The Cat with Hands

I'm a big fan of Robert Morgan, and he succeeds to impress with this short film. The unnerving and downright strange nature of the entire film puts the viewer in a weird and vulnerable mood, establishing the atmosphere perfectly for what is to come. Morgan is a master of nightmarish stop motion flicks and in The Cat With Hands you'll see plenty of said technique. The human, live-action clips are almost unnecessary (I almost like the Pilot version better), but they do a good job in rooting the story in reality, giving it a bit of a background and meaning, and they do a very good job at showing the contrast of real life to the nightmarish land that depicts the cautionary tale in action. There's something extremely unsettling about Morgan's work and in this film it delivers full force, which is why I enjoy his work so much. He doesn't use cheap jump scares and throw things at the viewer with loud sounds to establish "horror" (which I would argue isn't even horror at all), instead he creeps you out to a breaking point where you're mind is messed up for the rest of the day thinking about what you just watched, and I love it.

This was one of the earliest short films I saw on the Internet. It's only three minutes long, but boy, does it get its message across. It was literally based on a dream. Given the atmosphere, it's very easy to tell. The whole thing seems like a dream, especially the flashback. This tells the story of a guy who tells a story.

It's about a cat with hands and later a lot more. I admit to not being into stop motion, but the kind used here was very effective. It helps that it makes up the entire flashback. "Cats With Hands" was actually the name of a newspaper comic. Well, it's pretty much forgotten by now. This is a truly frightening film executed perfectly. ****

The only problem I had with this film was that I desperately wanted it to last longer! I could probably watch a feature length version of this film and be equally, if not even more impressed than I was by the original. This makes me hope that animator Robert Morgan manages to get a bit more support and cash so he can break into the film industry with some top notch animated features.

"The Cat with Hands" is a legitimately terrifying horror short from 2001 that has gained something of a cult reputation (particularly among fans of the internet's new wave of horror, which includes creepypasta,YouTube ARGs, deep web videos, and short films such as "Rubber Johnny" and this that may have been made before this "new wave" but have gained a lot of attraction because of it) due to its extreme creepiness and terribly unnerving vibe. The animation is disturbing, but its also beautifully in a demented sort of way. For stop motion animation, it is top notch and approaching Brothers Quay level quality! The animation plays an important role in the film's overarching mood as the animated characters look naturally freaky, so when the viewer sees these bizarre figures doing violent, messed up things, the scares are heightened to a frightfully fantastic extreme!

Why is this not a full feature length film? This is the perfect example to illustrate my adoration for short films. There are no boundaries. One's imagination can be conveyed in the most creative ways, and this film proves it by utilising a combination of live action and stop motion. That's without mentioning how bizarrely creepy that cat was. A very short retelling of a story about a cat wanting to be human. Doesn't sound frightening at all. Heck, it sounds more cute than anything. But those expectations are quickly demolished when this cat quickly starts consuming bodies and mimicking specific bodily parts. What starts off with a cat with hands soon becomes a cat with hands and a human face. Gradually, the expressive imagination of director Morgan is fully realised. Turning an innocent domestic pet into a demonic creature that manifests the physical qualities of humanity. The inclusion of stop motion animation only further enhances the ominous story that is being told. The live action aspect is uninspired and reminiscent of a low-quality pantomime, so let's pretend those scenes do not exist. The sheer creativity and imagination in the stop motion is what makes this short film memorable and surprisingly eerie. It's unfortunate that the whole short isn't in the same aesthetic style, and if only it was that little bit longer to make more of an impact. Suffice to say it left me wanting more, but damn that was a harrowing four minutes. I'll never look at cats the same way...

Great premise: what if a cat had hands??? What would be the reason for such a creature to live!!? Definitely worth the view.