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Cat's Eye (1985)
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Yet another King anthology, and one that stands up really well, despite its age.
Of the three stories presented, two are from his Night Shift anthology (Quitters, Inc. and The Ledge) and I am pretty sure The General was written specifically for the film. Though I could be wrong.
References abound, here. In Quitters, Inc., a man, played by James Woods, who visits a very peculiar smoking cessation clinic, watches The Dead Zone on TV and asks aloud, "Who writes this crap?" Can you guess who wrote that crap?
In The Ledge, where Robert Hays is put to a very difficult test, under duress, by the rich and sadistic husband of the woman he is planning to run away with, Kenneth McMillan tells him that if he makes it all the way around the building across the titular ledge, he will get, "...the girl, the gold watch, and everything." That particularly tickled me, as that is the name of a movie Hays was in back in the day, about a pocket watch that could stop time. A big favorite around my house.
In the wraparound scenes featuring the cat, there are references to both Cujo (also directed by Lewis Teague) and Christine.
Finally, in the final short, in which the cat has to fend off a gnome trying to steal Drew Barrymore's breath, the girl's mom is seen in bed reading Pet Semetary.
These are all things I never noticed when I was younger, but upon rewatching it recently, they jumped out at me like 3-D.
Anyway, the movie is great on a whole, but I would like to make particular mention of the special effects in The General. I watched it and was really impressed with how well the gnome was done, but I couldn't put my finger on it. And then it hit me: instead of relying simply on puppetry, they had actually built a huge version of the room, and the gnome was actually a dude in a suit. It plays very well, and is something that would look sh*tty today, because the first choice would be to do it as a CGI gnome. So, score one for practical effects!
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 | The Alpha Craig
Dec 24, 2007 12:47 PM
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| It is hit or miss with King for me. Sometimes you get a serious hit like Maximum Overdrive, or you geta serious miss like with Langoleers (can't remember if I spelled it correctly.) This was a generation before he did the "IT" series so it is a bit dated, but still retains the King suspense. It is cheasy, but I like it the way it is and I hope he doesn't attempt to update it or redo it with newer technolgoy. You have to enjoy the stories for what they are, scary and suspensefull. |
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