4 Star

Will You Survive Your Decisions?

From the master of scary tales Stephen King (Carrie (novel), Christine, Pet Sematary (novel) / (screenplay)) comes an anthology film about how a cat interacts with strangers across America. King teams up again with popular director Lewis Teague (Cujo, The Jewel of the Nile, Wedlock) to get those neck hairs bristling. Cat’s Eye is a pure slice of the 80s.

The main protagonist of the film starts out running for his life as he is being chased by a huge dog that doesn’t want to be friends with him. Luckily he makes it into the back of a truck that heads off into New York City. While wandering the streets of the big apple, he sees a vision of a young girl pleading for help from a monster that is after her. But before he has the chance to do anything about it, Junk (Tony Munafo, Rocky II, Rambo: First Blood Part II) sticks him in a cage and takes him to his employer Dr. Vinny Donatti (Alan King, Author! Author!, Enemies, A Love Story). He is waiting for his next patient, who has just been dropped off at Quitters, Inc. to kick his habit of smoking.

Dick Morrison (James Woods, Videodrome, Salvador) has been brought to the clinic by his friend, who swears by the doctor’s methods.

Dr Donatti’s methods come as a shock to Dick when he realizes that Quitters Inc is a mafia tax scam and that they use Mafia incentives to stop you smoking, and if he doesn’t believe him, he shows Dick what is behind the curtain in his office. A room with the cat in it, who is enjoying a bowlful of food. The Dr then explains that what is about to happen to the cat will happen to his wife and if he makes another mistake it would be his daughter, and things would get a lot tougher for his wife if he smokes for a third time. Things are about to get hard for the Morrison family.

Next, the segment is called “The Ledge”, and our cat has made it to Atlantic City, New Jersey where once again the cat sees the same girl asking for help. He is startled and starts running across a busy street where Casino boss Cressner (Kenneth McMillan, Dune, Runaway Train), a serial gambler, bets a friend that the cat will make it across the street alive. Cressner has a personal problem, his wife is messing about with her tennis pro. He’s going to sort the problem out, a one Johnny Norris (Robert Hays, Airplane!, Airplane II: The Sequel) and tonight he will be given an option to get the girl and the money to set up a new life somewhere else, but first he has to do one lap of the building, problem is he has to do it on the ledge of the building.

Last up is the specially written end of the film by Stephen King, “The general”. The cat has made it to Wilmington, North Carolina, where the little girl Amanda (Drew Barrymore, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, Never been Kissed), wants to adopt the cat, but her parents Hugh (James Naughton, Planet of the Apes (TV Series), The First Wives Club) and Sally Ann (Candy Clark, American Graffiti, The Big Sleep) don’t want the cat in the house because of Polly the parakeet. But the cat knows there is something wrong in that house, and it is after Amanda, let the battle commence.