Monster Meows: The Five Best Cat Horror Movies
Feline Fright Numbers Five In These Awesome Scary Cat Focused Films
Cat lovers, gather around and attend. I urge you now to participate in a thrilling quest. You’ll scamper at the siren call for thrilling cinematic cat adventures. Come join me, and we’ll gladly rejoice in a fantastic, feline frightfest. Be warned: those willful kitties wreck real havoc at a moment’s notice. Meow meow now.
Wait, you might think - Cats are our best four footed friends, right? They’d never do anything to really hurt us, right? Sure.
Never say never, especially when it comes to our playful pussycats. Well, I’m afraid I’ve got some nasty news for you. The kitty cats featured in these movies are a few felines you probably wouldn’t want to clean out a litter box for, pour out a bowl of milk or generally want to be around even in the same room.
Cat People - 1942
This remains the definitive cat horror movie to date, and probably for all time. It’s not only got one of the coolest fright film titles ever, but it more than lives up to its name and well earned reputation. Legendary film producer Val Lewton produced more than a few fright flicks, and this is widely regarded as his most complex and haunting production. It was redone later in 1982 starring the sexy Nastassja Kinski and Malcolm McDowell.
Curse Of The Cat People - 1944
Let’s face film facts, sequels are always risky to both producers and adoring fans of the original. Even if they turn out to be profitable, they tend to be faded retreads of their original source material. Here, we have an incredibly original tale which rises to challenge us and even to equal the first movie. Be aware, this isn’t a run of the mill terror tale. Fans are always somewhat surprised by the substantial emotional message this movie carries. It’s a surprisingly poignant drama as well as a weird chiller.
Cat’s Eye - 1985
Leave it to the undisputed king of horror, Stephen King, to gift us with such a crafty cat as the noble General.
General the cat is the furry star of the whole flick - acting as a narrative connector to all of the spooky stories in this highly satisfying anthology. Drew Barrymore is just one of the familiar faces in the mix, and she becomes the loving owner of General, who comes right in the nick of time to protect his young owner from the forces of evil.
Tales From The Darkside: The Movie - 1990
From TV series to movie, it can often be a risky journey for any movie production. Thankfully, the feature film version of the popular Tales From The Darkside syndicated TV series impresses hardcore and casual fans alike.
William Hickey and David Johansen star in the cat centric tale, Cat From Hell. Once again horrorhound Stephen King provides the source material for the spooky segment. The tale is a simple one: a wealthy man (Hickey) hires a hitman (Johansen) to kill a cat who’s been terrorizing him. Try as he might, the hitman is frustrated in every attempt to dispatch the crazed kitty. No spoilers here. It’s an ending you won’t soon forget.
Sleepwalkers - 1992
Stephen King as a popular novelist is usually how a King story comes to the silver screen. Here, however, King wrote an original screenplay, and it’s one of his most powerful and memorable tales of terror.
Alice Krige and Brian Krause play the title characters - powerfully magical creatures whispered in myth. In many ways, they two are cat people - or at least human sized cats. Although seemingly feline in origin, our domesticated house cats despise them to the point of engaging in violent attacks. King builds the tension in his script to an ultimate boiling point, and when the end comes, it’s a knockout on every level. Though despite these cat creatures being ruthlessly violent, you feel a real kind of sympathy for them as they’re apparently the last of their kind. They are desperate to survive, and our house cats remain the only defenders of humankind.
May I respectfully offer an honourable mention to The Uncanny (1977) starting Peter Cushing and Donald Pleasance?