The Cat (2011 film)

Plot

So-yeon works as a groomer at a pet shop called Kitty N Puppy and suffers from claustrophobia due to childhood trauma. One day, a woman brings in her Persian cat, Bidanyi, for a lengthy checkup. The next day, the woman is found dead in an elevator, with Bidanyi unharmed; police cannot determine the cause of death. So-yeon's friend Kim Jun-seok, a police officer investigating the case, gives her Bidanyi to look after.

So-yeon begins having nightmares of a young girl with cat-like eyes and experiences hallucinations. Jun-seok and his colleagues review CCTV footage and conclude the woman died of a panic attack. So-yeon's friend Bo-hee, who recently adopted a cat, dies from a similar cause. That night, So-yeon cuts her finger while preparing food for Bidanyi; the cat licks the blood and becomes aggressive.

Terrified, So-yeon takes the cat to the dead woman's husband, who refuses it, explaining his wife claimed to be haunted by a strange little girl after buying Bidanyi. So-yeon leaves Bidanyi in a park. At an animal shelter, a staff member cremating a dead cat is pulled into the furnace by an unseen force and burns to death. Jun-seok and So-yeon go to the shelter and find dead cats and the charred remains.

They learn that stray cats had infested the boiler room of an apartment complex; the doors and windows were cemented shut, leaving the cats to suffocate. Two weeks later, workers removed the dead cats. So-yeon notes the similarity of the murder victims all dying in small spaces. She encounters a confused old woman looking for her granddaughter.

Jun-seok discovers the old woman reported her missing granddaughter nine months ago, but her son closed the case. So-yeon escorts the woman back to her apartment in the same complex where the stray cats lived. Jun-seok gives her a photo of the granddaughter, who looks exactly like the cat-eyed girl from So-yeon's hallucinations. So-yeon sees the old woman's son beating his mother; he is then killed by a horde of cats.