Un gatto nel cervello

I don't know what it is exactly, but the film is happily sitting on my shelf, with no thought of ever leaving me...Fulci has crafted one of the most ridiculous, bizzare, cheez-infested and well unique movies I've ever seen. Not sure what else to say about it, but I LOVE THIS MOVIE!!! The steak tartar scene is absolutely uproarious, and the whole nazi torture orgy fiasco is strangely hilarious...I'm not sure what Fulci was trying to do, but has anyone heard that, based on this film, Fulci accused Wes Craven of ripping him off with "Scream"? "Cat in the Brain" is a must for bad movie lovers everywhere...Yes I'll definitely say it's not a "good" film, but I guarantee certain scenes will stick in your mind forever! This is an exercise in craziness, people...I guess if I were a "serious" critic I'd give it a 3, but on sheer enjoyability (again I can't really explain my affections) I'd give it a 7....Really whacked out flick...

As one who often paid good coin to see Fulci movies during their brief theatrical runs, I can appreciate the guilty pleasure of kicking back to hoot at badly-dubbed sadism and cheesy gore. But I draw the line at clods who insist that Lucio Fulci was some kind of tortured, misunderstood artist. Better you should write theses on the mise-en-scene of AIRPORT 1975, or maybe the underlying theme of ROLLER BOOGIE. There's no doubt Fulci was intending to shock his audience with mean-spirited viciousness; however, his ham-handed obviousness and ineptitude are what make his films "classics". I haven't seen BEATRICE CENCI or that DUCKLING one, so maybe there was some real talent there once. But from ZOMBIE onward, Fulci delivered more unintentional comedy than on-purpose terror. CAT IN THE BRAIN is probably his worst ever, a hopeless porridge of old gore-fx footage spliced into new scenes in an excruciating attempt at a psychological thriller. A horror-film director slowly losing his ability to distinguish reality from fantasy IS a scenario ripe with possibilities: wait till you see how badly this simple-yet-solid premise is botched. Or better yet, take my word for it and pass altogether. I hold no personal animus against the late Fulci, but it irritates me no end that this guy is slowly gaining a reputation as some kind of great Italian moviemaker - mostly from lazy gorehounds who can't be bothered to check out De Sica, Rossellini, Visconti or legit horror masters like Bava and Freda. Maybe CAT IN THE BRAIN isn't representative of Fulci's best -he was in failing health at the time- but I've seen his other "triumphs" and his only genius was in aiming low - and missing.

I don't think that this is a serious horror film.Instead it is a parody of every other film Fulci has made.The main character is no dramatic at all,he is amusing!!The gore elements are completely out of sense,making them hillarious.To fully understand that this is a comedy just watch the ending.Don't compare this to the "serious" Fulci films.On a serious note Fulci looks like a really nice guy,and it is sad that he died after a few months.We'll always remember him!!

Fulci himself had a clever concept for a movie: have the director be the main character around whom the boundaries that separate reality & movies begin to crumble. This idea prefigured Wes Craven's New Nightmare by years, but sadly the growing health problems Fulci was suffering from are clearly evident in the resulting movie.

The movie is pieced together with footage from some of his previous works and the new material looks like it was shot in and around the area where Fulci lived, so he did not have to travel far.

It is sad to see such a legendary talent slowly eroded, but Cat in the Brain, along with the awful Voices from Beyond show the inexorable decline in Fulci's work.

Remember him for Zombi 2, Don't Torture A Duckling and The Beyond, rather than this sorry affair.

Lucio Fulci has the lead in this film where he plays a director of horror flicks who suffers from depression and neurosis as an effect of his own movies. Reality and fiction blur, everywhere he goes is blood and murder, Fulci becomes insane. Meanwhile his psychiatrist turns to a sadistic slasher...

Watch this film for the gore, because the satire is rather unsatisfactory! There are many violent scenes like brutal stabbings, chainsaw-murders and as an entrance-sequence a cat is eating a brain... combined with much nudity and even some trashy moments like the Nazi orgy. Fulci does a solid job with playing himself and the gore-F/X are pretty stunning, especially at the end of "Nightmare Concert" T there´s much red juice is running!

The main weakness of this film is his forced wittyness, however mostly the jokes don´t function! Maybe some insider-jokes were featured which I didn´t understand, but the self-irony about a director who becomes a mentally victim of his own works stays empty at all!!

6/10