Cat’s Eye (1985)

Episode 459, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast

Todd: Hello and welcome to another episode of Two Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Todd.

Craig: And I’m Craig.

Todd: This week we decided to dip back into anthology territory. We haven’t done a good anthology in a while, I think since we did the month of anthologies a while back. Right. 

Craig: I don’t know. But when you suggested this movie ISI would’ve put a hundred dollars down that we had already done it.

Oh, yeah. I, I thought for sure we had already done it. 

Todd: I had thought about it. I, I’m surprised we haven’t, it, it comes to my mind every time we talk about doing anthologies. ’cause this is an anthology. I remember very distinctly watching as a young kid. And, uh, what we’re talking about is Kat’s Eye from 1985 with a screenplay written by Stephen King.

It’s an anthology of three stories. The first two stories are based on actual stories from his night shift collection, which by the way. I wore out. I loved that book. I had a paperback of that. Oh, it’s so good. And I, I probably read every story in there three or four times. I loved it. Yeah. And a and a, a third original one, uh, that was written specifically for this movie, and specifically I believe, to feature Drew Barrymore, so, mm-hmm.

Yeah, I had great memories from watching this. It was fun to watch it again because all these things kind of came back to me. They made deep impressions on me as a kid, you know, just imagery here and, and thematic material there. But I think it was Stephen King’s first PG 13 rated movie, and so, mm-hmm. I guess it makes sense.

I could have watched as a kid, there’s nothing in here that’s really so. Terrible that I shouldn’t have seen. I think I was pretty young. 

Craig: No. Yeah. How about you? Yeah, it’s pretty tame me. I don’t remember. I mean, I think I must have seen this when I was a kid, but, and I’ll probably repeat this several times throughout the episode.

I remember the third story so well. Yeah. And the other two stories. Not so much. I mean, when I, when I was looking at it and when I was looking it up and researching it and when I started watching it and stuff, I’m like, oh yes, I remember these and I remember exactly what happens. Mm. But they’re not particularly memorable to me.

Right. Like they’re fine, whatever. But the third one, so memorable, I just absolutely loved when I was a kid and I would get so excited I, this isn’t one that we had on VHS, so if I would happen to catch it on. Cable or whatever. I would be so excited. ’cause I loved it. I loved the one so much. 

Todd: I think that’s third one’s the best.

They really kind of, I can’t say they really ramp up. I can just say that the third one’s the best for me. 

Craig: It’s the best for the movie. I don’t remember reading the first story. I don’t think. No, I did. I read them both. Quitters Inc. And The Ledge. I read them both several times ’cause they were in that. I feel like both of those, they’re fine and the actors in them are good in this and we’ll of course get more specific about that in a second.

They’re fine. I just felt like those stories were better on the page, like Right. They were, I don’t know. For some reason they were more suspenseful and, and because there’s not a lot going on. Yeah. You know, it’s not a lot to see and look at. Yeah. I liked them better on the page. They’re fine here. 

Todd: The movie, meh.

The movie has to do a lot to stretch out visuals. You know, I especially think of Quitters Inc. Because there’s that whole sequence where he’s kind of going crazy where he is seeing cigarette stuff everywhere and he’s kind of having these visions at this party and like that I don’t think really was. On the page.

I think that that was almost fabricated specifically to give us something visual to see for the movie. Yeah. This is directed by Louis Teague. Uh, Louis Teague had just directed Cujo a couple years before this. Mm-hmm. And then this same year that Cat’s Eye came out, also the jewel of the Nile. Did you ever watch that?

God, we’d love that as kids. I 

Craig: loved that movie when I was a kid, and it’s not easy to find these days. Well, I, I haven’t, I haven’t given in and paid for it yet, so I haven’t seen it in a long time. But yeah, we loved it. I loved it when I was a kid too. 

Todd: We watched that all the time and, and that song, that Billy Ocean song when the Go and Gets Tough.

Yeah, it’s a great song. God, we sang that all the time, yo, but. If you go back and watch it. Seriously, not good Romance. Romancing the stone still holds up. You know the one before it, but Jewel, the Nile? No, not good. And we did another one. So we did Cujo also by this director. We did alligator too. He directed Alligator in 1980.

Craig: Oh, I liked alligator. That was a lot of fun. Yeah. 

Todd: So great director, and then Stephen King wrote the entire screenplay for this. This might be one of his better written by Stephen King movies. I would say. 

Craig: It’s good. I like it. Mm-hmm. 

Todd: It’s tons of stars in here. Oh my god. Yeah. Big. Everyone’s a star. And Alan Sylvestri did the music for it.

And it’s all kind of Cynthia and I actually wasn’t blown away by the music, to be honest, but Alan Sylvestri himself is a very distinguished, he’s a, I mean, back to the future he Back to the 

Craig: future. Yeah. Oh, oh God. The 

Todd: witches like a million things, like every movie you’ve ever loved. Pretty much from this era on.

He did the music for, there’s so many, so many things. 

Craig: Yeah. I didn’t, I didn’t love the synth score either, but I thought th