A man going fishing gets into his car and drives off. One of the back car doors is open so he reaches back to shut it. A black cat in the back seat locks eyes with the man. The man is hypnotized into crashing his car. The man dies. Then two kids, Maureen (Daniela Dora) and her boyfriend are looking to have some alone time in the village boathouse. The kids get locked in and suffocate to death. A black cat is nearby. Maureen’s mother, Lillian Grayson (Dagmar Lassander) calls the police when Maureen doesn’t come home. The police bring in Inspector Gorley (David Warbeck) from Scotland Yard to investigate.
Jill Trevers (Mimsy Farmer) is a photographer who has come to the village to photograph some of its old architecture and the cemetery crypts. While photographing a church she sees a tomb with a broken slab. She goes down into the tomb to take pictures and finds a small microphone. She gets cautioned by the local constable, Sergeant Wilson (Al Cliver), to stay away from the old crypts for safety reasons.
The microphone belongs to a former college professor of supernatural events, Professor Robert Miles (Patrick Magee). Miles is a medium and spends his time recording spirit activity from the tombs in the graveyard. He basically eavesdrops on the dead. Miles is also the owner of the killer cat.
Jill visits Miles and sees the cat. Miles tries to hypnotize Jill but the cat scratches Miles’ hands breaking his concentration. Jill becomes frightened. When another villager is killed, Inspector Gorley asks Jill to photograph the scene on behalf of the police. Jill agrees. While taking the pictures Jill sees claw marks on the dead man’s hands. This reminds Jill of the scratch marks she saw on Miles when he was attacked by his cat. The murders continue. The cat is always there.
Jill basically launches her own investigation into the strange deaths. She learns from Miles that he and the cat are, as he puts it, bound together in hate, and that the cat is evil and has a supernatural influence on him. Jill becomes convinced that it is not the cat that is evil and that the cat is being used as a weapon against any villagers that Miles hates. Jill becomes a target for that hate.
“Black Cat” AKA “The Black Cat” AKA “Gatto Nero” was released in 1981 and was directed by Lucio Fulci. It is an Italian horror film. The movie is purported to be based on the 1843 story “The Black Cat” by Edgar Alan Poe. Except for one scene, any relationship between the movie and Poe’s story is mostly a suggestion.
Most of it was just a cat killing people, which, in all honesty is kinda cool. There is also a fire sequence were someone is burned alive that was also really good, but a bit longer than it probably should have been. Still, the movie had some nice atmosphere some creepy moments and a fair amount of gore. There is also some slight ambiguity where you aren’t sure who is manipulating who and whether or not the cat is real, a malevolent spirit, or a hallucination. It adds an otherworldly feel to the film.
Supposedly, Director Fulci had a cameo in the film as a doctor, but his scenes were deleted.
The cats in the film were trained by Pasquale Martino of Rome & Animals Unlimited in London.