Wilbur Gray (Peter Cushing) is a horror writer who is preparing to show off his latest work to his sceptical publisher. With this, he’s going to reveal something truly sinister: that cats are supernatural creatures who’s got all of humanity in their controlling claws! Wilbur ventures off in the dark to visit his publisher, and a black cat appears to be following him. Inside his publisher’s abode, Wilbur also discovers that this man owns a white, fluffy Persian cat named Sugar. A fitting name for such a sweet furball. Wilbur, however, becomes even more terrified. The enemy is everywhere, oh my! He desperately tries to convince his publisher that the feline race is, indeed, a threat to humanity and the devil itself in disguise. And in order to prove it, he tells three tales about cats causing death and mayhem.
The Uncanny is a British-Canadian anthology horror film from 1977, directed by Fenis Héroux and written by Michel Parry. It stars Peter Cushing, Donald Pleasence, Ray Milland, Joan Greenwood, Donald Pilon, Samantha Eggar, and John Vernon. The movie was shot on location in Montreal and Senneville, Quebec, and Pinewood Studios in England. All of Peter Cushing’s scenes were shot in England, as Cushing wasn’t too keen on traveling abroad at that stage of his career.
The three tales told makes one thing pretty clear very early on: it’s not really the cats that are the baddies here. They pretty much just take revenge on horrible humans and gives them some well-deserved karma. In the first segment, taking place in London in 1912, the story is about a wealthy woman owning a bunch of cats, and she has decided that she wants her cats to inherit her fortune. The maid, who also happens to be the lover of this rich lady’s nephew, wants to intervene so the nephew and her can inherit the money (if this plot sounds a little similar thus far, you’ve probably seen Disney’s Aristocats from 1970). The cats won’t have any of this bullshit, of course, and the maid’s actions receive a well-deserved revenge.
The second segment, taking place in Quebec in 1975, takes a rather whimsical turn. The orphaned girl Lucy comes to live with her aunt and husband, and the mean cousin Angela. Lucy’s only friend is her black cat Wellington, but her cousin does everything she can to have the cat removed. In the end, everything turns into some pretty crazy and utterly cheesy scenes that I certainly didn’t see coming!
The final segment, taking place in Hollywood in 1936, is where everything goes completely into Looney Tunes territory however. The actor Valentine De’ath replaces the blade of a fake plastic pendulum with a real one, causing his wife to be killed during the shooting of a scene. His young mistress gets the role his deceased wife had, and he brings his mistress to his home immediately. There, we even get a Looney Tunes reference when the mistress sees the wife’s cat and says “I thought I saw a pussy cat! I did, I did!“ which is of course an obvious reference to little Tweety’s famous line. And Valentine, that bastard, dispose of the cat’s newborn kittens, just to prove how much of an absolute shitstain he is (like the killing of his wife hadn’t already established that). Once again the cat gets revenge, with several scenes of silly chasing and cartoonish fun.
In the UK, the film was originally given an X-rating (not really sure why, although there are some pretty decent gore scenes which was probably considered a little bit too much at the time), but it performed poorly at the box office. And, well…this movie certainly isn’t for everyone. While the first segment is having a more serious tone, the rest goes from wild to completely bonkers. Perfect Horror Ghouls material for sure, though!
The Uncanny is a movie where you really need to go in with the expectation of watching something truly silly, as this is one of those movies that shouldn’t be taken seriously for even a second. It’s just pure, cheesy fun, with lots of cute cats. And like several other cat-themed horror movies (like Uninvited and Cat’s Eye), you root for the cats of course, and you don’t really have any reason not to. The humans are the bad guys. Just like in real life.
Director: Denis Héroux
Writer: Michel Parry
Also known as: I kattens klør (Norway)
Country & year: Canada/UK, 1977
Voice actors: Peter Cushing, Ray Milland, Joan Greenwood, Susan Penhaligon, Simon Williams, Chloe Franks, Katrina Holden Bronson, Donald Pleasence, Samantha Eggar, and a legion of angry cats
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076853/
