Caturday Movies - The Uncanny

“Cats aren't always cute and cuddly!” states the tagline of the British anthology film The Uncanny (1977). It could as well have been the tagline of Clowders, which is now available for pre-order.

There's no such thing as coincidence. The Uncanny was indeed the main inspiration for Clowders. Both stories revolve around feline revenge. In Clowders, each time a cat dies, nine human lives are taken as a punishment. However, in The Uncanny, cats avenge their owners whenever someone harmed them.

Book tip - Cats on Film by Anne Billson

I found the purrfect present for the cat-loving movie fan in your life: Cats on Film by Anne Billson.

I first met the author at the Offscreen Film Festival in 2014 when a mutual friend suggested we get in touch because of our common interests: we both publish horror fiction and movie reference guides, and we both write blogs about cats and movies.

Around the same time, we were also thinking about creating a book about cinema cats. As I was concentrating on Avalon and When Animals Attack, Anne was the first to develop the idea. The result is now available for purchase.

Caturday Movies - Chatty Catties

Have you ever imagined a reality where cats could talk? Wouldn't that be awesome?

But what if your cat tells you he doesn't understand what your date sees in you and that you have a drinking problem? Would you still think talking cats are cool?

The American indie comedy Chatty Catties takes place in such universe. At the center of the film is the tabby cat Leonard (voice of deaf actor John Autry II). His "relationship" with Shelby (Megan Hensley) isn't exactly fulfilling. She's a borderline alcoholic who whines all the time and is on the brink of losing her job. But then Shelby starts dating Nate (Matthew Grathwol), and the world seems a better place again, not because Shelby becomes emotionally stable, but because Nate is everything Leonard ever wished for in a human.

Caturday Movies - Kitten Instinct

Dinosaur meets cat in Kitten Instinct

This week's Caturday Movie is Kitten Instinct, a Belgian short film about a Tyrannosaurus Rex who dreams about a cute little kitten. The dream ushers in a new phase of his life. Determined to recover the kitten, the dinosaur abandons his daily routine of hunting, eating and sleeping, and sets out to explore the world around him.

Celluloid Diaries had a chat with Liesbeth Eeckman about the similarities between cats and dinosaurs, her main inspirations, the biggest challenges while making her short film, and, of course, her own cat, Sputnik.

Also, she makes her film available to readers of Celluloid Diaries until August 31.

Caturday Movies - The Uninvited

This week's Caturday Movie is brought to you by Justine Coote from The Overlook Theater and was previously published in the book When Animals Attack: The 70 Best Horror Movies with Killer Animals.

For a monster kid like myself, meeting legendary writer/director Greydon Clark was like meeting Alfred Hitchcock. Although Clark is not as well known or praised for his cinematic achievements, he has left his mark in film history and has inspired countless generations of grindhouse enthusiasts, creature feature kids, and independent filmmakers. Sitting with Mr. Clark at Monsterpalooza, I experienced his love of the genre first hand as we went from discussing his film It Came Without Warning (1980), which was admittedly the inspiration for the film Predator (1987), to one of Greydon’s lesser known creations, Uninvited (1988).

Caturday Movies - Strays

This week's Caturday Movie is brought to you by Daniel Alves from The Overlook Theater and was previously published in When Animals Attack: The 70 Best Horror Movies with Killer Animals.

For reasons that now escape me, the theme we decided to go for that night was animal attacks; out of several options, we chose Strays, a film that we believed would follow the slasher formula (as do many animal attack films). It became apparent almost immediately that this film would be an entirely different “animal.”

The film opens with a crazy cat lady being killed by what seems to be a giant cat. We’re then introduced to our victims: a professional couple with a young daughter. This initially perplexed me since a good slasher needs at least five potential victims, and those victims generally do not include children. However, we soon see that the couple is buying the home of the crazy cat lady from the opening. A young couple with a small child buying a suspicious new home; this isn’t a slasher movie; it’s a haunted house film! The creators of this movie decided to take a haunted house narrative but replaced ghosts with feral cats. Fortunately, it’s a very good haunted house movie. The formula usually has a shocking/mysterious intro, some jump scares or deaths of minor characters to keep up suspense, and then the supernatural force reveals itself for the climax. Most of the story, however, is about the victim’s day to day life while the ghost gears up for act three. The key to a successful haunted house story is to make that day to day almost as, if not more, interesting than the supernatural action, and Strays delivers.

Caturday Movies - The Cat Who Wore Sunglasses

Our Caturday Movie of the week is Až přijde kocour (1963), a Czechoslovakian movie also known as The Cat Who Wore Sunglasses, The Cassandra Cat, That Cat, and When the Cat Comes. It's directed by Vojtěch Jasný and won the CST and Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1963.

The Cat Who Wore Sunglasses takes place in a small Czechoslovakian town in the early 1960s. In the first half hour of the film, we get to know the inhabitants and their quirks. Turns out most of them are cheaters, liars and opportunists. One day, Castellan Oliva (Jan Werich) tells the pupils of a local school that he once fell in love with a beautiful woman named Diana. She worked for a circus and had a cat who constantly wore sunglasses. Oliva knew it was forbidden to take them off, but that's what he did anyway. Instantly, everyone around him changed color. The liars became violet, the thieves grey, and the unfaithful yellow. Those that were in love turned red. Now that the true nature of each inhabitant was exposed, the village was no longer peaceful. In order to restore tranquility, the villagers went after the cat and killed it.

Caturday Movies - Morgiana

Wednesday, March 8th. I'm joining Juraj Herz and his wife, Martina, for lunch at Arcady in Brussels. In case you're not familiar with Juraj Herz, he's one of the most noted film directors from the Czech Republic. Chances are you've seen his movies The Cremator and Morgiana.

Communicating with the almost 83-year-old Juraj Herz isn't an easy feat. He's tired after having traversed the “largest airport in the world” and has only a basic knowledge of English. Because I don't speak Czech, Yugoslavian, Slovenian and Polish, I go for German which I understand but don't speak well. Still, we both get only half of what the other is saying. “I'm afraid I only know one word in Czech: Kočka,” I say. He looks up to me and his eyes start to sparkle. “Kočka! Cat! I love cats,” Herz answers and, all of a sudden, he finds the words to get the conversation going. “I had a cat once called Boogie Woogie. I also wanted to adopt one of the seven cats that played Morgiana. I took him home with me but he only stayed three weeks. My wife at that time didn't agree with me keeping the cat.”

That brings us to our Caturday movie of the week: Juraj Herz' Morgiana (1971).

Caturday Movies - Interview with Kedi director Ceyda Torun

I had the chance to see a delightful new cat documentary: Kedi (aka Nine Lives: Cats in Istanbul). The film follows seven cats in the Turkish capital and sheds new light on their lives and how they influence the people around them.

As I'm always in for a good conversation about cats and movies, I had a chat with director Ceyda Torun about the making of Kedi.

But first, have a look at the trailer. It really gives a good impression of what the documentary is like.