This is an engaging, interesting Lucio Fulci film that tends to get overlooked a little as it was made during the period where he was mostly making very gory horror films. It's a supernatural thriller made with more restraint on Fulcis' part than usual (not that there isn't any gore; there's still some nice gruesome bits to enjoy). It's full of familiar faces and is filmed on a variety of real English locations and sets.Set in England, it's "freely adapted" from the Edgar Allan Poe tale, as it tells of mysterious deaths occurring in a small country village populated by people such as snooping photographer Jill Trevers (Mimsy Farmer) and Professor Robert Miles (old pro Patrick Magee, in one of his final roles), a crotchety old man attempting to communicate with the dead. As Jill and the intrepid Inspector Gorley (David Warbeck, also of Fulcis' "The Beyond") work the clues, she can't help but notice the cat scratches left on more than one victim. Could a demonic little feline really be the culprit?Beautiful cinematography (by Sergio Salvati), extremely impressive camera-work (by Franco Bruni and Roberto Forges Davanzati), wonderful music by the prolific Pino Donaggio, and a pervasive, weird atmosphere are all assets of this well told, reasonably absorbing mystery. It's certainly fun to watch the cast in this thing. Warbeck is a delight as the cop, Mimsy is very sincere in her performance, Magee is excellent as always, and Fulci regular Al Cliver ("Zombi 2", "The Beyond"), sexy Dagmar Lassander ("The House by the Cemetery"), and the lovely Daniela Doria (recipient of a lot of abuse in Fulci films) round out the cast."The Black Cat" is entertaining stuff that finds its director in fine form, always keeping his audience on edge. He does go for the close-up (of human and feline eyes) an awful lot, but this doesn't distract too much from the various spooky goings on, including one absolutely harrowing scene of a house (and person) catching on fire.Recommended to Fulci fans.Eight out of 10.

***SPOILERS!*** The work of Edgar Allan Poe has been brought to screen on many occasions, most brilliantly by Roger Corman with seven films starring the great Vincent Price in the early sixties. Poe's story "The Black Cat", in particular, has been filmed on various occasions, most memorably probably by Sergio Martino, with his 1972 Giallo-masterpiece "Your Vice Is A Locked Room and only I Have The Key". While it has hardly anything to do with Edgar Allan Poe's story, "Gatto Nero" aka. "Black Cat" (1980) is a creepy and unusual film by Lucio Fulci, which is especially interesting for its uncanny Gothic atmosphere.A small English village has been struck by a series of bizarre murders. After the investigating Scotland Yard Inspector Gorley (David Warbeck) asks Jill (Mimsy Farmer), an American photographer, for her help it soon becomes clear that the black cat of the local psychic Professor Miles (Patrick Magee) was involved in all the crimes. Miles, who has psychic powers, is suspected of being responsible for the murders, but it seems as if his cat is also committed to killing her owner... In this rare case, a vengeful or evil character of a cat is not merely suggested, but the cat is actually a murderous key character of the film. The storyline may not always be 100% logical, but it is definitely intriguing, and the film maintains a creepy atmosphere from the beginning. The English village is a great setting, and the murderous black cat is actually a villain far more vicious and interesting than one might imagine. Partick Magee ("A Clockwork Orange", "Masque Of The Red Death",...) is great as always in his creepy role. Beautiful Mimsy Farmer, a regular female lead in Italian Horror films ("Four Flies On Grey Velvet", "Autopsy", "The Perfume Of The Lady In Black",...), fits in her role well, and is nice to look at as always (even though she keeps her clothes on this time). The cast also includes David Warbeck and Al Cliver, both of whom are regulars of Italian Horror/Exploitation productions. This is not nearly one of Fulci's goriest films, but there are still a bunch of well-done and pretty nasty gore scenes. The best aspects of the film are doubtlessly its stylish Gothic looks, genuinely creepy atmosphere and brilliant score as well as the incredibly sinister Patrick Magee and the premise of a murderous cat. Overall, "The Black Cat" is not one of the absolute must-sees by Fulci, but it is definitely an original, creepy and highly atmospheric flick that should not be missed by lovers of Italian Horror. Highly recommended!

