Eye of the Cat

Lore & Background

The climax involves a series of double-crosses. Luke and Kassia reveal they have teamed up to kill both Danny and Wylie, leaving Luke as the sole heir. While Luke shuts off Danny's oxygen, Kassia is attacked by the cats after spilling meat on herself. She climbs a ladder in the greenhouse, but a cat causes her to fall to her death. Luke discovers Danny is still alive—Wylie had moved her to the greenhouse for safekeeping. Wylie then remains in her wheelchair, leaving Danny and Luke in shock, with the black cat watching from a ledge.

Reader's Guide

Eye of the Cat received mixed to negative reviews from critics upon release. Howard Thompson of The New York Times called the plot 'an overstated, reworked and all too familiar one' and found the climax 'as hokey as it is horrible.' Variety noted that plot developments were 'telegraphed from the beginning' and that the script 'was written for scare value with little attention paid to gaps in logic,' though director David Lowell Rich was commended for getting actors 'to speak bad lines with straight faces.' Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called the film 'so unintentionally hilarious that one would be tempted to recommend it were not the price of theater admissions so high these days.' Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called it 'transparently clever but fundamentally trite.' The Monthly Film Bulletin described it as 'amiably outlandish' and 'not so much a good film as an extravagantly enjoyable one.' The film is notable for being written by Joseph Stefano, who wrote the screenplay for Psycho and co-created The Outer Limits.

Did You Know?

• The film's protagonist Luke has an intense fear of cats due to one attacking him when he was a child.
• In the climax, a black cat that appears to be the same one electrocuted earlier hisses at Kassia and thwarts her attempt to shut off Danny's oxygen.
• Gary Arnold of The Washington Post suggested the film would make more sense if the murderers succeeded and then found the cats returning home.