A Cat in the Brain (1990)
Starring Lucio Fulci & David L. Thompson
Directed by Lucia Fulci
Written by John Fitzsimmons , Lucio Fulci,
Giovanni Simonelli & Antonio Tentori
After the glorious stretch between 1979 and 1982, during which Lucio Fulci directed the (in)famous gorefests ZOMBIE, THE BEYOND, CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD, HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY, and NEW YORK RIPPER, the undisputed king of surrealist spaghetti-with-meat-sauce splatter flicks began to spiral slowly into more and more mediocre genre work. Films like MANHATTAN BABY, MURDER ROCK, SWEET HOUSE OF HORRORS, and HOUSE OF CLOCKS could never hope to match the intensity and sheer visceral gut-punching ability of the director's tirelessly crafted and stylized earlier visions. Fulci still managed to deliver the occasional moment of gruesome brilliance, like the gloriously graphic bisection in DEMONIA, but on the whole that film remains a rather incoherent experience on the whole. As a result of the tepid nature of the mid-to-late-80s period in the director's career, some tend to overlook one of Lucio's most lurid, over-the-top and vastly underrated gems – the spectacularly slippery swan song THE CAT IN THE BRAIN. Though often misunderstood for its use of recycled footage from other Fulci films of this particular era, the film still remains nothing less than an all-time Boner Jams mix tape for fans of the good-ol' ultra-gore. Over the course of 87 minutes, the audience bears witness to twenty-four super-splatastic scenes of slaughter (approximately one kill every three and a half minutes) without the burden of overrated details such as plot or character development. Pure and simple: CAT IN THE BRAIN plays like a delirious combo of Fulci self-reflexiveness and a nod of the cap from the gore-teur to his many adoring fans.
Let's go ahead and get the “plot” out of the way, Fulci, playing himself, is beginning to feel the ill effects of all the violence he has filmed while on the set of his new newest movie. He sees violence everywhere, in the form of ground-up guts on a plate of steak tartar; the log being chainsawed by a gardener in the courtyard of his apartment complex becomes a disembodied appendage, and red paint appears to be spattered blood. I mean, his neighbors aren't doing the good Dr. Fulci any favors by leaving anything resembling blood lying around in the streets, but regardless, the man needs a vacation in the worst way. Seeking help for his disturbance, Fulci visits a shrink named Dr. Egon to cure what ails him, but as luck would have it, our hero hooks up with the one guy who is more psychotic than psychiatrist. Egon hypnotizes poor Lucio into believing that he is committing horrible murders across the city, when in fact the crimes are his own. In one of the few low points of the film, Egon's so-called “motive” is so ridiculously convoluted, it's laughable. Actually, it's never really even explained, but we are to assume it is because he has recently been spurned by his bitchy wife. That's all, folks. A lack of lovin' leads our victim to arbitrarily eliminate a string of unrelated, undeveloped victims and blame an innocent man. But no matter – motives are incidental in this whacked-out world of violent wonderment.
Of the many joys derived from CAT IN THE BRAIN, not to be undersold is the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness Fulci playing Fulci. Self-aware in wondrous ways which the dozens of pseudo-hip, post-SCREAM horror flicks could never hope to be, we get to watch Lucio question with much frustration the misguided morals of his work. Some of the priceless pieces of dialogue he utters include: “Nazism? Sadism? What's the point anymore?” and “I make horror films. If I made films about love, no one would buy a ticket.” However, one of the most memorable moments involves Fulci using himself as the subject of one of his famous zoom-in close-ups of the eyes. It is a truly surreal sight that is not to be missed. The old sport isn't half bad in the lead role, achieving a sympathetic position as a good man struggling with the nature of the subject matter that has made him famous.
But anyways, enough babbling about story and character. The driving force behind CAT IN THE BRAIN are the superhuman splatter set pieces that run amok from start to finish, repeatedly blowing your mind, then putting back together and shredding it again and again. I first saw the film on a cruddy VHS tape, and now that it is on DVD it looks fantastic, most notably during the infamous early sequence where a hilarious puppet feline is literally, well, in a brain. On video this scene was chopped up on the edges, and so fuzzy as to be virtually unwatchable, prompting me to wonder what the big deal was. But now, in all its gory glory, it is truly a moment that must be seen to be believed. It sets the scene for everything to come, as the killer kitty tears into some the slimiest, sloppiest bunch of bloody brain matter ever committed to celluloid. After this ingeniously icky introduction we're treated to a landslide of lurid splatter sequences, combining movie-within-the-movie murders with, as well as deaths both imagined by Fulci and actually committed by Egon. Regardless of whether the slaughter is based in reality or otherwise, there is no denying that it is unflinching, full-on Fulci gold of the highest order. Ask yourself this: where else can you witness a tumbling wheelchair crush an infant's neck, or multiple decapitations via chainsaw, hatchet, piano wire, scythe, and...the lid of a toy chest(!) Other showstoppers include a cranial reconstruction with a log, a woman having her tongue torn out before being drowned in boiling water, and a man making out with a maggot-ridden, melting, half-caved-in face. Need I say more? Thought not.
The major drawback here is the amazingly abrupt anti-climax. One moment Egon is performing some sick scythe-slicing, then suddenly, Fulci is kneeling before a half-buried corpse, when his detective friend appears from behind to inform him that Egon has been identified as the killer and subsequently shot to death. There is no showdown whatsoever, just a quick shot of a sheet being pulled over Egon's bloodied face, followed by a final scene of Fulci (literally) sailing off into the sunset for some long-overdue R&R. It is almost like an entire sequence was lost. But nevertheless, CAT IN THE BRAIN is a highly entertaining ride through the Maestro's psyche, and probably minute-for-minute the goriest film in the director's entire canon. Now that it is available on DVD, there is absolutely no excuse for Fulci fanatics and gorehounds in general not to have it in their collection. My only lament is the lack of extras – limited to an Italian language track, a very brief promotional photo gallery, a terrible trailer, and an interview with screenwriter Antonio Tentori, which is presented only in un-subtitled Italian, rendering it useless to those viewers who don't speak the language. These quibbles aside, CAT IN THE BRAIN is truly the undisputed jewel of later-era Fulci, an underrated splatterpiece, or at very least a clip show providing all of the highlights without any of the bullshit, and one that screams to be seen and finally find the full appreciation of the fans.
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