Cat's Eye (1985 film)

Cat's Eye (also known as Stephen King's Cat's Eye) is a 1985 American anthology horror thriller film directed by Lewis Teague and written by Stephen King. It comprises three stories, "Quitters, Inc.", "The Ledge", and "General". The first two are adaptations of short stories in King's 1978 Night Shift collection, and the third is unique to the film. The three stories are connected by the presence of a traveling cat, and Drew Barrymore both of which play incidental roles in the first two and major characters in the third.

Its cast includes Drew Barrymore, James Woods, Alan King, Robert Hays and Candy Clark.

Plot
A stray tabby cat hides from a dog in a delivery truck, which drives to New York City. The cat sees the disembodied image of a young girl pleading for help and is picked up by a man.

"Quitters, Inc."
Dick Morrison is advised by a friend to join Quitters, Inc. to kick his smoking habit. The clinic doctor Vinnie Donatti explains that the clinic has a 100% success rate due to a uniquely persuasive method: every time Dick smokes a cigarette, horrors of increasing magnitude will befall his wife, Cindy and their daughter, Alicia.

Using the same tomcat that that his assistant Junk caught in the street, Donatti demonstrates the first of these horrors: the cat is put in a cage and tormented with electric shocks coming from the floor. He explains that if his new client is caught with a cigarette, Cindy will be shocked while he is forced to watch. For subsequent infractions, Alicia will be shocked, then she will be raped. Finally, Dick himself will be killed. He hides the threats from his family.

That night, Dick, angered by the methods that Quitters, Inc. uses, notices a pack of cigarettes in his desk. He prepares to smoke, but notices a pair of feet in his closet, realizing that the clinic takes their threats seriously. The following day, he visits Alicia, gives her a doll and drops her off at school. However, he sees Donatti, who warns him that the organization will be watching him closely.

During a stressful traffic jam, Dick smokes after finding an old pack of cigarettes in his glove box. After watching Cindy suffer in the electric cage, Dick futilely attacks them. Dick is determined never to smoke again and tells her everything. Time passes, and Dick is smoke free, but he has gained weight due to quitting. Donatti prescribes illegal diet pills and sets a target weight for him. Dick jokingly asks what will happen if he continues to gain weight, to which he responds that someone will cut off his wife's little finger.

Dick and Cindy have a dinner party with the same friend who recommended Quitters, Inc., and toast to both them and the company. As she raises her glass, Dick sees that his friend's wife is missing her little finger.

"The Ledge"
Having escaped the scuffle at Quitters, Inc., the cat leaves Manhattan via the Staten Island Ferry, traveling to Atlantic City, New Jersey, where it sees the same disembodied girl's image once again asking for his help.

Gambler and former tennis pro Johnny Norris is involved with a woman named Sally Ann, whose jealous husband, Cressner, is a crime boss and casino owner and a man who wages on anything. After winning a wager that the cat will successfully cross the busy road outside his casino, he takes him to his home. Cressner then has Norris kidnapped and blackmails him into a dangerous ordeal: he must circumnavigate the exterior ledge of his penthouse. If he makes it all the way around, he will grant his wife a divorce. If Norris refuses, he will call the police and have him arrested for possession of drugs that have been planted in Norris's Mustang by his henchman Albert, to which he agrees.

Cressner harasses Norris by startling him with a horn when he attempts to get into a window. A pigeon lands beside him and pecks at his foot, causing it to bleed. Then he turns on a fire hose to keep Norris from lingering and he returns to the apartment. Cressner says that he will honor the bet: Albert removes the drugs, and presents him with a bag of cash. However, he kicks over the bag to reveal his wife's severed head.

Norris attacks him, while Albert is tripped by the cat and drops his gun. Norris seizes the gun and kills Albert, then points it at Cressner. Norris forces him to undergo the same ordeal on the ledge. The cat watches as Cressner, harassed by the pigeon, falls to his death.

"General"
The cat then hops a freight train and travels to Wilmington, North Carolina, where it is adopted by the girl who was asking for his help earlier, Amanda, who names him General. Her mother believes that he will harm their parakeet, Polly. Despite Amanda's protests, she puts him out at night.

