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Wednesday, May 27, 2015

The Cat (Korean 2011) Review


Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: After a girl takes in a cat from a crime scene, the bodies begin to pile up.

Review: For some reason I remembered this being a lot scarier when it first came out. I must have been high out of my mind or something, because this is a by-the-books horror film with absolutely nothing we haven't seen a hundred times before. This isn't to say the film is terrible, but it lacks creativity and is loaded with virtually every Asian horror trope and cliche imaginable. On top of that, the story is simply about many animal abusers getting their comeuppance. This is fine to me except that the depiction of so many dead and tortured animals kind of makes it hard to bear for those who would enjoy justice being served. To be honest, it's hard to say who this film would actually appeal toward. The last thing I'll mention is that this film would have been more interesting had the ghost been some kind of abstract entity or embodiment of little kitties everywhere. Instead, it's your typical ghost girl who I am going to refer to as Toshio's girlfriend--those two seem like they'd hit it off.

The story is on the paper thin side of things with the main girl being your typical good girl with "problems." She works at a pet shop with a boss who, of course, hates pets. After one of their dumb clients (thankfully) gets killed, the girl takes in the client's cat; while this is occurring, the main chickadee keeps seeing Toshio's girlfriend. Toshio's girlfriend has turned into a kind of cat-human hybrid, but she's essentially a wannabe demon in her looks and approach. Everyone always takes note of Toshio's girlfriend's haircut too, yet, who would do that in reality? Contrivances begin to rack up after the main girl's friend dies and she becomes reunited with the guy she has a crush on. This romance subplot is painful to behold, and the guy is such a little bitch boy it's pitiful. Toshio's girlfriend is an unsung avenger of abused animals everywhere as she picks off assholes here and there, but she still spends half her time doing jump scares to the main girl; a few of these scares are not bad admittedly. Eventually they realize there was something about an apartment building sealing itself up to kill a bunch of stray cats, because apparently Korea has no animal control. Toshio's girlfriend, in life, was trapped inside with her kitty friends after breaking her back or whatever. Wait, what? Toshio's girlfriend dies by her own accident and this somehow translates into a demonic-looking spirit that hunts down animal abusers? 'Kaaaaay. Also, magically finding the body of Toshio's girlfriend somehow appeases the spirit and puts it to rest? Why? The movie then ends with a zinger fake-out. They're like, oh shit, are we going to do a zinger?! Nope...got you!

This movie may sound a lot worse than it really is, but it's bland and mediocre when it had potential. The ghost needed another origin, the main girl needed more depth, the love interest should have been dropped, and the abusers should have been killed before they did any real damage. On the other hand, the scares are acceptable, the cinematography was okay, and there were a few cool ideas. If you like seeing people die for hurting animals this movie may be for you. Ironically, if you like seeing animals hurt, this may also be the movie for you. Thankfully, the abusers aren't as sick and twisted as they could have been, but, still, it's pretty messed up. Overall, a forgettable excursion into Asian horror when there is so much better out there.

Notable Moment: When Toshio's girlfriend is hiding under the bed. Would have been a lot better if the scare came faster though.

Final Rating: 5/10

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