User reviews

The Uncanny (1977, Dir. Denis Heroux)

Wilbur Gray visits Frank Richards so he can get his book published. This book Gray has written are about cats. Cats watching everyone and controlling everything. He mentions the stories in the book are all true, and gives three examples. The first involves the murder of a cat-loving old woman who gives her entire fortune in her will to her cats. Not everyone is happy about the wills, but would have to get past the cats to get the the will. The second story is a tale of black magic between two girls and the third story is a tale of murderous revenge...by a cat.

How many horror movies do you get where cats are the murder suspect? Not many. That's why this movie could come off being simply a bit silly. It isn't very scary, with not many jumps (most of the jumps rely on cats paws appearing). Plus, it seems more comedic than frighting. But, it is still very fun to watch. There's not many films you see like this, and although it won't win any positive awards, i found it very entertaining to watch.

"Wellington? Wellington? Where are you Wellington?" - Lucy (Katrina Holden)

The horror anthology has fallen out of favour in the last few decades which is something of a shame, they could be wildly entertaining and some horror concepts (especially those which lack budget which is pretty clearly the case here) work better as short vignettes rather than full length features. They also star some great character actors who obviously come in for a days work, here we have the excellent Peter Cushing, Donald Pleasance, John Vernon and Ray Milland. It's ironic that after making this Cushing and Pleasance both went on to mega success with Star Wars and Halloween. What I don't get is why people reviewing this say that the concept is that cats are 'evil'? In every story all they try to do is either protect or avenge the wrongs suffered by their beloved human keepers? (I almost used the word 'masters' but this film establishes what we all suspected, it's actually the other way around). Plus the world secretly run by cats seems to be a pretty good place, I mean what are they going to force us all to do, give them extra helpings of cream? All dogs to be kept on leads? More belly rubs?

Not a film for ailurophobics (those afraid of cats) - this film might add to their fears because of the nature of the film. The film is about cats, cats that get revenge.

The story of Miss Malkin is quite good. BUT what I don't know is how long she was dead and Janet was hiding in the house but she was hungry to spread cat food on her bread - that tells me she must have been there for two or three days hiding. Not only was Janet hungry - so were those vengeful cats.

The orphan Lucy my favorite of the trilogy. I cannot blame Lucy for what she did to her cousin Angela. I did not like Angela at all nor did I like Mrs. Blake (Angela's mother and Lucy's aunt). And Wellington the cat was not pleased with them either.

The last tale of Valentine De'ath is quite a good comedy-horror. I love the reference to Poe in this one - that pendulum! There are quite a few cat puns too that befit the story. The cat will have your tongue in the end.

Now the parts with Peter Cushing and Ray Milland are actually the best part of the film because it's interesting what happens with the two men, the evidence and the book.

Worth watching if you like horror, cats and a good starring cast. I love those cats!

7.5/10

THE UNCANNY is another horror anthology film from Amicus studios. In the wraparound story, Wilbur (Peter Cushing) is a man with a distinct fear of cats. The three tales he tells to his friend Frank (Ray Milland) illustrate the grounds for his terror.

In LONDON 1912- The aged Miss Malkin (Joan Greenwood) decides to leave her fortune to her large number of cats. Of course, her greedy nephew and the unscrupulous maid (Simon Williams and Susan Penhaligon) have other ideas, leading to skullduggery, death, and ferocious feline intervention! This one has a nice, EC comics-style ending!

In QUEBEC PROVINCE 1975- Young Lucy (Katrina Holden Bronson) and her cat, Wellington, move in with her aunt (Alexandra Stewart) after the passing of her parents. Lucy's insufferably bratty cousin, Angela (Chloe Franks) does her best to make life miserable, not knowing that there's far more to Lucy -and Wellington!- than she or her oblivious parents could imagine. For lovers of occult creepiness and comeuppance!

In HOLLYWOOD 1936- When horror movie actor, Valentine De'ath (Donald Pleasence) loses his wife and latest co-star, Madeleine (Catherine Begin) in a tragic "accident", he suggests her stand-in, Edina Hamilton (Samantha Eggar) for the part. Of course, all is not as it appears to be, and Valentine and Edina are in for a very rude awakening, delivered by Madeleine's faithful, highly intelligent kitty. Pleasence and Eggar have a blast hamming it up for this segment! Co-stars John Vernon.

The wraparound concludes, proving all too late that Wilbur has good reason to be afraid. This is quite good, and arguably the best killer cat movie ever made!...

