The Black Cat

I have watched a lot of schlock and I really love 80s horror and the stuff coming out of Italy in the 70s and 80s. However, this film has no redeeming qualities, zilch. Most movies have at least 1 or 2 things going for them, be it the effects, the camera work or the atmosphere, but this movie just feels cheap, cheap, cheap.

Story sucks, the actors suck, the English dub sucks, the effects suck, the atmosphere sucks. Even a guy like Cozzi can do better, what were they thinking?

I am usually very "forgiving" when it comes to horror movies, to the point where I can acknowledge and value the general idea and overlook the narrative flaws. If the film as a whole is fun to watch, it has a well developed atmosphere and it features a decent amount of horror elements, I'm pretty much okay with it ... but the story has to make SOME sense, at least. Well, "The Black Cat" (or any of the many other titles that this movie has) is an example of a flick that is just frustrating to sit through. Director Luigi Cozzi may not entirely be at fault, perhaps the producers forcibly squeezed things into the movie for the sole purpose of shock value... or something. I have read many times that several directors end up unhappy with the final results of their films, because they were asked to add random creatures, murders or over-the-top sequences, even if they only add confusion to the story, just to make the film more marketable. I don't know the reasons behind this mess, but this is just a really confusing and convoluted film that had no business being that way, because it could have been told in a much simpler way. Actually, the first half an hour of the film is decent and it keeps it simple, but "The Black Cat" progressively becomes more and more random, to the point where inexplicable situations just happen constantly, and eventually, you just stop even trying to make any sense out of it (at least, I know I did). I can only assume that several random sequences and shots were probably added at the last minute because it was unused footage from a different film and they didn't want to let it go to waste. It's the only reasonable explanation I can come up with.

As for the photography, the director clearly took inspiration in Dario Argento's "Suspiria" and "Inferno" (both films are referenced here), but the strident color scheme ends up being a little bit over the top. Besides the artificial color palette, the use of CGI, which is very frequent during the second half of the film, cheapens the visuals considerably and it could have been a lot better without it.

A few creative deaths and stylish sequences don't save this film from being a big pile of randomness, so, skip this, unless you just want to have a good laugh. "The Black Cat" is just a frustrating experience and a waste of time.

Where can I start with this movie. Okay, this movie has had many titles such as "Demons 6", "The Black Cat", "Armaggedon", and the list goes on. None of the titles for the movie make any sense.

The movie starts out with a director planning to make a film about a witch called "Levana". His basis for the movie is based off of Dario Argento's "Susperia". The director decides that he is going to cast his wife as the lead in the movie. Well, apparently there is a real witch named Levana and she is not to happy with this whole project and decides to make the directors wife a living hell.

The main problems with this movie are continuity and pace. I will admit that this is a very atmosphere flick but the whole movie still falls flat on its face. There are so many moments in this flick where I had to say out loud "What the hell is going on?". For instance, many scenes just tend to wander off in to space. Literally, the camera has shots out in space and on the moon. This has nothing to do with what's going on in the movie and if it does, someone correct me because I haven't figured it out.

The pace of the film would seem to at points move farely well but for the most part the scenes just start to drag and you could care less with what's happening. The beginning of the movie is a prime example. The characters are introduced and the story starts to develop but then things just start to fall to pieces right before your very eyes.

The acting in the movie is rather humorous at moments. A certain scene when the director and his assistant meet the man who wants to produce the movie is rather hysterical. And almost all of the scenes with Lavana in them are laugh out loud funny.

I think the main thing that saves this movie is a decent original score (I'm not talking about the bad hair metal in the background) and a few moments of gore. It seems that the director of the movie (Luigi Cozzi) still loves to have people having their organs blown to pieces. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, watch Contamination.

All in all, could have been a much better film. 4/10 stars

so we all know that the first two demons movies are pretty much as good as it's going to get. i am not going to lie to you after seeing all (seven?) 'demons' movies, I can truly say that the first two entires are masterpieces and the rest are an eclectic bastard lovechildish creative, bad, and completely crazy entries.

This movie is so awful in a good way. It's also pretty hard to track down (insert obvious reasons.) It's referred too as like 7 different titles, but the one I was watching was English dubbed audio with Japanese hard subtitles. The movie shamelessly poses as 'Suspiria 2' but at the same time also seems to acknowledge what they're doing is pretty awful so they throw in a lot of funny crazy effects to distract you from the plot that includes a grand total of 4-5 people and pacing that fluctuates between wayyyyy to slow and holy crap what just happened and why?

it's not as good as the first two demons movies, but if you like to chuckle at a truly goofy and poorly made movie, this movie is a gold nugget. There's so many unintentionally hilarious moments you can't capture unless you are truly trying to make a serious effort and it just unfolds like a pile of unsorted laundry. Pretty much anything you can think may or may not explode and smoke and leak green worms and intestines WILL AND SHALL. That part's never really explained but a lot of other things are.

Hilarious dated effects guaranteed to open your eyes wider than a syfy movie creature shot. I had a fun time with it :)

"i'm in the mirror. No - i'm in the rifridgerator , Wait - I'm back in the mirror *blarchhhhh*"

This is one of those movies that tries hard to have a plot, but kinda veers off in different directions for the sake of horror and imagery. The "Black Cat" title came from the U.S. Producers using their licensing rights...a cat shows up, but nothing to do with the plot! The 'Three Mothers' references are kinda cool (including a small bit of Goblin's main "Suspiria" theme thrown in for good measure), but If anything, this film is closer in spirit to the "Demons" movies by Lamberto Lava..a creepy score, hard rock soundtrack, lots of blood, gore & goo, ugly ghouls & beautiful women, especially the ALWAYS gorgeous Caroline Munro..what more do you need? Just turn your brain off and enjoy it for what it is!