The Uncanny

THE UNCANNY is another horror anthology film from Amicus studios. In the wraparound story, Wilbur (Peter Cushing) is a man with a distinct fear of cats. The three tales he tells to his friend Frank (Ray Milland) illustrate the grounds for his terror.

In LONDON 1912- The aged Miss Malkin (Joan Greenwood) decides to leave her fortune to her large number of cats. Of course, her greedy nephew and the unscrupulous maid (Simon Williams and Susan Penhaligon) have other ideas, leading to skullduggery, death, and ferocious feline intervention! This one has a nice, EC comics-style ending!

In QUEBEC PROVINCE 1975- Young Lucy (Katrina Holden Bronson) and her cat, Wellington, move in with her aunt (Alexandra Stewart) after the passing of her parents. Lucy's insufferably bratty cousin, Angela (Chloe Franks) does her best to make life miserable, not knowing that there's far more to Lucy -and Wellington!- than she or her oblivious parents could imagine. For lovers of occult creepiness and comeuppance!

In HOLLYWOOD 1936- When horror movie actor, Valentine De'ath (Donald Pleasence) loses his wife and latest co-star, Madeleine (Catherine Begin) in a tragic "accident", he suggests her stand-in, Edina Hamilton (Samantha Eggar) for the part. Of course, all is not as it appears to be, and Valentine and Edina are in for a very rude awakening, delivered by Madeleine's faithful, highly intelligent kitty. Pleasence and Eggar have a blast hamming it up for this segment! Co-stars John Vernon.

The wraparound concludes, proving all too late that Wilbur has good reason to be afraid. This is quite good, and arguably the best killer cat movie ever made!...

In this horror anthology, a writer (Peter Cushing) attempts to prove to his sceptical publisher that cats are really menacing supernatural beings by relating three stories of feline terror.

This horror anthology had the potential to be great, yet through overly prolonged storytelling and less than adequate acting in most places it is unfortunately condemned to resting in the mid ranks of the genre. Cushing, as usual, was delightful in his role as the seemingly paranoid writer Wilbur Gray, but his rather short screen time meant that the gauntlet would fall to the rest of the cast who, with the exception of a select few performers which most notably included Donald Pleasance, were never able to perform to the standards required to make the lengthy segments enjoyable. While one can obviously see that the intention from director Denis Héroux (his final directorial effort) and writer Michel Parry (who went on to co-write the underrated sci-fi/horror fest ‘Xtro') was to create a suspenseful and unnerving film, the recurrent sequences which border on non-eventful lead the viewer to become bored, thus lessening the impact of the movie. That is not to be taken as a reproachful statement as the film is far from entirely lamentable; it's more of a regrettable observation when one considers what might have been.

The first segment in this tale of mental moggies concentrates on the servant of a wealthy elderly woman. After her employer Miss Malkin (Joan Greenwood) changes her will in favour of her cats, servant Janet (Susan Penhaligon) is convinced by her boyfriend and employer's nephew, Michael (Simon Williams), to steal the copy of the new will and testament from the safe of Miss Malkin and destroy it in order for his Aunt's money to be bequeathed to him. As expected, the theft of the will is bungled and Janet faces a revenge attack from Miss Malkin's feline friends. In my opinion, this segment is by far the most enjoyable of the three. Although it suffers from some of the problems that I have already mentioned, the sporadic nature of such occurrences doesn't have the negative impact that they would have throughout the rest of the film. There is a wonderful blend of suspenseful horror and quite graphic scenes of violence which culminate to make this segment enduring to the viewer. Easily the most horrific and by far the most entertaining, this segment would receive 8/10 from me.

The following segment, set in Canada, tells the story of young Lucy (Katrina Holden, who would never work in film again) who goes to live with relatives after the death of her parents. Her only friend, a black cat named Wellington, is the subject of unwanted attention and maltreatment from the jealous Angela (Chloe Frank, who previously appeared in the far superior horror anthology ‘The House that Dripped Blood'). As Angela's malice towards Lucy and her cat grows, Angela becomes more determined to have the cat removed from the household. The poorest of the three main segments is an unwelcome change in pace for the film. Virtually the entire segment seems incongruous to the rest of the film, and while some additions to the story seem to fit the theme when considered at face value, the ludicrous nature of the tale is little but damaging to the movie. Asinine storytelling accompanied by imprudent special effects and atrocious acting results in this segment getting a lowly 3/10 from me. The only true saving grace about this segment is that one really does come to despise Angela as was so obviously the intention.