I found this very interesting and Peter Cushing is great in this role. Some of it was better than other but it really paid out once you got the hang of the theme about the cats and the whole story revolving around that. Cats are indeed very strange beings. I totally agree with the whole premise and psychology of the thing. Very good movie indeed. Rather exciting actually. I was amazed at some of the special effects also which are quite good and the acting is credible. All thins being equal, I really liked this movie and as a fantasy fan I found it to be a good experience. Clearly the storytelling in this movie is very good and, say, in the tradition of The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery and other great tales of short fantasy.

In 1977, in Montreal, the scared writer Wilbur Gray (Peter Cushing) visits his publisher Frank Richards (Ray Milland) to disclose his new book about the evilness of cats. Wilbur tells that the felines are supernatural creatures, and that there is a saying in which the cat would be the devil in disguise. Wilbur tells three tales to illustrate his thoughts.

In 1912, in London, Miss Malkin (Joan Greenwood) is a wealthy woman that rewrites her will leaving her fortune to her cats rather than to her nephew Michael (Simon Williams). Her maid Janet (Susan Penhaligon), also mistress of Michael, steals one copy of the will from the lawyer's briefcase and tries to destroy the original copy which is kept in the safe. When Miss Malkin sees her attempt, Janet kills her and the cats revenge Miss Malkin.

In 1975, in the Province of Quebec, the orphan Lucy (Katrina Holden) comes to live with her aunt Mrs. Blake (Alexandra Stewart), her husband and her cuisine Angela (Chloe Frank) after the death of her parents in a plane crash. Lucy brings her only friend, the cat Wellington, but her mean cuisine forces her parents to get rid off Wellington. Lucy uses the witchcraft book of her mother to revenge Wellington.

In 1936, in Hollywood, the actor Valentine Death (Donald Pleasence) replaces the blade of a fake pendulum to kill his wife and also actress and give a chance to his young mistress and aspirant actress. The cat of his wife revenges her.

In spite of having great names, such as Ray Milland, Peter Cushing, Samantha Eggar and Donald Pleasence among others, the lead story of the afraid writer and his publisher is very weak and silly. With regard to the three tales, the first one is too long; the second one is far the best; and the last one is only reasonable. The soundtrack is very repetitive, monotonous and boring. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "A Maldição dos Gatos" ("The Curse of the Cats")

No spoilers.

Well. Hmm. "The Uncanny" is another one of Milton "Amicus" Subotsky's anthology horrors, with a premise that at least has some form of interest and introduction (unlike, say, "Vault of Horror", in which Terry-Thomas prompts random people stuck in a lift with him to talk about their dreams - "Why don't you tell us about it?"). Basically, a rather nervous Peter Cushing visits a publisher to talk about his latest book proposal which will apparently deliver a very important message to us all - "Cats have been exploiting human beings for centuries!" Yes, Cushing believes that cats are going to take over and kill us all. No, really.

"The Uncanny" isn't a bad film per-se, it's just a bit lacking somehow. Maybe it's the fact that it only has three stories (the other Amicus ones tend to have four or five) and so each little tale seems far more drawn out than it really needs to be. It's also very varied in tone, and doesn't seem to completely know what it's really doing. Once it's finished you don't really sit back and think "That was rather good," nor "That was bloody dire." You just realise that 85 minutes of your life has gone by (or 105 minutes if you had a rather nice and loving phone call part way through - hurrah! But enough about my life...).

The first story concerns Joan Greenwood deciding to leave all the money in her will to her many cats rather than her nephew. Fortunately for him, Greenwood's maid also happens to be his girlfriend, and she's more than willing to get into her mistress's safe and destroy the copy of the will. However, when she's discovered, she has to do something rather unpleasant (the most disturbing part of the film for me, and the cats had nothing to do with it) and then faces the consequences via a long (a very, *very* long) spot of kitty revenge. Though it's horrendously padded (complete with a flashback to, bizarrely, an alternative take of an earlier scene), it does at least make the cats rather terrifying, which is something. There are actually quite a few repulsive moments in it, and there's far more horror in this segment alone than during the whole of, for instance, "Vampire Circus."

Cushing's publisher seems unimpressed however and decides to put his cat out instead. Cushing regales him with another story, furtively scratching around in his big folder of official looking documents. "Ah yes, Lucy..."