Consequently, he cannot protect Amanda from a small, malevolent troll that took up residence in the house. When she sleeps, the troll emerges via a hole in one of the walls in Amanda's room. The troll slays Polly with a tiny dagger and then tries to steal her breath. General finds a way into the house and chases the troll. After wounding his shoulder with his dagger, the troll flees, leaving Amanda and her parents to discover the dead bird.

Her parents are convinced that General killed Polly, but her father, discovering a wound too large for a parakeet to have made, starts doubting her belief that he slew her. She takes him to an animal shelter to be euthanized. When night falls, the troll returns and uses a doorstop to wedge Amanda's door shut, and then reattempts to take the sleeping girl's breath. As General is getting his final meal, he escapes and rushes back to her house. He saves Amanda and fights with the troll, causing a great deal of noise. Her parents awaken, but the blocked door prevents them from reaching her. Though the troll tries to flee, he kills him.

After her parents break into the room, Amanda describes how he saved her from the troll. Her parents believe the story when parts of the troll's corpse are discovered, as well as the tiny dagger and the hole in the wall that the troll used. The next morning, General feasts on a large fish, then climbs onto a sleeping Amanda's stomach and licks her face. She wakes up and cuddles him.

Cast

 * Drew Barrymore credited as "Our Girl". Also appears, uncredited, as Alicia Morrison, the Girl on TV, and Amanda
 * James Woods as Dick Morrison
 * Candy Clark as Sally Ann
 * Alan King as Dr. Vinny Donatti
 * Mary D'Arcy as Cindy Morrison
 * Robert Hays as Johnny Norris
 * Kenneth McMillan as Cressner
 * James Naughton as Hugh
 * James Rebhorn as Drunk Businessman
 * Charles S. Dutton as Dom
 * Mike Starr as Ducky

Release and reception
Cat's Eye was released theatrically in the United States by MGM on April 12, 1985. It grossed $13,086,298 at the domestic box office.

Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four and wrote, "Stephen King seems to be working his way through the reference books of human phobias, and 'Cat's Eye' is one of his most effective films." Vincent Canby of The New York Times called the film "the best screen adaptation of any of King's work since Brian De Palma's 'Carrie'" and "pop movie making of an extremely clever, stylish and satisfying order." Variety wrote, "The three stories just don't connect and efforts to join them never work. However, an excellent roster of talent does try its best." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote that the opening story "is so funny and so fresh that it's a shock and a disappointment to see it come to an end in a half-hour. The movie's second short story is as dull as can be; No. 3 is kind of fun; so it all adds up to a better-than-average entertainment that sags terribly in the middle." Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times stated that "the special effects are impeccable and Giorgio Postiglione's production design meticulous and inspired. Yet it's the well-drawn characters, plus the brisk, stylish direction of Teague and superb camerawork of Cardiff, that make it work." Paul Attanasio of The Washington Post wrote that all the stories "repeat the same formula," but the middle one was "the most fun, because of the presence of the peerless Kenneth McMillan," who "plays here with a good-humored burlesque that recalls Jackie Gleason." Kim Newman of The Monthly Film Bulletin thought the film "would have been sub-standard even as one of the formula Amicus anthologies of the 60s and 70s," adding, "Despite a few good performances (James Woods, Kenneth McMillan), the film, like Creepshow before it, is continually let down by the weak punch lines King provides for his promising anecdotes." On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 70% rating based on 30 reviews. The critical consensus reads: "An effective if knowingly silly Stephen King anthology that combines comedy and terror." On Metacritic the film has a score of 70% based on reviews from 12 critics.

Neil Gaiman reviewed Cat's Eye for Imagine magazine, stating it was "Funny, scary, and one of the best King movies so far."

The film was released on VHS in 1985 by Key Video and later on DVD by Warner Home Video in 2002.

Awards
The film was nominated for the International Fantasy Film Award for Best Film in 1987. Drew Barrymore was nominated for the Young Artist Award for Best Starring Performance by a Young Actress in a Motion Picture in 1986.