CAT IN THE BRAIN [1990]

Lucio Fulci plays a victim of his gore-torn mind in CAT IN THE BRAIN. Fulci is a character consumed by his work as a horror film director. Evidently, the line has vanished between reality and the sickening scenes he constructs for a movie he’s currently working on. Nearly every waking moment of his life transforms into a flood of grisly hallucinations, and he drowns in them. Once he realizes he needs to get his head above water, Fulci seeks guidance from a psychiatrist. The depleted filmmaker is left completely oblivious and vulnerable to the psychiatrist’s evil agenda due to the massive amount of stress his work has left him buried under. The psychologist hypnotizes Fulci so that he will believe he is responsible for committing the sleazy murders happening around town. Fulci’s delirium, fueled by his art, leaves him feeling homicidal. Why couldn’t he be the murderer? In reality, it is the therapist who is ruthlessly killing women as an outlet for his own feelings of rage and rejection.

CAT IN THE BRAIN is a terrifying visual journey made up of the kind of deranged sequences that only Fulci, himself, could masterfully create. It is sincerely impossible NOT to empathize with Fulci’s character as he descends into the depths of his own personal Hell, tormented by his imagination. The movie almost has a “home video” feel and can, at certain moments, come across as a splatter fest compilation. Brains are eaten, corpses gush, and whores are slain. Every opportunity for slaughter and carnage is taken and used to its maximum potential. The insanity, though highly intense, is also laughable and great fun if your stomach can handle it. The violent flashbacks and erotic daydreams that control each thought that Fulci processes are just as mind-bending to the viewer as they are to him. CAT IN THE BRAIN may very well be Fulci’s statement on the horror industry’s ability to vigorously impact the way people perceive the world on a daily basis.

Rating: 8/10
Director: Lucio Fulci [ZOMBIE, CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD, THE BEYOND]

Cast: Lucio Fulci, David L. Thompson, Malisa Longo
Country: Italy