Lewis Teague is the director not only of this episode film, but also of “Cujo”, and that film really creeped me out when I first saw it like almost no other before. It should all be handled with perspective, Cujo is a bit more funny than scary today, and Cat’s Eye is more scary than funny. This is an episode film that has all the best Stephen King characteristics, especially the sardonic humour so omnipresent in his stories, particularly from the early shorts collections. As he still is among the few defendants of the art of the short story, no wonder there are some good ones that make good and fun film episodes. A lovely collection, with one great and two solid episodes:
Quitters, Inc. may be one of my favourite King short stories ever – and thanks to goofball James Woods, the film may be even better. He is on cold tobacco turkey after being more or less tricked into quitting, he is paranoid about people following him and telling his smoking missteps to the creepy management at Quitters, Inc., and he is hysterical when he finds out he could not be paranoid enough. James Woods always had a great comedic talent, and here he uses it for creepy.
The Ledge is a bit more grim, with the lover of a rich man’s wife being trapped in a revenge game, not so dissimilar from “Something to tide over you” from “Creepshow” the other day. It lacks, however, the humour of the first episode, and seems devoid of too many surprises. Still satisfactory and grim enough.
Finally, Cat’s eye, where the young, very young Drew Barrymore hosts the title giving cat in her bedroom, and while the parents still argue whether a cat won’t steal a kid’s breath in sleep, the brave cat fights the jester-clad little goblin with the sharp teeth and the pointy dagger. The filmmakers do take this with the humour it needs to have, because clearly the little monster is not scary enough for serious horror elements. The showdown involves a record player at 66rpm and a fan with dangerous blades…
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/cats_eye/
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