A Cat in the Brain (1990)

A horror film director is stalked by a mad psychiatrist/serial killer bent on killing people to model the killings after the director's gory death scenes from his movies.

Director:

Lucio Fulci

Writers:

Lucio Fulci (story), Giovanni Simonelli (story)

Stars:

Lucio Fulci, David L. Thompson, Malisa Longo

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Lucio Fulci	...	Dr. Lucio Fulci
David L. Thompson	...	Professor Egon Swharz
Malisa Longo	...	Katya Swharz
Shilett Angel	...	Filippo the Producer
Jeoffrey Kennedy	...	Inspector Gabriele Vanni
Paola Cozzo	...	Nurse Lilly
Brett Halsey	...	Human Monster (archive footage)
Ria De Simone	...	The Soprano (archive footage)
Sacha Darwin	...	Woman in Oven (archive footage)
Robert Egon	...	Second Monster / Himself
Adriana Russo	...	Nighmare Victim (archive footage)
Jessica Moore	...	Nightmare Victim (archive footage) (as Georgia Moore)
Paul Muller	...	Nightmare Victim (archive footage)
Marco Di Stefano	...	Nightmare Victim (archive footage)
Maurice Poli	...	Nightmare Victim (archive footage)

Storyline

Dr. Lucio Fulci is a director of splatterfilms. He stages a gestapo-orgy like it was any other movie scene. But he is influenced by these things more than he likes. He is hunted by bloody visions day by day. Is Fulci still normal? He asks a psychatrist. He doesn't know that the psychatrist has much bigger problems than Fulci himself. The psychatrist uses Fulci's visions for brutal murders in real life...

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Plot Keywords:

film director | grindhouse | slasher flick | slasher | directed by star | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Horror

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for horror violence/gore, a strong scene of sexuality and some nudity

Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

8 August 1990 (Italy)

Also Known As:

A Cat in the Brain

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Box Office

Budget:

$100,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Executive Cine TV

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Many events in the film are based on Lucio Fulci's experiences as a filmmaker.

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Connections

References Über dem Jenseits (1981)

User Reviews

The 8 1/2 of Italian splatter

Forget THE BEYOND--CAT IN THE BRAIN is Lucio Fulci's masterpiece. If Dario Argento is the John Ford of Italian splatter cinema, the lyric poet and publicly acknowledged grand-master, then Fulci was surely its Howard Hawks--the caretaker and solid storyteller who knew how to sink a hole in one with the easiest flick of the wrist. Splatter-geeks somehow seem to have dismissed this picture with a contemptuous shrug--maybe it's too highbrow and "conceptual" for their red-meat tastes. In a stroke of daring even Fellini and Michael Powell never tried in their self-reflexive classics, Fulci plays himself--or rather, a particularly tormented and increasingly unhinged version of himself, driven mad by the combination of guilt and bloodlust triggered by making hyperviolent horror movies. "Fulci" wonders whether he is responsible for a string of gruesome murders breaking out around him...and the movie's combination of a fiendish, id-driven love of cinema, and a shuddering revulsion at its consequences, makes this for me the most painful and personal of all movies about moviemaking. The author's conflicting emotions are played out as nakedly as in VERTIGO or BLOW OUT--only this movie has the illicit fun of its grindhouse origins. Horror afficianados may have given this picture the high hat, but I know it has at least one fan...Jean-Luc Godard.