The Black Cat (1981)
Italian horror maestro Lucio Fulci's Gothic style horror is a contemporary thriller set in a quaint English village. Loosely based on the Edgar Allan Poe story of the same name in a tale thick with foggy atmosphere as well as lurid gore in this film that improves with repeated viewings
The story is odd - something about recordings taken by loopy Patrick Magee which inhabit the mind of his black moggy which in turn possesses Magee and forces him to murder, or is it simply the cat all along? It's hard to say as Fulci and coherence by this stage were words that often did not fit together. That shouldn't take anything away from the film though as it's pacy and offbeat enough to keep you involved and the murders are frequent as the story leads up to a nice twist ending that is also used by Poe's original story.
Along with Magee we have a good international cast with New Zealander David Warbeck as the investigating policeman who together with American Mimsy Farmer make a likable duo, German Dagmar Lassander and Al Cliver making sure there's an Italian presence.
The village of Hambleden, Buckinghamshire, makes for a splendid location. It's so beautifully English in that oh so quaint sort of way and numerous projects have been filmed there over the years but none have perhaps utilised it as well as Fulci and his crew.
So whilst The Black Cat isn't considered classic Fulci (Although i prefer it to so called classics such as House by the Cemetery) it's a film i always really enjoy.
Arrow's Blu-ray gives the film a new lease of life and brings out summery Hambledon in all it's delightful glory.
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