Movie Review: Stephen King's Cat's Eye

A Meowvelous Anthology Film

We're kicking off our October spook binge with the 1985 Stephen King classic, Cat's Eye. The movie is a compilation of three stories, the first two taken from the Night Shift short story collection, and the last one being an original story made for this movie. The plot for the movie is simple, we follow a stray cat who must go on a journey to save a little girl from a monster who wishes to steal her breath, along the way, the cat is a witness to two other stories, Quitters Inc. and The Ledge. Cat's Eye is also full of fun little Stephen King references; a cameo from our favorite rabid canine Cujo, to something more simple like a copy of the Pet Semetary book being read by a character. 

Cat's Eye opens with, well, a cat's eye. Our furry protagonist wakes from his cat nap, and wanders about his neighborhood only for a very familiar St. Bernard to start giving chase. The two animals are almost ran over by a certain sentient 1958 red Plymouth Fury, i'm sure many Stephen King aficionados know who i'm referring to. Cujo doesn't give up easy, and eventually manages to chase the cat to a shipping warehouse where the cat is accidentally shipped off to New York City. This is where the cat first meets the little girl, albeit in a vision. This is never explained, how the child was able to telepathically ask the cat for help, though some fans suspect The Shining, which would make more sense then to just accept as is. Though the cat doesn't say a word, we can see through it's actions that it has taken up the call to arms. Before he can start his journey however, a car with the logo, "Quitters, Inc." pulls up behind the cat. A man climbs out of the car with a cat cage and captures our feline hero, for what reasons we do not know yet as we are taken into the first story of the anthology, Quitters, Inc.

Quitters, Inc. opens with a car pulling up in front of the titular building, inside the car are two men; Dick Morrison, the protagonist of this story, and his unnamed friend, who drove him there after recommending it to Dick to help him with his smoking addiction. Inside the waiting office Mr. Morrison watches a man crying in his chair. He then watches as the crying stranger's wife leaves a separate room looking worn down and miserable, Mr. Morrison is obviously having second thoughts about this now, but it's too late. He is taken into the office of Dr. Vinny Donatti, Donatti explains to Mr. Morrison that their program has a 100% success rate. Quitters, Inc.'s tactics though are quite "unconventional" as Vinny explains, the patient is to be constantly supervised during the first month and warns our protagonist that if he is seen with a cigarette they will punish him. Vinny demonstrates, pulling away a curtain to reveal a small room with our unfortunate feline hero in it, it is quickly revealed that the floors are electrified and Mr. Morrison can only watch in horror as the cat helplessly hops around the room (Despite how realistic this scene is, no animals were harmed in the making of the film, what actually happened to the cat was that they blew some air beneath it in order to make the cat jump. It's still a bit cruel in my opinion, but it's much better then actually being electrocuted). Mr. Morrison jokingly asks if he's going to be put into "the cat room" thinking that that Doctor is bluffing, but Vinny replies very seriously that no he isn't; instead it'll be his wife on the first offence, then if he smokes again it'll be his daughter, if he still smokes then he'll send a deranged man to r**e his wife, and if he continues smoking then they'll give up (keep in mind he said that last part while flashing him a concealed pistol). It is easy to say that Dick is scared s**tless at that moment, though Vinny reassures him that no one has done four offences yet. 