Second story has very little horror in it aside from some rather ghastly accents that appear to contain traces of RP English, Canadian and various bits of American. There's also a little snot of a girl who finds it amusing to taunt her cousin about the fact that her parents died in a plane crash (chases her with a toy plane, "Your don't have any parents! You don't have anybody! Ha ha ha!" - you know the type). Unfortunately for the spiteful little cow, her placid looking cousin has more to her than meets the eye. The only thing remarkable about this segment is the staggering ineptness of her aunt and uncle of looking after her, which includes burning almost all of her possessions (including a photograph of her with her mother)! Good grief! No wonder the poor little soul has issues. Oh, and there is a cat in it, but it doesn't do a lot, and seems pretty amiable really.

Third story stars Donald Pleasence as a creepy little git, and is introduced by Cushing handing his publisher a stock photo from "You Only Live Twice" (Pleasence as Blofeld holding his fluffy white cat), which will probably amuse somebody. Cushing's now gone into nervous overdrive, wringing his hands and exclaiming "It was the cat that did it!" A story set in 1930s Hollywood in which real devices of medieval torture are used on the actors (with the hilarious, yet seriously-delivered, "explanation" from a detective that goes "Well sir, there seems to have been a little mix up in your props department..."), it's all rather dull with yet more dodgy accents and, at one point, some misplaced slapstick and comedy music. Pleasence's character (who likes to swap puns before sex) goes to great lengths to attempt to kill his recently-deceased wife's cat (having flushed its kittens down the toilet - bastard), which, in return, goes to great lengths to make things difficult for him. "What's wrong? Cat got your tongue? Ha ha ha... oh."

And after all this, what have we learnt? Well, you'll have to watch it and find out. Or better yet, don't bother and watch something actually halfway decent. Not even fun in a sort of "So bad it's good," way, "The Uncanny" is a dull, listless and at times thoroughly unpleasant little film that is best avoided - and Cushing's only in it for about 10 minutes, so it's not even worth watching for him. Best avoided, really.

In this horror anthology, a writer (Peter Cushing) attempts to prove to his sceptical publisher that cats are really menacing supernatural beings by relating three stories of feline terror.

This horror anthology had the potential to be great, yet through overly prolonged storytelling and less than adequate acting in most places it is unfortunately condemned to resting in the mid ranks of the genre. Cushing, as usual, was delightful in his role as the seemingly paranoid writer Wilbur Gray, but his rather short screen time meant that the gauntlet would fall to the rest of the cast who, with the exception of a select few performers which most notably included Donald Pleasance, were never able to perform to the standards required to make the lengthy segments enjoyable. While one can obviously see that the intention from director Denis Héroux (his final directorial effort) and writer Michel Parry (who went on to co-write the underrated sci-fi/horror fest ‘Xtro') was to create a suspenseful and unnerving film, the recurrent sequences which border on non-eventful lead the viewer to become bored, thus lessening the impact of the movie. That is not to be taken as a reproachful statement as the film is far from entirely lamentable; it's more of a regrettable observation when one considers what might have been.

The first segment in this tale of mental moggies concentrates on the servant of a wealthy elderly woman. After her employer Miss Malkin (Joan Greenwood) changes her will in favour of her cats, servant Janet (Susan Penhaligon) is convinced by her boyfriend and employer's nephew, Michael (Simon Williams), to steal the copy of the new will and testament from the safe of Miss Malkin and destroy it in order for his Aunt's money to be bequeathed to him. As expected, the theft of the will is bungled and Janet faces a revenge attack from Miss Malkin's feline friends. In my opinion, this segment is by far the most enjoyable of the three. Although it suffers from some of the problems that I have already mentioned, the sporadic nature of such occurrences doesn't have the negative impact that they would have throughout the rest of the film. There is a wonderful blend of suspenseful horror and quite graphic scenes of violence which culminate to make this segment enduring to the viewer. Easily the most horrific and by far the most entertaining, this segment would receive 8/10 from me.

The following segment, set in Canada, tells the story of young Lucy (Katrina Holden, who would never work in film again) who goes to live with relatives after the death of her parents. Her only friend, a black cat named Wellington, is the subject of unwanted attention and maltreatment from the jealous Angela (Chloe Frank, who previously appeared in the far superior horror anthology ‘The House that Dripped Blood'). As Angela's malice towards Lucy and her cat grows, Angela becomes more determined to have the cat removed from the household. The poorest of the three main segments is an unwelcome change in pace for the film. Virtually the entire segment seems incongruous to the rest of the film, and while some additions to the story seem to fit the theme when considered at face value, the ludicrous nature of the tale is little but damaging to the movie. Asinine storytelling accompanied by imprudent special effects and atrocious acting results in this segment getting a lowly 3/10 from me. The only true saving grace about this segment is that one really does come to despise Angela as was so obviously the intention.

