Directed by: Ernest Dickerson
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!
Synopsis: A group of travelers find themselves stranded at a hotel in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by demons who are after an important artifact held by demon hunter Brayker (William Sadler).
Featured Feline: When Brayker arrives at the hotel he is ravenous and eating at a table. A man named Uncle Willy (Dick Miller) and a girl named Cordelia (Brenda Bakke) are watching him eat. Cordelia climbs onto the table and says she’ll take care of dessert. Suddenly a black cat named Cleo jumps up on the table.
Uncle Willy starts to pick up the cat and says, “Don’t worry. Cleo knows better than to eat that slop!”
The hotel owner Irene (CCH Pounder) walks by and scolds, “God damn it! Get that pussy off the table!” Cordelia immediately jumps off.
Irene then hands Cleo to Jeryline (Jada Pinkett Smith), a convict doing work relief at the inn, and says, “Didn’t I tell you to put him out?” “I did, and I don’t know how she got back in,” Jeryline explains.
Later Jeryline is in the kitchen with Irene when Cleo appears again. Brayker then shows up and asks, “Who let the cat in?”
Brayker then goes after Cleo, explaining that she isn’t immune to being possessed by the demons. Jeryline runs around the table with Cleo, trying to protect her. She finally lets Cleo go and the cat runs away.
They follow the cat into the basement where she eventually jumps out at them. Brayker pours a little of the blood from the artifact he carries to test Cleo, which shows she is not possessed. They also discover another way out of the inn, the one which Cleo was apparently using to get in and out.
Later when the demons are attacking everyone, Brayker and Jeryline hide in the attic with Cleo the cat and a boy named Danny (Ryan O’Donohue). Cleo hisses just before they are attacked by Danny, who has been possessed.
At the end of the film, Jeryline is seen boarding a bus with a cat carrier which contains Cleo.
Final Mewsings: You can’t keep a good cat out!
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