Il Gatto Nero, or The Black Cat as it's more commonly known amongst English speaking audiences, starts in the tranquil English countryside in a small sleepy village with a mysterious car crash in which the driver sees a black cat just before he loses control of his car & crashes sending him through the windscreen & up in flames. An American photographer named Jill Trevers (Mimsy Farmer) has travelled to the village to take photo's of the local picturesque ruins but shortly after she arrives strange things begin to happen in the village. The locals are wary of a medium named Professor Robert Miles (Patrick Magee) who claims he can speak to the dead & owns an ominous black cat. Two teenage lovers Maureen (Daniela Doria) & her boyfriend Stan disappear without trace, since local bobby Sergeant Wilson (Al Cliver) isn't up to the job Scotland Yard send Inspector Gorley (David Warbeck) to sort things out. Next the local drunk Ferguson (Bruno Corazzari) speaks out about Professor Miles in the pub & shortly after suffers a fatal 'accident'. Inspector Gorley realises he has a real case on his hands & enlists the help of photographer Jill to record the crime scenes & help out, to add to the growing list of 'accidents' it's not long before the bodies of Maureen & Stan are found. When Maureens mum Lillian (Dagmar Lassander) dies Jill & Gorley are convinced that these are not random accidents & discover strong evidence to indicate that Professor Miles black cat was present during each incident...
Co-written & directed by Lucio Fulci I liked Il Gatto Nero even if it doesn't make a lot of narrative sense. The script by Fulci & Biagio Proietti based on the short story by Edgar Allen Poe is a bit of a mess to be honest, none of the victims are really connected to each other or the killer & as a whole Il Gatto Nero feels a little unfocused & loose jumping from one murder set-piece to another without much regard for what happens between them, the script could have been a bit tighter. The characters are undeveloped & are nothing more than cardboard cutouts but I personally didn't mind that much as there is just about enough there to keep things moving even if it's not particularly coherent. The end & the eventual revealing of all the motivations behind what's going on & the unmasking of the villain is too spread out, it would have been more effective if it all came out during the last 10 or 15 minutes rather stretch it out over 20 odd minutes & I must admit that the end wasn't exactly a great surprise. Il Gatto Nero has to be one of Fulci's best looking films & I love it's atmosphere, location, cinematography & style. The quaint idyllic English village is great, whether it's during the day with it's fresh greenery & cottages or at night with it's darkly lit streets enshrouded in thick fog. From Professor Miles Gothic mansion with terrific dungeon type crypt underneath & richly decorated rooms to the old house the drunk Ferguson wanders into with it's exposed brickwork & peeling plaster. From cobweb strewn corridors & tombs to spooky graveyards Il Gatto Nero is a wonderful looking film throughout. In fact my score & liking for Il Gatto Nero is probably based more on the look & feel of it rather than it's somewhat weak & thin storyline, sometimes it felt like a teen slasher film with a cat as the killer murdering random people. Technically the film is solid, director Fulci uses light & dark extremely well as he composes his shots, he films certain scenes from various cool angles & he constantly uses close-ups on peoples & cats eyes for some reason & I'm glad he did, he throws in plenty of cat point-of-view shots too. Il Gatto Nero is a visually impressive film, much more so than I was expecting & I think cinematographer Sergio Salvati deserves a mention. The gore & violence is toned down compared to Fulci's Zombi films but there are still some good kills here, a car crash victim is shown, someone is impaled on spikes in the films best gore scene, shots of a burning woman & her body & a few cat scratches & mauling plus an old skeleton. The acting is as good as one can expect from a Euro horror & familiar faces Magee, Warbeck & Cliver are fun to spot & watch. I liked Il Gatto Nero a lot & I would probably watch this again over most of Fulci's gore films for which he is most remembered for. It's a splendid looking film but it would have helped if Fulci had fleshed the script out a bit more, maybe he could have connected the victims together better & perhaps come up with a slightly stronger ending. Still, Il Gatto Nero is definitely worth a watch & much better than I was expecting!
Co-written & directed by Lucio Fulci I liked Il Gatto Nero even if it doesn't make a lot of narrative sense. The script by Fulci & Biagio Proietti based on the short story by Edgar Allen Poe is a bit of a mess to be honest, none of the victims are really connected to each other or the killer & as a whole Il Gatto Nero feels a little unfocused & loose jumping from one murder set-piece to another without much regard for what happens between them, the script could have been a bit tighter. The characters are undeveloped & are nothing more than cardboard cutouts but I personally didn't mind that much as there is just about enough there to keep things moving even if it's not particularly coherent. The end & the eventual revealing of all the motivations behind what's going on & the unmasking of the villain is too spread out, it would have been more effective if it all came out during the last 10 or 15 minutes rather stretch it out over 20 odd minutes & I must admit that the end wasn't exactly a great surprise. Il Gatto Nero has to be one of Fulci's best looking films & I love it's atmosphere, location, cinematography & style. The quaint idyllic English village is great, whether it's during the day with it's fresh greenery & cottages or at night with it's darkly lit streets enshrouded in thick fog. From Professor Miles Gothic mansion with terrific dungeon type crypt underneath & richly decorated rooms to the old house the drunk Ferguson wanders into with it's exposed brickwork & peeling plaster. From cobweb strewn corridors & tombs to spooky graveyards Il Gatto Nero is a wonderful looking film throughout. In fact my score & liking for Il Gatto Nero is probably based more on the look & feel of it rather than it's somewhat weak & thin storyline, sometimes it felt like a teen slasher film with a cat as the killer murdering random people. Technically the film is solid, director Fulci uses light & dark extremely well as he composes his shots, he films certain scenes from various cool angles & he constantly uses close-ups on peoples & cats eyes for some reason & I'm glad he did, he throws in plenty of cat point-of-view shots too. Il Gatto Nero is a visually impressive film, much more so than I was expecting & I think cinematographer Sergio Salvati deserves a mention. The gore & violence is toned down compared to Fulci's Zombi films but there are still some good kills here, a car crash victim is shown, someone is impaled on spikes in the films best gore scene, shots of a burning woman & her body & a few cat scratches & mauling plus an old skeleton. The acting is as good as one can expect from a Euro horror & familiar faces Magee, Warbeck & Cliver are fun to spot & watch. I liked Il Gatto Nero a lot & I would probably watch this again over most of Fulci's gore films for which he is most remembered for. It's a splendid looking film but it would have helped if Fulci had fleshed the script out a bit more, maybe he could have connected the victims together better & perhaps come up with a slightly stronger ending. Still, Il Gatto Nero is definitely worth a watch & much better than I was expecting!