [review], The Black Cat has neither the levels of gore of those two superior films, nor the same phantasmagoric atmosphere, making for a restrained Fulci experience (similar in that way to 1977's The Psychic [review]), but it's a good, rewatchable movie that has its merits.
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