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The Black Cat

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4.8/10 • 23

1989-04-091h 29m

HorrorDramaFantasy

Between dreams & nightmares... between reality & fantasy... lies the terror of

When a horror film based on the same source material as Suspiria and Inferno goes into production, the evil witch the story is based upon manifests herself and not only begins to terrorise the actress set to portray her on screen, but reveals plans to wreck havoc and bloodshed throughout the world.

Directors
Luigi Cozzi
Writters
Daria Nicolodi
Editors
Piero Bozza

Top Billed Cast

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  1. Florence Guérin

    Florence Guérin

    Anne Ravenna

  2. Urbano Barberini

    Urbano Barberini

    Marc Ravenna

  3. Caroline Munro

    Caroline Munro

    Nora

  4. Brett Halsey

    Brett Halsey

    Leonard Levin

  5. Luisa Maneri

    Luisa Maneri

    Sara

  6. Karina Huff

    Karina Huff

    Esther Semerani

  7. Alessandra Acciai

    Alessandra Acciai

    Nadine

  8. Giada Cozzi

    Giada Cozzi

    Sybil

  9. Jasmine Maimone

    Jasmine Maimone

Reviews1

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tmdb17996075 Avatar

tmdb17996075

Nov 20, 2020

Ugh, such a frustrating and ridiculous mess. I am usually very "forgiving" when it comes to horror movies, to the point where I can acknowledge and value the general idea and overlook the narrative flaws. If the film as a whole is fun to watch, it has a well developed atmosphere and it features a decent amount of horror elements, I'm pretty much okay with it ... but the story has to make SOME sense, at least. Well, "The Black Cat" (or any of the many other titles that this movie has) is an example of a flick that is just frustrating to sit through. Director Luigi Cozzi may not entirely be at fault, perhaps the producers forcibly squeezed things into the movie for the sole purpose of shock value... or something. I have read many times that several directors end up unhappy with the final results of their films, because they were asked to add random creatures, murders or over-the-top sequences, even if they only add confusion to the story, just to make the film more marketable. I don't know the reasons behind this mess, but this is just a really confusing and convoluted film that had no business being that way, because it could have been told in a much simpler way. Actually, the first half an hour of the film is decent and it keeps it simple, but "The Black Cat" progressively becomes more and more random, to the point where inexplicable situations just happen constantly, and eventually, you just stop even trying to make any sense out of it (at least, I know I did). I can only assume that several random sequences and shots were probably added at the last minute because it was unused footage from a different film and they didn't want to let it go to waste. It's the only reasonable explanation I can come up with. As for the photography, the director clearly took inspiration in Dario Argento's "Suspiria" and "Inferno" (both films are referenced here), but the strident color scheme ends up being a little bit over the top. Besides the artificial color palette, the use of CGI, which is very frequent during the second half of the film, cheapens the visuals considerably and it could have been a lot better without it. A few creative deaths and stylish sequences don't save this film from being a big pile of randomness, so, skip this, unless you just want to have a good laugh. "The Black Cat" is just a frustrating experience and a waste of time.

Media

  • The Black Cat poster
  • The Black Cat poster
  • The Black Cat poster
  • The Black Cat poster
  • The Black Cat poster

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Status
Released
Original Language
English
Budget
--
Revenue
--
Keywords
witchcatfilm in filmmurderevil