The final segment stars Donald Pleasance as a wife-murdering, adulterous Hollywood actor who becomes the target of retribution by his deceased wife's cat. Not great, but this segment helps to rebuild the film after its near demolition due to the previous segment. Once again, the movie falters in the already mentioned areas, but Donald Pleasance's wonderful, if hammy performance is almost capable of carrying the segment off alone. The length of the segment is the most damaging to this particular part of the film, but overall there is enough to keep the viewer entertained to at least some degree. There is almost a return to the more graphic horror that can be seen in the first segment, but generally the horror is induced through some well executed suspense building techniques which occasionally resulted in a gruesome climax. This segment may not be up to the standard of the first, but it certainly adds the credibility back to the film and is enjoyable enough. This segment would get 7/10 from me.

The closing scenes featuring Peter Cushing end the film well with a couple of truly haunting images. While no image could match the haunting aura of the final scenes of ‘The Wicker Man' (1973) or ‘The Omen' (1976) (the two films that I believe to have the most distressing final image), the final scene that features Cushing is remarkably quite unsettling, especially when you consider the rather barmy subject matter. ‘The Uncanny' is far from a great movie, but it has enough redeeming features to make the film enjoyable for one watch. Unfortunately, it is quite hard to take the film seriously, especially when taking the absurd second segment into consideration. It is hard to forget the detrimental effect that the second segment had on the film and thus my rating has been lowered to some extent. My rating for ‘The Uncanny' - 6½/10.

Wilbur Gray is attempting to sell his book to a Publisher, the subject is cats, he tells three stories, each involving intelligent, vengeful and murderous cats.

You have the main narrative, and three stories, I liked the first one, I didn't care for the others. The first which sees a Man, and his lover kill his Aunt, her employer, after she decides to change her will in favour of her cats. Joan Greenwood was pretty good as Miss Malkin, the cantankerous old woman. This story did have some horror and tension, despite the poor production values. I'm afraid the film nosedives after this segment, it hardly feels like the same film.

It's not the best, hard to believe it's a Rank film, it looks more like an Amicus production, however there is a link, 5/10.

Here is a horror film aimed at the demographic of cat lovers. Its an old school British horror anthology movie, where every tale involves...you've guessed it...cats! The wraparound story has Peter Cushing try to pitch his book to a publisher - a non-fiction work which details numerous examples of cats being responsible for human deaths through the ages, with the overall conclusion that cats are the manifestation of evil itself. Naturally, the stories from Peter's book make up the narrative here. But Pete seems to have overlooked a glaring detail somehow - in every tale the pussy cats only take vengeance on humans who have seriously wronged them and other sympathetic cat friendly folks, so with that in mind, they're hardly the personification of evil for evil's sake. You may think I'm splitting cat hairs with this one but at the end of the day this is sort of the whole point of the entire story and Pete clearly hasn't even done his basic research. So, you'll be cheering on the felines all the way in this one! There's stories involving murderous thieves, bullies and wife killers, all of whom meet their thoroughly deserved comeuppance by way of our furry friends. It's good fun in that 70's horror anthology sort of way, meaning that even if the material is not necessarily stellar, the format ensures it is never boring and it has the sort of reliable ensemble cast typical of these sort of things.

"The Uncanny" is an anthology of tales revolving around cats and how cats are secretly controlling the lives of men. In one, cats fight a servant for a wealthy woman's money. In another, a cat named Wellington assists a young witch (Katrina Holden) in killing her cousin. And in a third, an actor (Donald Pleasance) is threatened by a cat after he kills the cat's kittens by flushing them down the toilet. All this, plus a wraparound featuring Peter Cushing.

Many people rate this film low because of its campiness and the less-than-usual acting from Cushing (who plays a crackpot writer named Wilbur Gray). And I freely admit the stories aren't all that amazing, particularly the second with Lucy the witch and Wellington the cat. But there's a feel to this film that makes it enjoyable nonetheless, a guilty pleasure that you would watch with your friends late at night while your parents are in another room.

And sure, the blood is unrealistic, the gore is cleverly shown too quickly to notice (cats have a tendency to devour human flesh in this film, just like in real life). There's no nudity or swearing, yet this is not a children's movie. It falls into a category where you don't know how to feel about it. These three shorts could each have been average episodes of "Tales From the Crypt" or a similar series of TV-friendly horror tales.

