Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Sam Panico There's a moment in The Black Cat where Patrick Magee is lying on a grave, begging a voice to speak to him while the black cat looks on with hatred in his eyes, as fog rolls across the graveyard, where you say to yourself: this is gorgeous art, far above the hack title that so many give to Fulci. In fact, this is a film packed with moments just like this.Based on the Edgar Allan Poe story, the film starts with the titular black cat hypnotizing a man and making him crash his car. He smashes through the windshield and catches fire, all while beautiful music plays and the cat explores his neighborhood. This sequence is so perfect, a wordless way to show how this cat can be seen as pure evil yet is above the morality of humanity.We follow the cat to the home he shares with Robert Miles (Magee, who also appeared in Asylum and Tales from the Crypt), a medium obsessed with speaking with the dead. We also meet Jill Travers (Mimsy Farmer, Autopsy), an American tourist who is taking photos of crypts when she finds a broken microphone. She meets Sergeant Wilson (Al Cliver, The Beyond), who warns her that his father told her not to bother the dead. He reminds her that this is a small British town and not London, so even a cop can be superstitious.Meanwhile, a young couple goes to a boathouse to have sex. However, the key disappears, the air conditioning breaks and they are left to die as the air runs out. Fulci cuts back and forth between what's happening in the outside world and then dying hand in hand.The girl's mother, Lillian (Dagmar Lassander, The House by the Cemetery) asks the police to help find her daughter, bringing Inspector Gorley (David Warbeck, The Beyond) from Scotland Yard. Jill seeks the owner of the broken microphone and discovers Miles. He explains how he can easily hypnotize her and make her do whatever he wants before the black cat attacks him, breaking his hold over her.Later that night, the cat kills a drunk by causing him to fall in.a barn and get impaled. With no one else to take photos, Gorley asks Jill to take photos for him. She notices the dead man has scratches on his hands just like the cuts the cat gave to Miles.Lillian begs Miles to find her daughter, even offering to fall back in love with him again. After falling into a trance, he gives clues that lead the police to the boathouse, where the bodies of the couple are found. However, the room is locked from the inside, leaving the murders a mystery. Hours later, the black cat kills Lillian in a house fire.Jill accuses Miles of using his evil on the cat, but Miles claims the cat has possessed him. Later, he drugs the feline and murders it, but that only gives the cat more power. Even Gorley - an unbeliever - sees the cat, which puts him in a trance, causing him to walk right in the path of a car.Jill then breaks into Miles' house to listen to his recordings of the dead. He returns home and she hides in the cellar where the cat begins to appear and disappear. Miles finds her and says that the cat is attacking on his hatred of the townspeople. Jill tries to run, but is attacked by bats (oh Fulci, you do so love bat attacks) and then Miles knocks her out and traps her inside a wall.However, Gorley has survived, leading the police to Miles' house. While they find no trace of Jill, they do hear the cry of a cat from the basement. Jill is found at the last minute and the black cat leaves, defeating Miles in the end.The Black Cat gives Fulci plenty of opportunities to fill the screen with foggy atmosphere. There are moments of gore, but it's not drenched in the red stuff like his later films.

Adam Peters (58%) A Lucio Fulci movie in the category of movies that make at least some sort of sense - well apart from the fact that this is about a killer moggie. And if it is a killer cat movie you're after then this is certainly one of the very best that really does offer what you'd expect. At its best this is a very well shot, creepy, Hichcockian man vs beast nightmare with the great Patrick Magee getting plenty of screen time, well, at least his eyes do. But at its worst it's a bit tepid, and once you've seen the cat strike, which happens very early on, then you've seen more or less all this has to offer. But this is still too entertaining, well made, and at least somewhat connected to Poe's grisly short to dismiss. For giallo fans this is a must watch, while everyone else could do a heck of a lot worse than watch this.

Scott LeBrun This is an engaging, interesting Lucio Fulci film that tends to get overlooked a little as it was made during the period where he was mostly making very gory horror films. It's a supernatural thriller made with more restraint on Fulcis' part than usual (not that there isn't any gore; there's still some nice gruesome bits to enjoy). It's full of familiar faces and is filmed on a variety of real English locations and sets.Set in England, it's "freely adapted" from the Edgar Allan Poe tale, as it tells of mysterious deaths occurring in a small country village populated by people such as snooping photographer Jill Trevers (Mimsy Farmer) and Professor Robert Miles (old pro Patrick Magee, in one of his final roles), a crotchety old man attempting to communicate with the dead. As Jill and the intrepid Inspector Gorley (David Warbeck, also of Fulcis' "The Beyond") work the clues, she can't help but notice the cat scratches left on more than one victim. Could a demonic little feline really be the culprit?Beautiful cinematography (by Sergio Salvati), extremely impressive camera-work (by Franco Bruni and Roberto Forges Davanzati), wonderful music by the prolific Pino Donaggio, and a pervasive, weird atmosphere are all assets of this well told, reasonably absorbing mystery. It's certainly fun to watch the cast in this thing. Warbeck is a delight as the cop, Mimsy is very sincere in her performance, Magee is excellent as always, and Fulci regular Al Cliver ("Zombi 2", "The Beyond"), sexy Dagmar Lassander ("The House by the Cemetery"), and the lovely Daniela Doria (recipient of a lot of abuse in Fulci films) round out the cast."The Black Cat" is entertaining stuff that finds its director in fine form, always keeping his audience on edge. He does go for the close-up (of human and feline eyes) an awful lot, but this doesn't distract too much from the various spooky goings on, including one absolutely harrowing scene of a house (and person) catching on fire.Recommended to Fulci fans.Eight out of 10.

Gunnar_Runar_Ingibjargarson The Black Cat (Lucio Fulci, 1981) Always remember, the title credits say the film is freely adapted from Poe's story. Freely may be the understatement of the year. Best not to think on Poe's tale until the final ten minutes.The killer kitty is at the center of the story, causing a series of accidents in a small Scottish town whose inspector, Wilson (Fulci regular Al Cliver), gets expatriated and calls Scotland Yard. They send in Inspector Gorley (David Warbeck, who also teamed with Fulci for The Beyond the same year). Gorley and Wilson, with the help of plucky American photographer Jill Trevers (sixties biker bad girl Mimsy Farmer), try to solve the crimes while working out what an aging, eccentric mystic (Patrick Magee) has to do with it all.And now, the part that will make Fulci fans wonder who really directed this movie: there's no eye scene, and there's no spider scene. In fact, it's almost as if Fulci wanted to tone down the gore and make an atmospheric, Gothic horror/romance, but without the romance (except for one sex scene that would barely rate a PG-13 today).Fulci himself considers this movie a disaster. Who am I to disagree? Well, I will, at least in part. It's certainly watchable enough, if confused. It's not Zombi or The Beyond, but it's got its endearing points. Worth a free rental.