Starring: Monty, S.H. III

Directed by: John McPherson

This review contains a Kitty Carnage Warning!

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: Paul (Timothy Busfield) and Lindsey Jarrett (Kathleen Quinlan) and their daughter Tessa (Jessica Lilley) move to a country home to get away from big city life. Instead they find themselves targeted by a cantankerous clowder of cats in this made for TV movie.

Cat Cattle Call: In the opening scene a Steadicam is running along the ground in a cat’s eye view toward the isolated house, entering through a pet door. A very nifty bit of freehand movement has the camera moving through the door then beneath and around furniture before jumping onto a fireplace mantel and eyeing an elderly woman (Eve Brenner) lying on the couch. She looks up to see a ginger tabby cat, as well as several other cats around the room. “My babies,” she says happily.

She gets up to feed the cats but finds no food in the kitchen so she goes to the cellar for some cans of tuna with even more cats following her.

She is surprised by the number of cats visiting her on this night. Suddenly she hears a growling and turns to see something lunge at her from the trees, knocking her back into the cellar.

Featured Feline: After moving into this same house, Paul and Lindsey are driving back from picking up supplies when a blue cat suddenly slams into their windshield (a fake cat, thank goodness!), causing them to run off the road. In the ditch they check on their daughter in the back seat who is shaken but not hurt. They look behind them to see the blue cat sauntering off up the road.

Cat Burglars (Scene Stealers): Later Lindsey is in the attic when she discovers a beautiful longhair white cat with a blue kitten.

In the meantime, the telephone repairman (Gary McGurk) returns to the house to work on the relay box in the cellar. He hears a growling and turns to see a huge matted blue cat eyeing him viciously.

Numerous other (better groomed) cats (accompanied by Poor Cat Screeches, which are utilized throughout the movie) surround him. As he tries to leave, the blue cat pounces, knocking the man’s head into a pipe before knocking over some shelves. The other cats follow suit, leaping on the man’s body.

Lindsey shows the mama cat and kitten to Tessa and decides to surprise her husband at work with the kitten (despite the fact he is allergic to cats!)

They walk in just in time to see Paul hugging her sister, Claire (Claudia Christian), whom he is representing in her divorce case.

The cats are still hanging around the dead phone man in the basement, seemingly taking orders from the blue cat who then sneaks into a hole in the wall.

The blue cat looks down into Paul and Lindsey’s bedroom from a register in the wall above their bed as Lindsey refuses to listen to Paul’s explanation about what happened at the office. The next morning Paul awakens to find the sheets, pillows and most of his clothes liberally doused in cat pee, as well as a dead rat on the floor. He later finds their dog, Benny, scratched up and bleeding in the yard. After explaining about the situation to the vet (William Boyett) who comes to look at Benny, the vet suggests they have feral cats around and gives Paul a squirt gun to use as a deterrent.

While Paul is at work, Lindsey is painting a room but feels uneasy. The mama cat and kitten are in their basket nearby. When Lindsey goes to check on Tessa she is horrified to see the girl’s crib is filled with cats.

She tosses the cats out of the crib but only finds Tessa’s milk bottle beneath them.

Tessa is crying from the closet where the blue cat has her cornered.

Lindsey manages to push the blue cat behind the closet door to get Tessa and they run to the master bedroom where the numerous cats try to get through the door by scratching their way in.

The blue cat then tries to get in through the register grate but Lindsey blocks up the passage with pillows.

Paul receives a call from his wife but she can’t hear him on the still-faulty phone connection so he hurries to the house. In the meantime, Lindsey attempts to escape the bedroom and runs outside with Tessa, using a full water jug to keep the cats from her. The cats are gathered in the front foyer, glaring down at them angrily.

Lindsey and Tessa manage to escape the house and hide in the playhouse out in the yard but then Claire arrives, concerned about Paul cancelling her court appearance. Lindsey tries to warn Claire but the blue cat jumps at her and knocks her over the upstairs banister to crash into a table below, killing her.

Running to another room, Lindsey is trapped again and attacked by the blue cat. Fortunately she realizes that when she filled the water jug in the bathtub earlier she left the water running and the floor above them is flooded. So she uses the paint roller stick to break the ceiling, sending a flood of water down on them and allowing her to escape. But when she gets to the playhouse, Tessa is gone!

Paul arrives home and goes into the house to find Tessa. She is cornered in the kitchen by the cats with the blue cat snarling warnings at Paul.

Gently Paul urges Tessa to get out through the pet door. She moves slowly and the cats allow her to escape into the arms of her mother.

Paul is then attacked by the blue cat but he fights back, throwing the cat away from him several times.

He uses a fire extinguisher to scare away the other cats but the blue cat is persistent, eventually pinning Paul to the floor.

Paul manages to shove the cat into the microwave, and tries to cook him but the previously frayed cord on the machine fails. He tosses the machine across the room and the cat escapes.

Seeing the gun nearby, Paul picks it up and takes aim, pulling the trigger. A spray of water hits the blue cat, only managing to further infuriate the animal.

Kitty Carnage Warning! The blue cat prepares to jump down on Paul from the counter. Paul sees the sparking microwave cord and picks it up, holding it over his head and calling, “Here, kitty kitty!” The cat leaps, biting on the cord and gets electrocuted.

As the family are moving away, commenting on how they have decided not to stay even though all the cats have been removed, the camera zooms in under the porch to reveal the blue kitten still on the premises.

You can read our Behind the Scenes story on this film by clicking here.

Final Mewsings: Be nice to kitties, because you just never know!

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