by Mark Murton

Directed by: J. S. Cardone

Cat Out Of The Bag Alert! This review contains a MAJOR spoiler for this film.

Synopsis: Abstract visual artist Kay (Sarah Kendall) has been plagued since childhood by a series of disturbing dreams. With these dreams becoming more frequent and distressing Kay is persuaded to go on vacation to a small deserted island with her husband David (Alan McRae), her brother Eric (Frederick Flynn), and his wife Brooke (Carol Kottenbrook). Soon Kay informs the others that the island is the place of her childhood dreams and that they are all in danger if they stay, but an imminent hurricane leaves them stranded on the island. And then the killings begin . . . .

Cat Burglar (Scene Stealer): The cat doesn’t appear until the final scene but its significance is foreshadowed much earlier when Eric tells Brooke that Kay was given a black kitten for Christmas as a child and that it was found frozen to death in the family freezer two days later which Kay blamed on the creature in her nightmares. In the final scene the young Kay (Jennifer Gaffin) is still asleep when her mother (Ivy Jones) and father (Newell Alexander) come into her room to wake her on Christmas morning only to be told by Kay that she has had a bad dream. The young Eric (Richard Van Brakel) now comes into the room urging her to come and see all the presents she’s had at which point her father produces the first of them from behind his back, a black kitten with a red bow around its neck.

He leans in to present the cat to her and the final shot is a freeze frame of Kay’s horrified face as she realises that it wasn’t just a bad dream but a premonition of her inescapable future.

Final Mewsings: Once in a while a black cat really does signal bad luck.

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