by Mark Murton
Directed by: Roy Ward Baker
This review contains a Kitty Carnage Warning!
Cat Out Of The Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film.
Synopsis: A vampire invites a horror writer to a secret club where monsters gather to drink and dance. He soon regales the amused man with three tales of terror involving a lonely creature, hunters of the undead and a mysterious village.
The section of interest to us is The Shadmock in which a young, financially struggling woman, Angela (Barbara Kellerman), takes a job at a secluded manor house owned by Raven (James Laurenson), a hybrid creature called a Shadmock, notorious for its demonic whistle, who leads a lonely and tragic existence.
Cat Burglar (Scene Stealer): As Raven stands on the lawn outside his mansion feeding a flock of pigeons an interested Persian calico cat watches intently from a nearby wall. (One would assume a trainer was holding the cat in position on the wall.)
Angela arrives and, indicating the birds, Raven tells her, “They’re my only friends.” Meanwhile the cat jumps down from its perch (or is actually “catapulted” into the scene by someone offscreen) and eyes the feeding birds.
Later Raven is feeding his pigeon friends on the lawn again. The cat watches.
Licking its lips in anticipation . . .
. . . the cat waits for its opportunity.
When Raven’s back is turned the cat runs across the lawn towards the birds.
By the time Raven has turned back the deed is done.
The cat makes a hasty retreat to a position of relative safety in a planter.
Fixing it with a stare, Raven purses his lips and emits an ear-piercing, high-pitched whistle.
Kitty Carnage Warning! Hearing the noise inside the house, Angela runs outside to be confronted by the charred and still burning corpse of the cat (or rather a bubbling pile of goo that vaguely resembles a cat).
Final Mewsings: You shouldn’t punish cats just for following their natural instincts.
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