Dick Morrison returns home that day feeling rather paranoid, he also decides to hide this from his wife and daughter as to not worry them. Though not understanding the circumstances, his wife, Cindy, is very happy to learned that he stopped smoking and is very supportive. That night though Mr. Morrison is overcome with nicotine related cravings, he goes downstairs to find one of his hidden extra pack of smokes, he is about to light it before spotting something strange. The closet is open and in the closet are a pair of wet rain boots that don't belong to him, his wife, nor his daughter. This is when Dick realizes that Vinny was very quite serious about the constant supervision. He quickly discards the cigarette and talks to the closet making up an excuse as to why he was down there before returning to bed. The next day he visits his young daughter at her school during recess, mainly to show the audience one of his main motivations for quitting, because he cares about his child. After letting her return to her group, Donatti approaches Mr. Morrison warning him once again that if he smokes, his daughter will not understand why she'll be put through pain, only that her father had done something bad, as he simply puts it. Next scene Dick is attending a work party that is very smoking based, he watches anxiously as his friend approaches him, offering a cigarette even after Dick told him that he had quit. Much rather then supporting his decisions, his friend taunts him as Dick starts to hallucinate, in the end though Mr. Morrison makes the responsible decision to not smoke and instead leaves the party. On his way home, he gets caught in traffic, during the wait he first cautiously looks around before pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. Dick thought it would be safe, but he was very wrong, as one of Donatti's spies was in the car next to him. Overcome with terror, Dick hurries home only to find that he is too late, as a phone call from Vinny confirms. He heads over to the office and is held at gun point as he is forced to watch his wife be "mildly" electrocuted. During this scene the cat is also being held by Donatti as all villains need a cat to stroke. Luckily our furry protagonist is able to escape after a quick scuffle. After the humans are tortured, Cindy of course is very upset at her husband, though forgives him rather quickly. We then skip a few weeks(?) ahead, Mr. Morrison is being weighed by Donatti as the treatment has been going so well he gained weight. It is then Donatti gives Dick some illegal diet pills that he must take, Mr. Morrison jokes, "or what, you'll set my house on fire?", the men share a hearty laugh as if they're great friends despite what had happened. Donatti of course then replies, "oh no, we'll cut your wife's little finger off", the two laugh more as Dick leaves his office and time skips to nighttime where he, his wife, and his friend that recommended the program and his wife have a celebratory dinner. As they clink their glasses together though, Dick notices something; his friend's wife... she's missing her little finger, and thus ends our first story of the anthology.

We now return to our cat as he rides a ferry to Atlantic City, New Jersey. Upon arrival he receives a reminder of his main quest, but unfortunately he gets caught up in our second story, The Ledge, instead. The Ledge starts by showing a pompous crime boss and casino owner named Cressner, he is also quite famous for his luck when it comes to bets, or wagers as he puts it. He goes outside a casino talking to one of his men about someone else, whom we do not know yet who this person is. Cressner and a buddy of his are then distracted by the cat attempting to cross the perilous road full of speeding cars. Cressner wagers that the cat will make it, while his buddy and his buddy's girlfriend are not convinced. In the end though fortunately Cressner was right, and the cat makes it, although causing a car crash in return. Wanting to reward the cat for his bravery, Cressner decides to take the cat back to his penthouse and even gives him the name, Sebastian (Don't worry that stupidly hoity touity name doesn't stick around long, thank goodness). The movie then cuts to a couple at a trans-continental bus station where a man named Johnny Norris is sending his girlfriend off to a different state so she can hopefully stay safe while he gets the money they need to live comfortably. Things don't to plan however as after the bus leaves, Cressner's men kidnap Johnny and take his car back to the hotel where Cressner is waiting. It is revealed that Johnny was a former tennis pro and that his girlfriend is actually Cressner's wife (oof). Cressner tells Norris that he planted drugs in his car and that he is going to call the police on him... unless, he partakes in a little wager of his; walk on the short ledge of the building, and go all the way around. Norris of course is very reluctant at first, but with the chance that he'll come out of it a free man, he had to take the risk. Throughout the daunting challenge Cressner attempts to make Norris lose his balance, though is unsuccessful as Norris persists, even going as so far to endure the painful pecking of a pigeon that causes him to bleed. After traversing around an unstable sign he finally makes it back to where he started. Cressner holds up his end of the bargain, Norris gets his money, his wife, his freedom, but with a twist. Cressner kicks over the bag to reveal his wife's decapitated head, Norris overcome with anger vows to kill Cressner. Of course Cressner has a butler armed with a gun with a silencer to get rid of Johnny, luckily before he can take the shot, the cat comes to the indirect rescue and knocks over the butler allowing Johnny to grab the gun. First he kills the accomplice, then he points it at Cressner who is reduced to a whimpering coward. Johnny decides to get his revenge by forcing Cressner to go through the same ordeal as he. Cressner though doesn't even make it halfway as that same pigeon is back, pecking at feets, causing the man to lose his balance and fall to his death. Coincidentally the cat happens to had just arrived at the ground level, just in time to watch Cressner splat on the cement, we don't see it of course because that would be nasty. With Cressner dead and the cat free once again, we move on to our third and final story, General. 

