In this anthology film, a writer tries to convince his publisher that cats are secretly ruling the world.
Peter Cushing stars in the wraparound story (Montreal 1977) as an eccentric writer urgently trying to get his book published so the world knows the horrible truth about cats. He references three stories in which cats commit horrible crimes against humanity:
It feels like I've seen a hundred of these 1970's anthology movies and The Uncanny was one of the weaker efforts. The first two stories (London & Quebec) were flat out boring. The third story (Hollywood) was decent, but might've been the "weak" story in a stronger anthology movie.
I think the film's problem is it's neither scary nor funny enough. It's not scary at all, even though a lot of the movie plays it straight. Some humor does shine through in the third story, but it's low hanging fruit type of comedy. Considering how often the characters look frightened and the camera pans to an innocent looking cat, maybe this movie would be funnier in a group setting with the aid of some stimulants, but that's not my bag.
It's always good to see Peter Cushing in a horror film, but he doesn't get a lot of screen time considering he's in the wraparound story. Donald Pleasance stars in the Hollywood 1936 story and does a fine job. It's funny to think that only a year later, Peter Cushing turned down the role of Dr. Sam Loomis in John Carpenter's Halloween, while Donald Pleasance had to be convinced by his daughter to accept the role. Yet neither had any problem starring in THIS.
Peter Cushing stars in the wraparound story (Montreal 1977) as an eccentric writer urgently trying to get his book published so the world knows the horrible truth about cats. He references three stories in which cats commit horrible crimes against humanity:
- London 1912: An elderly woman changes her will to leave all of her possession to her cats, and her spoiled nephew tries to intervene.
- Quebec 1975: A young girl interested in witchcraft goes to live with relatives after a family tragedy, and she brings her cat along.
- Hollywood 1936: An actor's wife dies on set and he replaces her with her younger stand in, but his wife's cat has other ideas.
It feels like I've seen a hundred of these 1970's anthology movies and The Uncanny was one of the weaker efforts. The first two stories (London & Quebec) were flat out boring. The third story (Hollywood) was decent, but might've been the "weak" story in a stronger anthology movie.
I think the film's problem is it's neither scary nor funny enough. It's not scary at all, even though a lot of the movie plays it straight. Some humor does shine through in the third story, but it's low hanging fruit type of comedy. Considering how often the characters look frightened and the camera pans to an innocent looking cat, maybe this movie would be funnier in a group setting with the aid of some stimulants, but that's not my bag.
It's always good to see Peter Cushing in a horror film, but he doesn't get a lot of screen time considering he's in the wraparound story. Donald Pleasance stars in the Hollywood 1936 story and does a fine job. It's funny to think that only a year later, Peter Cushing turned down the role of Dr. Sam Loomis in John Carpenter's Halloween, while Donald Pleasance had to be convinced by his daughter to accept the role. Yet neither had any problem starring in THIS.