SHOCKTOBER SPECIAL: A Cat In The Brain - Will's Review

NOTE: In honour of Halloween, We're taking a break from the DPP list.

This weeks movie was selected for 2 reasons:

1. Although it was too recent to make the DPP list, it was banned on release in the UK, and only passed in 2003 after extensive cuts.

2. It was Written and Directed by, and stars (as Himself) prolific Video Nasty Director Lucio Fulci (The Beyond, Zombie Flesh Eaters)

Famous Italian Horror director Lucio Fulci (playing himself) is beginning to become effected by the gore he sees day-to-day in his work.  At first, he has trouble eating rare meat, then he is bothered by a neighbours chainsaw, and before long he is hallucinating terrible murders (most, I think culled from his previous movies), and even believes he is committing some of them himself.

Over on our Facebook Page, reader Sean described this thus; "the only Fulci movie that had me beat, I struggled through an hour then gave up", but then Lisa messaged me to say how much she was enjoying it... So, who was right?


Well.... Kinda Sean, but I can see Lisa's point; Lisa, you understand, is a bit of a gore hound - and this film is certainly not lacking in gore. There's the obligatory eyeball gag¹, Maggot covered corpses, dismemberment, disembowelment, stabbings, bodies oozing goo of every verity, and of course, a cat digging through a brain, all in glorious hyper-realism (read: too gory to be real, hold on to your lunch).

For me though, the gore was pretty much all it had going for it; the acting was terrible (only Fulci wasn't utterly horrendous, and he's a director, not an actor!), the score cringe-worthy, the script insane, and the sound mixer needs shooting; I watched this with headphones, and the first scene change in the movie almost blew my eardrums, and caused my partner to ask me to turn them down as she couldn't hear what she was doing!

So it seems this is a love or hate film, and I can't say I was a fan... Lisa, we disagree again!

Body Count: 18
Boob Count: 10
Animal Body Count: 0
Most Memorable Kill: Chainsaw Beheading


¹"Gag", for those not geeky enough to have read around these things, here refers to a special effect, rather than a joke

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SHOCKTOBER SPECIAL: A cat in the brain - Lisa's Review

NOTE: In honour of Halloween, We're taking a break from the DPP list.

This weeks movie was selected for 2 reasons:

1. Although it was too recent to make the DPP list, it was banned on release in the UK, and only passed in 2003 after extensive cuts.

2. It was Written and Directed by, and stars (as Himself) prolific Video Nasty Director Lucio Fulci (The Beyond, Zombie Flesh Eaters)

So to the penultimate Shocktober Special, the very strange 'A Cat in the brain'. Having heard other peoples viewpoints on this, I wasn't expecting much, in fact I was expecting it to be one of the worst so far, in fact I found I really enjoyed this. As flawed a movie as it is in many respects, I'll tell you why I liked it.

For anyone not in the know, Lucio Fulci is a very famous Italian horror director famous for the goriest of movies. In this movie, he brings together the best examples of gore from his other movies. He manages to re-use these as he plays himself in the movie and we see how his involvement with such despicable material in his movies, slowly starts contributing to his mental breakdown. He eventually starts imagining brutal deaths and thinks he is responsible for these. So thats the premise... how did it pan out?

Ok, so the acting is dire. It says something that the best performance comes from Fulci himself and he is far from an actor. The gore isn't believable in a lot of places, the script is laughable and some of the gore is so obscene, all you can do is laugh open mouthed.. I suppose that's why we get the phrase 'Eyeball Gag' with reference to all means of horrid things happening to eyeballs... a Fulci favourite.

The good points? If you're a fan of gore, this movie has it in spades. Its like taking out all of the boring, slow bits from other movies and just letting loose with gore, obscenity and general rudeness. There are boobs a plenty in this one it has to be said, which is no doubt a plus point for the majority of male viewers. I also found that even though there are several violent scenes involving women, that have an overtly sexual nature, they didn't come across as titillating or exploitative to me at all.

This movie will appeal to some and not at all to others. I don't think its going to be one of those 'It was ok' movies. It certainly doesn't hold back, that's for sure. Among delights contained therein are: Decapitation, Disembowelling, Dismemberment, Chainsaws aplenty, Knife Stabbings, Several nasty Eyeball moments, A few horrendous beatings (very realistic too!), A psycho style shower murder (but this one is much more graphic) and cannibalism for good measure.

I won't go into detail about scenes from the movie, or give away the storyline, but I will say I really enjoyed this one. I have a penchant for nasty movies though, so if you're of a weak disposition and consider movies like 'Sixth Sense' and 'Final Destination' horror movies, then probably best avoid this one.

Deffo one for the die hard gore fan. BIG thumbs up!

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WEEK 23: SHOCKTOBER SPECIAL: A Cat In The Brain

NOTE: In honour of Halloween, We're taking a break from the DPP list.

This weeks movie was selected for 2 reasons:

1. Although it was too recent to make the DPP list, it was banned on release in the UK, and only passed in 2003 after extensive cuts.

2. It was Written and Directed by, and stars (as Himself) prolific Video Nasty Director Lucio Fulci (The Beyond, Zombie Flesh Eaters)

Alternate Titles : Cat in the Brain, Nightmare Concert, Un Gatto nel cervello, I volti del terrore

Year: 1990

Reviews / Author Comments due: 29/10/11

DPP Status: N/A - But refused classification in 1999

BBFC Status: Passed with cuts, made by distributor prior to resubmission, in 2003

IMDB: Nightmare Concert

Wikipedia: A Cat in the Brain

DVD: Uncut Import

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Feel free to use the comments section of this post to add your own reviews and thoughts about this movie.