Rojak Films
Starring: Stephanie Cora, Shawna La Rue, Philip A. Jones, Shaun Kurtz
Directed by: Serge Rodnunsky
Synopsis: Another retelling of the Edgar Allen Poe classic follows a female detective named Eleanor (Stephanie Cora) as she interviews murder suspect Jack (Shaun Kurtz) in an attempt to learn the whereabouts of his missing girlfriend and her son.
Featured Feline: Don’t let the DVD cover fool you . . . the wicked, snarling cat shown there is about as far removed from the cat(s) who portray the title black cat in this film (whose character is named Pluto, as in the original short story.)
Also the legend “Evil Eyes, Evil Deeds” has nothing to do with the movie . . . the cat actually looks fairly bored throughout the proceedings, as well it should be. Because sadly while this movie tries to be inventive and clever the director (also writer and producer) double-crosses himself into making this film much more confusing than it needed to be.
It’s understandable to try to expand upon the original short story to stretch it out to feature film length but with so many adaptations of this story already in existence the filmmaker really had to bring something unique. That he did, but it ended up being far too difficult to follow and to accept. And that’s a shame because despite the low budget production values there really was the potential here for something more.
Final Mewsings: Complicated movies bore black cats.
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