In Fulci's brain

Lucio Fulci has some disturbing films in his catalog, and one has to wonder what goes on in the mind of such a prolific director of such epically strange films. Cat in the brain is kind of a look into Fulci's mind and the effect some of his films could have on a weaker mind. Fulci stars in this masterpiece as himself, a director who is slowly loosing his mind and being driven insane by his own movies. Fulci decides to see a psychiatrist, Professor Egon Schwarz (David L. Thompson) who hypnotizes Fulci for the worse sending him deeper into the downward spiral of insanity, ultra violence and nightmarish world that is devouring his life. Soon we find out that the professor is a psycho killer bent on murdering people in the same manner as in Fulci's films. As each victim is killed one by one in some of the most graphic ways I have ever seen, Fulci starts to believe he is the one committing the murders. The film uses a lot of already-shot scenes from other films placed throughout such as Ghosts of Sodom, Massacre and Bloody psycho. Fulci is not a great actor but works well in this film since he is playing himself. After viewing Cat in the brain you can't help but wonder what really did go on in Fulci's head and was he ever on the brink of insanity as in this movie. The gore presented in this film is almost unbearable and really beats you down, this may be Fulci's masterpiece of gore, an exercise in terror, madness and brutality.

Cat in the brain was released in August 1990, and for years was rejected for a proper video release and was finally passed and released fully uncut in 2003.

Lucio Fulci is known as the "Godfather of gore" has influenced many film makers in the horror genre, and this movie works as almost a lesson in making a gore film that works. Older and newer directors such as Eli Roth and Rob Zombie have watched Fulci's films and state him as a major influence on their work and a true icon of the horror genre.

Cat in the brain really strays from Fulci's other films in storytelling and plot. Classics such as The Beyond and City of the living dead are strange movies in their own right, it seems that Fulci really tries to make every film as unique as possible, and with "Cat" he goes off the richter scale of strangeness and gore and just through as much gore in the film as he possibly could while still maintaining a somewhat cohesive story. I consider "Cat" to be the best Fulci film post-1982.
Some of his later films such as Demonia, Zombie 3 and Aenigma to name a few, really suffer in quality compared to some of his earlier stuff. Fulci also claims that Wes Craven ripped off the story of "Cat" when he made New Nightmare, wether or not this is true you can see the similarities in the two stories.

One of the best DVD companies released an awesome 2 disc special edition of Cat in the brain with some great extras including a new hi-definition anamorphic digital restoration of the uncensored director's cut, a never before seen in-depth interviews with Lucio Fulci and star Brett Hasley, a great Q & A with Fulci at the 1996 NYC fangoria weekend of horrors, trailers, stills, liner notes and more. This one is a definate purchase for the Fulci completest.

This is by far the goriest film directed by Fulci and if that's what you want, that's what you get and you get a lot of it. If you are a Fulci fan check this one out, if you are a casual fan of horror films this one may not be your bag. Fans of Fulci seem to be divided on this one and for what it's worth I really enjoyed Cat in the brain in all it's gory glory.

Review by Jason

Rating: C+