General, starts with a travel montage of the cat making his way to the suburbs of Wilmington, North Carolina (coincidentally, this city has been either the filming location or setting of other Stephen King adaptions such as Firestarter, Maximum Overdrive, and Silver Bullet). This is where we not only catch a glimpse of the looming threat, but we also finally meet our mysterious girl, Amanda (Played by Drew Barrymore, who starred as the main character in the movie Firestarter the year prior). Amanda immediately takes a liking to the cat and adopts him, giving him the name General, a rather appropriate name, seeing how strong and brave this little cat is. Of course though, Amanda's mother is extremely anti-cat as she believes in the old wives' tale that cats steal children's breath, which is very ridiculous. She also has a reasonable explanation that since they already have a pet bird it'll only end up disastrous. The next day Amanda tries to convince her mother to allow General to sleep with her in her bedroom stating that he is "nonviolent". Despite Amanda's good intentions however, it is when she says that, we cut to General killing a wild bird outside the house with only her mother spotting that. Later that night we finally see what our adversary is, a small impish like troll who is out to literally steal Amanda's breath. However before he tries to steal the young girl's breath, the troll breaks into the bird's cage and mauls it to death, leaving the cage comically covered in yellow feathers. It is about to steal the child's breath when luckily the window was left open, so General was able to get inside and confront the monster. The monster gets away though, leaving General in the room just in time to be framed for the death of Amanda's parakeet. Funny enough in a short scene just before this, the mother can be seen reading a copy of Pet Semetary, that might help explain her stance on cats.

Poor General is accused of murder and Amanda's parents kick the cat out of the house for the night. The next morning the mother is doing the whole, "I told you so" shtick to her probably traumatized daughter, what great parenting. After Amanda leaves for school, the father notices something peculiar, a large wound on General's shoulder, which he got from the fight last night. Her father is thinking that something must be up, though his wife is convinced that the bird got one good peck in before going down. After he leaves for work, Amanda's mother shoves General into a box and leaves him at an animal shelter ordering for his termination. At first it seems that General has given up as he is laying in a cage sad, the thing is though, that was all a ruse. His act helped make the guy at the shelter lower his guard, and so when he opened the cage to give him his supposed last meal, instead General sprints out of the cage and runs all the way back home to his girl, and just in the nick of time as well. As General makes his escape, the troll returns to finally steal Amanda's breath, though he also locks the bedroom door from the inside making it impossible for the parents to interfere. The troll begins to draw away the child's breath, you see Amanda start to choke, is this the end? No, just in time, General jumps in and saves the day! Chasing him onto a record player, General turns it on, making the troll spin rapidly. They spin him fast enough, that the troll is then flung off and sent into a fan, where it is then shredded to pulpy bits. Amanda's parents then are able to bust into the room to see the aftermath of the fight. At first her parents don't believe a word she says, that is until they find the shredded up body. The movie then cuts to General being rewarded with a huge fresh fish to snack on, before entering a fun POV shot of General going upstairs to the parent's bedroom where Amanda is sleeping until they can clean it up. We then see General get up on Amanda's chest, *gasp* is General going to take her breath!? No, of course not, you dum dums. General instead gently licks his girl's face causing her to wake up and hug him, and roll credits. What a wholesome way to end a Stephen King story.

Overall, Cat's Eye is a really great movie that you can actually watch with the whole family. Though just because I say that doesn't mean you should plop little Timmy down in front of the TV. It is PG-13, but you should take that 13 literally as the movie uses strong language and scary imagery that might be too much for younger audiences. Other then that, I completely recommend you check out this film, especially if you're fans of Stephen King's newer adaptions such as It (2017,2019) or Pet Semetary (2019), and you haven't yet watched his older content. Personally though if I had to rate each segment, 1 being my most favorite and 3 being the least, it would be in this order; 1. Quitters, Inc 2. General and 3. The Ledge. With it all together though this spooky classic earns a first time on this blog score of 5 out of 5 Paws up! Seriously, if you haven't seen this movie, go watch it!