by Linda Kay
Directed by: Joseph Adler
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains a MAJOR spoiler for this film!
Synopsis: Art student Janet (Eugenie Wingate) is fascinated by the macabre artwork of local painter Charles Butler (Larry Swanson), little realizing the dark secret behind the man’s work. Janet’s boyfriend, Jason (Ross Harris), on the other hand, maintains a more reasonable level of skepticism in this Troma film.
Cat Burglar (Scene Stealer): Janet owns a seal point Siamese cat named Caesar which can be seen eating from a bowl by the kitchen window as the couple sit at a table. Janet appears to be sketching the kitty but we never get to see her drawing.
When they retire to the bedroom, Jason carries Caesar with him and sets the cat on the bed, but the kitty wisely exits the dark room before the couple can take part in the obligatory sex scene.
Later Janet and Jason have had a fight and Janet is walking along the beach at night with her friend Scotty (Chris Martell). For some unfathomable reason she is carrying Caesar in her arms.
After an awkward moment in which Scotty attempts to secure a future meeting with Janet (he’s into her but she’s not into him), he tells her she has a crab on her foot. She jumps and drops Caesar, who runs off into the dark. The next few moments are spent hearing the cat meowing in the dark with Janet calling him before she is grabbed.
Much later, while looking for Janet, Jason asks for her at the home of Butler who insists she is not there. However Jason spots Caesar inside the door (like most of the currently available prints of the movie, the scene is too dark to actually see the cat. Or maybe it was just really shot that badly in the first place). Jason breaks into the house and is confronted by Butler, explaining he knows Janet is there because he recognized her cat. Instead of rescuing Janet he becomes the next victim and is injected with a serum that appears to make people’s faces pliable so that the doctor can manipulate their features and make them grotesque. Jason escapes before the serum can take affect and is hit by a car. He leaves the hospital and returns to the home looking for Janet. He only manages to find Caesar standing alone in a room.
His friend Marika (Suzanne Stuart) shows up with a detective and they find Jason standing alone in the room holding the cat. She is shocked when he turns to show his face has now been horribly disfigured (the results of the car accident changing his face perhaps, hence the delayed reaction?) He drops Caesar who beats a hasty retreat.
Final Mewsings: The cat actor was probably grateful he could barely be seen in this film!
Many thanks to Mark Murton for letting us know about the cat in this film.
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