A disturbing series of shocking fatal "accidents" occur in a sleepy small English village. Stalwart Scotland Yard Inspector Gorley (solid David Warbeck) and snoopy photographer Jill Trevers (the always charming and lovely Mimsy Farmer) investigate the rash of grisly deaths. The most probable suspect turns out to be haughty medium Professor Robert Miles (marvelously played by the great Patrick Magee), a sour outcast who's been trying to communicate with the recently deceased. Director Lucio Fulci, very loosely adapting Edgar Allen Poe's classic short story, ably creates his trademark potently brooding ooga-booga gloom-doom creepy Gothic atmosphere and stages the expected brutal murder set pieces with his customary lip-smacking sadistic flair. Sergio Salvati's sumptuously slick and sparkling cinematography makes exquisitely fluid use of smoothly gliding tracking shots. Pino Donaggio's beautifully chilling and eerie score further adds to the overall spooky tone. Fulci regular Al Cliver pops up as a friendly local police sergeant and poor Dagmar Lassander suffers a memorably fiery demise. The titular cunning, deadly and lethal feline qualifies as one genuinely scary and nasty piece of ferocious work. One of Fulci's most unjustly neglected and underrated fright features.

**SPOILERS** Creepy and atmospheric little horror flick, based on the writings of Edger Alan Poe, about a mysterious black cat who at first is being controlled by this whacked out professor as well as self-style medium Robert Miles to do his dirty work. Later, after Miles kills it the feline comes back from the dead to exact vengeance on him by having Miles brought to justice from what he did.As the movie starts, with the credits are rolling down the screen, we see this black cat distract a man, Foreman, behind the wheel of his car as he loses control and crashes killing himself. Miles who's the cat's master is later seen in his home playing tapes of sounds that he recorded in the local cemetery trying to contact Neil, for all we know Neil is his dead son, and we hear a number of strange and eerie sounds on the tape that sound like their from a language other then English, they sound like Greek to me.Young America photographer Jill Trevers, photographing the ancient Roman and British ruins, in and around town is at the cemetery and sees one of the crypts broken into and inside finds a recording device. That evening at the local bar in town Jill hears form a number of patrons about this nut and weirdo Prof. Miles who's known to try to communicate with the dead and hangs around at the cemetery trying to get in touch with them. Going to see Miles by using the excuse of giving him back his lost recording device Jill notices his "pet" back cat who's anything but cuddly to him but who violently attacks Miles in Jill's presence scratching him in his hand. Jill later starts to suspect that it was Miles black cat who was responsible for the death of one of the towns well known heavy drinkers, Furgerson while photographing his body for the police department after he's found dead, from a fall off a gangplank and on to a spiked fence. Jill noticed that Furgersn's hand was terribly scratched just like Miles was by his cat.We earlier saw a young couple, Stan & Maureen, lock themselves into a storehouse by the docks. As their making out the lights go out and they finds themselves locked in with the key to the door strangely missing. At first you have no idea to just what the couple have to do with the movie but later it turns out that Maureen's mother Mrs. Grayson once had an affair with Miles and broke it off, was this was Miles' way of getting even with her! How did Miles do it? Did Miles have his black cat sneak into the storehouse grab to key, thus locking them in, and then turn off the air-conditioner; causing the two lovebirds to suffocate to death?Miles eventually get's even with Mrs. Grayson, for turning down his advances, by having his cat cause her apartment house to be set on fire by knocking over a lit kerosene lamp into the fire place and then having her, totally engulfed in flames, jump to her death from the third floor window. Miles now confidently feeling that he achieved all his goals in getting even with those in town who rubbed him the wrong way gives the back cat a meal spiked with a strong sedative knocking it out. Taking the unconscious cat, stuffed in a sack, outside in the woods Miloes brutally hangs it. Miles should have known that the black cat had nine, not one, lives and that it would soon come back to get even with him for what he did to it with a wild and ferocious fury that even he,it's former master, couldn't even in his wildest dreams imagine or comprehend.Hard to find but very effective killer cat movie with Patrick McGee in his last movie role playing the crazed Professor Robert Miles who together with Mimsy Farmer, as the American photographer Jill Trevers, have some of the most extreme and mind-boggling close ups ever put on film. The black cat itself is also very scary as it moves towards and stalks it's victims and you forget for a while that it's really a common house cat.You look at the killer feline as if it were an instrument of death and terror conjure up by the Devil himself straight out of hell. The movie "Black Cat" has a very hypnotic feel to it, maybe because of it's many unusual and almost microscopic closeups, and the ending is anything but a letdown, like you would expect from a movie like it. Miles gets just what he had coming to him with the cat, as well as the local police, having him face ultimate justice for the crimes that he committed.