Dino De Laurentiis Company
Starring: Drew Barrymore, Candy Clark, James Naughton
Directed by: Lewis Teague

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

Synopsis: A trilogy of Stephen King stories, two of which were based on the writer’s original short stories and one of which King wrote specifically for Drew Barrymore in this film.  This is a fun, creepy set of stories dripping with King’s style of dark comedy.  The segments are “Quitters, Inc.” in which a man resorts to a strange company which guarantees a sure-fire way to quit smoking, “The Ledge” in which a gambler enacts revenge on his wife’s lover by forcing him to accept a potentially lethal bet, and “General” in which a girl (Drew Barrymore) adopts a stray cat which attempts to protect her from a strange monster in her room.

Cinema Cat: The main cat, a tabby whom we learn in the final segment is named “General,” ties all of the stories together and appears throughout the film.  General is truly the hero of the story, and although he plays a small part in the other two main stories he is the focus of the connecting segments, in which he is traveling on a mysterious quest on behalf of a mysterious girl (whom we later realize is the girl in the last segment).

12 different cats were used in the making of the movie.  As the director explained in the DVD commentary, this was mainly because the cat trainers used food as a positive reinforcement and after so many takes the cat being used wouldn’t be hungry any more and they would move on to the next cat.  The animal trainer for this film was the notable Karl Lewis Miller who director Lewis Teague explained had a strong telepathic connection with the animals he worked with (he also worked on the films Babe and Bruce Almighty.)

Kitty Cameos: There are some other cats seen in the film, including the cat seen with Drew Barrymore in a commercial at the begining of the second segment, as well as many cats and kittens in the animal shelter in the third segment.

Kitty Carnage Warning:  There are several scenes throughout the film in which General is shown being hurt or threatened in some way.  In the first segment General is seen in an enclosure with an electrified floor (in the DVD commentary, director Lewis Teague explained that an air pressure hose was beneath the floor and is what the cat was actually reacting to.)  In the second segment General is in danger while trying to cross a busy thoroughfare (again the director explained a split-screen shot was used and the cat was perfectly safe.)  And in the final segment he is injured as he is fighting the creature.

Final Mewsings: Cats are killers but not of little girls.

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