The final segment stars Donald Pleasance as a wife-murdering, adulterous Hollywood actor who becomes the target of retribution by his deceased wife's cat. Not great, but this segment helps to rebuild the film after its near demolition due to the previous segment. Once again, the movie falters in the already mentioned areas, but Donald Pleasance's wonderful, if hammy performance is almost capable of carrying the segment off alone. The length of the segment is the most damaging to this particular part of the film, but overall there is enough to keep the viewer entertained to at least some degree. There is almost a return to the more graphic horror that can be seen in the first segment, but generally the horror is induced through some well executed suspense building techniques which occasionally resulted in a gruesome climax. This segment may not be up to the standard of the first, but it certainly adds the credibility back to the film and is enjoyable enough. This segment would get 7/10 from me.

The closing scenes featuring Peter Cushing end the film well with a couple of truly haunting images. While no image could match the haunting aura of the final scenes of ‘The Wicker Man' (1973) or ‘The Omen' (1976) (the two films that I believe to have the most distressing final image), the final scene that features Cushing is remarkably quite unsettling, especially when you consider the rather barmy subject matter. ‘The Uncanny' is far from a great movie, but it has enough redeeming features to make the film enjoyable for one watch. Unfortunately, it is quite hard to take the film seriously, especially when taking the absurd second segment into consideration. It is hard to forget the detrimental effect that the second segment had on the film and thus my rating has been lowered to some extent. My rating for ‘The Uncanny' - 6½/10.

I found this very interesting and Peter Cushing is great in this role. Some of it was better than other but it really paid out once you got the hang of the theme about the cats and the whole story revolving around that. Cats are indeed very strange beings. I totally agree with the whole premise and psychology of the thing. Very good movie indeed. Rather exciting actually. I was amazed at some of the special effects also which are quite good and the acting is credible. All thins being equal, I really liked this movie and as a fantasy fan I found it to be a good experience. Clearly the storytelling in this movie is very good and, say, in the tradition of The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery and other great tales of short fantasy.

I only saw the second segment all the way through. I just ordered this film off the internet, so when I see the whole thing, I'll make additional comments. The second segment features an orphaned little girl sent to stay with relatives who have a girl a few years older. The little girl has a black cat. The cat gives the mother the creeps, but she doesn't have the heart to make the girl get rid of the cat after having lost her parents. The older girl starts out with minor verbal taunts, but gets progressively meaner as the story progresses and gleefully laughs as she uses a remote control toy airplane to repeatedly hit the little girl with it. The older girl's wicked laughing pitted against the hysterically frightened little girl's crying made me cringe in horror and it made me really mad. I usually don't like black cats either, but when the little girl finally uses the cat to exact revenge on the other girl, I was cheering for the cat!

In 1977, in Montreal, the scared writer Wilbur Gray (Peter Cushing) visits his publisher Frank Richards (Ray Milland) to disclose his new book about the evilness of cats. Wilbur tells that the felines are supernatural creatures, and that there is a saying in which the cat would be the devil in disguise. Wilbur tells three tales to illustrate his thoughts.

In 1912, in London, Miss Malkin (Joan Greenwood) is a wealthy woman that rewrites her will leaving her fortune to her cats rather than to her nephew Michael (Simon Williams). Her maid Janet (Susan Penhaligon), also mistress of Michael, steals one copy of the will from the lawyer's briefcase and tries to destroy the original copy which is kept in the safe. When Miss Malkin sees her attempt, Janet kills her and the cats revenge Miss Malkin.

In 1975, in the Province of Quebec, the orphan Lucy (Katrina Holden) comes to live with her aunt Mrs. Blake (Alexandra Stewart), her husband and her cuisine Angela (Chloe Frank) after the death of her parents in a plane crash. Lucy brings her only friend, the cat Wellington, but her mean cuisine forces her parents to get rid off Wellington. Lucy uses the witchcraft book of her mother to revenge Wellington.

In 1936, in Hollywood, the actor Valentine Death (Donald Pleasence) replaces the blade of a fake pendulum to kill his wife and also actress and give a chance to his young mistress and aspirant actress. The cat of his wife revenges her.

In spite of having great names, such as Ray Milland, Peter Cushing, Samantha Eggar and Donald Pleasence among others, the lead story of the afraid writer and his publisher is very weak and silly. With regard to the three tales, the first one is too long; the second one is far the best; and the last one is only reasonable. The soundtrack is very repetitive, monotonous and boring. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "A Maldição dos Gatos" ("The Curse of the Cats")