Uninvited (1988 Video)
4/10
Really bad killer Cat monster film.
29 April 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Uninvited starts in some genetics research laboratory where two scientists (including writer, producer & director Greydon Clark) are about to cut open a failed experiment when it escapes, although the experiment looks like an ordinary Cat something nasty lurks within it that can burst out at any moment & viciously shred it's it's victims to death... Bobbie (Clare Carey) & Suzanne (Shari Shattuck) are both friends who meet up with millionaire businessman Walter Graham (Alex Cord) who invites them to a party on his yacht, Bobbie & Suzanne decide to go & take along three male friends & a stray cute looking Cat they find. Needing to get to the Cayman islands & his bank in order to draw out millions of dollars before the SEC puts him in prison & freezes his assets Graham says the kids can come if they help out on the yacht which they agree to. During the voyage the Cat turns killer on numerous occasions while they hopelessly drift miles off course, stuck out at sea with a killer mutant Cat things look bad...

Written, produced & directed by Greydon Clark this straight to video killer Cat creature feature is considered a solid gold classic amongst most bad film lovers, while I can see a certain attraction & entertainment value I wouldn't say Uninvited was particularly good in any way even for unintentional laughs. The script isn't great, for some strange reason Clark decided to have a fluffy docile Cat as the evil creature in his film rather than a vicious Dog for example. OK, sure this other mutant Cat creature emerges every so often but even that is nothing more than a fluffy hand puppet with sharp teeth. There's no great explanation behind this creature, why or how it was created is a mystery while the yacht setting is rather bland & one would have though it wouldn't have been too difficult to find a Cat aboard a fairly small yacht & defend oneself from it. There's some choice dialogue here, the character's are all a bit too annoying with the all American teens particularly while the old acting pros manage to give their character's a bit of life. At only 86 minutes at least it's fairly short, it moves along at a decent pace & is watchable in a bad sort of way but I could see many simply being bored & underwhelmed with it. The ending too is absurd with the killer Cat holding onto a floating briefcase in order to stop drowning! Still much better than most of the crappy creature features that the Sy-Fy Channel make & show though.

The special effects are predictably anything but special, the Cat creature that comes out of the normal Cat's mouth seems even bigger than a normal Cat so quite how it can come out & go back inside again is a mystery. The sinking boat at the end is obviously a model although there are a few decent gory moments like bubbling skin, bubbling & exploding throat wounds, bitten ankles, burn faces, blood splatter & bitten off fingers. Although everyone is supposed to be hot & enjoying themselves there's obviously a bit of a breeze & it looks quite windy at times which destroys the Caribbean cruise feel. Ffairly ineptly made with the scientist leaving the door open of a top secret research laboratory just so the cat can escape or the scene when the truck crashes & changes make & model as well as the baffling sound effect of nothing but breaking glass as it rolls over & over down the hill.

Filmed in Los Angeles & Florida this probably had a very low budget hence the hand puppet monster & the single yacht setting. The acting is bad, there's a pretty good cast of character actor's here including Alex Cord, George Kennedy & Clu Gulager complete with comedy false teeth who are all fun to watch slumming it at the wrong end of their careers.

Uninvited is an amusing creature feature of little competence & while it has a few fun moments & a good cast of veterans it's still not very good. Not to be confused with the recent Hollywood supernatural horror flick The Uninvited (2009).
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