A Cat in the Brain
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- Release Date: August 8, 1990
- Directed by: Lucio Fulci
- Written by: Lucio Fulci, Giovanni Simonelli and Antonio
- Runtime: 1 hour 32 minutes
After a string of direct-to-video and TV films, Lucio Fulci made what would end up being his final theatrically-released film, A Cat in the Brain. I don't know too much about the making of this one, so I can't write a lot in terms of an introduction. What I can tell you is that this movie feels like the capstone of his 1988-89 low-budget run. Made on what seems to be a shoestring budget, not only is this a best-of clip show of some of Fulci's recent projects, but it's also a meta horror film that features the Maestro going full-on self-aware for the first time in his career.
The movie stars Lucio Fulci as a fictionalized version of himself, who is beginning to experience disturbing hallucinations of scenes from films that he has worked on. As the line between reality and fiction begin to blur, a series of murders begins to unfold in the area where Fulci lives and works, and he begins to question whether or not he is the one who is killing people. A Cat in the Brain can easily be divided into two distinct portions. One half of the film is original footage featuring Fulci making a film and slowly losing his mind, and the other half consists of death sequences that are made up of stock footage. When it comes to the filmmaking plotline, I really enjoy some of the subtext put into it. At this point in his career, Fulci's best years were long behind him, and his physical illnesses were taking their toll as well. Having an aging director being consumed by their own creation is a fantastic angle to take when they have this type of filmmaking legacy. He appears tired and wary through many scenes, coming across like he is trapped in this profession that is actually hurting him at this point. There is even one moment where he seems to acknowledge the point to which his films had sank over the past couple of years, saying the line "Sadism, Nazism, is there any point anymore?" I've read that Fulci's opinion on these sickness-era films varied, so it's pretty funny to hear him make remarks on his own projects and current standing. Some dumb part of me wishes that this was just a drama about an aging horror director instead of an actual horror film.
As stated before, the second portion of the movie consists of death sequences that are pulled from other movies. Almost every one is stock footage taken from things such as Fulci's own Touch of Death and Sodoma's Ghost, while others come from four other films that he supervised the production of. They are all cut in ways that show Fulci observing the action that is occurring in them. One hilarious sequence features a zombie girl in a wheelchair being thrown down some stairs, and another features a child taking a chainsaw straight to the face as he runs through a house. Fulci will occasionally be edited into these scenes so it looks like he's taking part in them, such as one where he appears to be the man running over a hobo in Touch of Death. There are also a couple of instances of actors returning to film new framing scenes to segue into the stock footage, such as an actor playing the same Nazi role they played in Sodoma's Ghost. This over-use of stock footage may seem like a cash grab, but funny enough, it provides more gore and violence in one film than the previous four Fulci movies combined. If you like mindless carnage and cheesy Italian horror film effects, then there are a lot of treats for you in these scenes.
Despite the entertainment value to be had, there are also some pretty rough edges to this movie. As it goes on, the stock footage scenes seem to go on for longer and longer. Dialogue will stop for minutes on end, and the soundtrack will only consist of an array of moaning voices or whatever music was originally in these scenes. It's a good mood for if you happen to be watching the movie with a group of friends and you want to talk and laugh at the thing, but if you're watching it by yourself in a quiet room, you may be tempted to start drifting off about halfway through. It also seems like the screenwriters began to run out of ideas for things for Fulci to do in his scenes. After the plot moves past the making of his movie and into his mental deterioration, many of his scenes simply feature him looking scared and not saying much at all. He will often shout things like "No!" or look away, and that's all he has to do as the stock footage continues to run. I enjoyed the filmmaking plotline, and I was kind of disappointed to see it get ditched until finally coming back near the end. Speaking of the ending, it's a pretty clumsy one. The resolution of who the murderer is and their conflict with the police happens entirely off-screen, only being explained with a few lines of dialogue and showing their dead body afterwards. With the usage of stock footage increasing as the film continued on, it comes across as they simply ran out of budget and had to put an ending together with what they had. It's a clumsy ending to an otherwise enjoyable ride.
Rough edges and all, I have to recommend A Cat in the Brain to any fan of Italian horror films. I respect the man for getting so self-referential and almost self-deprecating at this stage of his life. If you know that your career is past its prime, then why not have a little fun with it at this point? If you love the genre, then chances are you love at least one or two Fulci films, and watching the Maestro get caught up in a mess of his own creation is an experience that you just can't miss.