Empire Pictures
Starring: Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton
Directed by: Stuart Gordon

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

Synopsis: Based on the H.P. Lovecraft story but with a lot more campy humor thrown into the mix, the story is about Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott), a medical student working in a hospital and dating the head administrator’s daughter, Megan (Barbara Crampton).  Another ambitious but strange medical student named Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) rents a room in Dan’s house and pretty soon strange things begin to happen down in the basement.

Featured Feline: Dan owns a black cat named Rufus and we first see him when he jumps onto Dan’s back after he and Megan have made love.  This is also the only time we see Rufus, at least played by an actual cat actor.

Kitty Carnage Warning! The next time we see him in West’s refrigerator he is rather obviously a stuffed cat.

And finally when Dan hears an ungodly yowling in the basement one night and goes down to investigate he finds Herbert West being attacked by the reanimated stuffed cat puppet thingie which is strapped to his back.  It’s too campy to be offensive as the two fight off the “cat”.

Needless to say poor Rufus is in pretty sorry shape by the end of the encounter.  This film is certainly not for anyone who can’t stand to see any kind of violence against animals.  But if you accept it’s just a fake cat the whole thing is pretty darn funny and creepy, just as the filmmakers intended.

Final Mewsings: Cats have nine lives already, so they really don’t like being reanimated.

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