After the disappointment bestowed on me last week, RNGesus did me a real solid this time around, blessing me with an excuse to watch Cathy's Curse (1977) for the gazillionth time. In fact, it was thanks to this very same Mill Creek multi-pack that I saw it for the firstillionth time way back in 2009, and I wrote about it for this very site. The fact that a pull-quote from that review ended up on Severin's Blu-ray release of the film is one of THEE honors of my life, and I am not even kidding!
As always, "film," simultaneously feels like too strong a word for Cathy's Curse and a word that is not nearly strong enough for Cathy's Curse. This is because it transcends not only our mortal concept of what a "film" is, but it transcends our earthly laws entirely. I wrote about this phenomenon a couple of SHOCKtobers past, in the one where I talked about my favorite horror movie characters.
[...] Cathy's Curse is here to remind you that you know absolutely nothing and you never truly will. Like a member of The Flat Earth Society or a cinematic hardened rogue vigilante cop, Cathy's Curse feels stifled by "the law," be it the law of man or the law of nature. Cathy's Curse operates outside the system, beholden only to the rules of its own world, a world in which the logic of our world simply doesn't apply. Nothing has meaning. Meaning itself has no meaning. It laughs at your struggle as you try to figure it out, as you try to impose order on its chaos--for within this film there is only chaos.
Of course, Cathy's Curse isn't really film, it's more...something you experience. It's something that happens to you. It lingers, clouding your brain, clogging it with thoughts that may not be your own. Time will no longer have meaning. Meaning will no longer have meaning. Your new life will be consumed by Cathy's Curse, as mine was long ago, and your only choices are to adapt or to die. It's the Cathy's Curse curse!
I've written about Cathy's Curse a lot. And I've talked about it even more. If you've never seen beheld it before, please avail yourself of it ASAP. Then you will see why I write and talk about it so much. In fact, I've written and talked about it so much that I don't know what I can say about it now that I haven't already said. It rules! So you could read my original review, or you could read that SHOCKtober post, or you could listen to episode 127 of Gaylords of Darkness ("Waterside Fisting"), or honestly you could just run into me at the grocery store and I will tell you all about it.
That's because Cathy's Curse has and continues to enrich my life in countless ways. And I want it to do the same for you, because I care!
12 comments:
OK, already -- it's on TUBI and I've just started it up. ARE YOU HAPPY? ARE YOU HAPPY NOW? I will finally watch Cathy's Curse!
(omg the opening credits music is actually kind of.... cool?)
(omg this is actually kind of amazing)
(I have to hit send before I live-blog my reaction to the entire movie)
Cathy's Curse is one of several movies I first sought out because of this here blog and is one of several reasons I will always be indebted to you. There is a me before Cathy's Curse and a me after, profoundly changed for the better.
What a pair of comments! I am so happy for you, and happy that I could play even a small part of your journey. It truly is an extra-rare piece of...movie. Welcome to the fold :)
Cathy throws the cereal bowl across the kitchen
Nanny smiles, thinking this is perfectly charming.
“There. All cleaned up now.”
And leaves most of the broken bowl on the floor.
Also, who serves corn flakes in a casserole dish?
At the restaurant:
“Do you want to go now?”
“Yes.”
They leave without paying the check.
That neighborhood though - you can take a look around on Google Maps. Wow!
Thank you, Timmy. Just these little slices (of Heaven) made me actually laugh out loud. God this movie is so good. It truly exists in its own reality.
My go-tos, the ones that have that certain “something” forcing me to watch them over and over, will always be “The Alien Factor” (1978 - Don Dohler) and “Dracula vs Frankenstein” (1971 - Al Adamson). So earnestly bad and unhinged that you can’t help but love ‘em. And most of all, endlessly entertaining. Not sure if you’ve seen them, but you should!
Am I the only person who sings the title of this movie to the tune of The Everly Brothers' hit "Cathy's Clown"?
@Timmy - I haven't seen either of those, but they are added to the list!
And @James - if you were the only one, you aren't anymore, thanks for putting that in my head :D
I love so much that you're on the Cathy's Curse bluray. If we're ever in the same place at the same time again I will 100% have YOU sign my copy. GOLD!!!
I re-watched The Eternal Daughter the other day and wondered if you'd seen it? I love it (twice the Tilda!) and think it nails the sadness aspect of ghost stories that you always talk about Japanese and South Korean ghosts having, so it made me wonder if you'd been able to see it?
I've never seen it!! But I just rented it and I'm gonna make the leap from dreams to reality. I can't wait. Thank you, I've been itchin' to watch something new lately.
And I'm itchin' for other reasons but that's none of your business!
And now Severin announces a 4K with light up LED eyes for Cathy on the cover!
https://severinfilms.com/collections/pre-order/products/cathys-curse-limited-edition-led-light-up-slipcase-blu-ray-4k-uhd
Right now it is cheap, so I may buy just for the vision of myself finding my way around the dark in a power outage with a blu-ray.
Literally just finished watching this for the first time, and although it was almost certainly not intentional, Cathy’s Curse really did project the- aura? Style? Sensibility? (I’m actually struggling for the right term, here) of some kind of absurdist art piece; it actually did seem to attain the *feel* of a post-Exorcist demonic possession film filtered through an absurdist/magical realist creative lens. As I already said, almost certainly not intentional, but fascinating just the same. The characters just accept arbitrary behavior and turns of mood from one another with no regard to the standards of familiar social mores or even the basic principles of cause and effect; the supernatural is apparently regarded as a quotidian affair in-universe (accept when it’s not, which seems to be dependent on the moon phase or something), and oh my god, that weird old man with his chronic drinking and doll-burning obsession! The whole experience was like Yorgos Lanthimos meets John Waters…
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