Lucio Fulci’s Cat in the Brain is about a horror film director (played by Fulci himself) who starts to see images of violence everywhere in his day-to-day life.  As the line between his work and his everyday life begins to deteriorate, Fulci (the character) heads for a massive psychological breakdown.  To make matters worse, Fulci’s psychologist sees his patient’s condition as an opportunity to cover up his own murder spree.  The resulting slippage between the horror film that Fulci is directing and the horrors perpetrated by the fiendish doctor is an intriguing enough concept, but as it plays out it becomes more and more convoluted and uninteresting.  Also, in what may have been an exercise in corner-cutting, the horrific images that plague Fulci are taken from a variety of other films and simply spliced into the mix.  Needless to say, this footage is of rather poor quality; while the special FX are supposed to be gruesome, they’re often just laughable and numbing.

While Cat in the Brain is certainly an auteur affair, it doesn’t really show off Fulci’s skill as a director and it unfortunately does illustrate his lack of skill as an actor.  What could have been a workable, compelling central conceit gets lost in a melange of terrible gore FX.  At best the film operates as a commentary on the media’s claims that the horror genre inspires horrific acts, at worst it is a meandering mess.  And you’ll never be able to hear “Hall of the Mountain King” again without thinking of the atrocious flute version that pops up throughout the soundtrack.

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