Someone needs to tell me the significance of the comic books. In the second installment, a girl is reading "The Flash" and in the third, there is another comic being read (which is odd for a tale set in 1936, I imagine). I thought with "The Flash", this might mean the picture was made by Warner Brothers and this was a subtle advertisement, but their fingers don't dig into the pie of "The Uncanny". (Why it's called "The Uncanny" I have no idea... there are dozens of great cat titles that would have been better.) Why cast Cushing or Pleasance in a subpar film? I suppose because you can. And they did what they could with what was given to them (many critics pan Pleasance in this picture but I thoroughly enjoyed his role as "Valentine De'ath" and I thought it was cute when his mistress exclaimed, "Oh VD, I love you!"). If you can rent this film, rent it. I'm not sure if it's worth owning (although if you're a horror collector, you'll want this one).

Although quite amusing in parts due to the bad special effects this film was still very entertaining (in a good way) and I actually enjoyed the second story the most.

Was a shame that Peter Cushing didn't have larger role.

Interesting to see themes of witchcraft/magic being brought into a film about evil cats, although the blood did look very fake, as did the scene with the older girl fighting the cat.

Definately a good film for cat lovers! Why they never made an The Uncanny 2 is a mystery...

Rating: 8/10.

An anthology containing three tales used by a writer (played by Peter Cushing) in an attempt to warn people that cats are the real rulers of the world. The first story involves a woman who, after suffocating to death her tyrannical employer, is trapped in the house by the employer's vengeful army of cats. The second story is based around the daughter of a witch who comes to live with an adopted family, complete with her late mother's black cat. The third story involves a cat exacting revenge upon its sadistic owner. Though some of the special effects leave something to be desired, the first two stories are well-written and entertaining. The third tale is only okay, but overall the anthology is well worth seeing.

I had never heard of this British/Canadian horror flick before I saw it and wonder if it was due to how poorly it did at the box office back in 1977 and never really finding an audience after that. I really did enjoy the film. I enjoyed the twists and humour contained in the film. But, I am a cat lover. Never really ever found cats scary or unnerving, but always found them interesting. So, right from the top I would say my 7/10 rating goes to those who are cat lovers or are scared of felines. If you are not in either group I would suggest staying away from this film, because you may find more faults with the film than I did.

The story is about an author named Wilbur (Peter Cushing in really a great role) who visits a publisher named Frank Richards (Ray Milland) to see if his stories about cats can be published. Richards is soon to be unbelieving towards his horror themed tales, but Wilbur keeps spinning his tales. It really was wonderful for me to see Peter Cushing so nervous all the time.

The first story is about a dotty old rich lady (Joan Greenwood) who owns a thousands cats and her will. The second story involves a young girl named Lucy whose parents have just died. She moves in with her aunt and uncle. Not to mention her horrible cousin. Lucy has brought her best friend Wellington her cat. The third and final story is about an actor with a wonderful name in Valentine De'ath (Donald Pleasance in a nice hammy performance) whose wife dies on set only to be replaced by a younger woman named Edina (Samantha Eggar) who Valentine's got the hots for. They in turn discover the power of his dead wife's cat. Also stars John Vernon. The third story seems to be more tongue in cheek than the previous two.

Now it is the second story that may make or break this film for you. It may have the weakest acting of the four (when you include Cushing and Milland's bit). Though it really does have characters you root for or cheer against, but it is the effects that may be a ringing bell for some. The effects in a word are bad. Perhaps if that is the best effects they could come up with perhaps they needed to rewrite the story to not include those effects. I felt like I was watching an early 1960s Dr. Who episode when sometimes the effects did not have much to be desired. But, I did not conclude though that the film was not worth my time after investing close to an hour at that point. But, let this sit as a warning for some that the effects in this movie are the pits.

A rather silly anthology movie featuring three macabre tales about malevolent cats, The Uncanny is a lacklustre affair despite a solid cast (which includes genre greats Ray Milland, Peter Cushing and Donald Pleasance).

Cushing plays Wilbur Gray, an eccentric author who attempts to convince his sceptical publisher (Milland) that his latest book is not as unbelievable as it sounds. Gray is convinced that cats are not as docile as they seem and that, in fact, they are in control of us. He illustrates his point by telling three bizarre stories from his latest work.

In the first tale, a young woman faces an army of murderous moggies after she bumps off their elderly owner. Story two sees a young girl use witchcraft to get revenge on a spiteful cousin (who has been making life difficult for her and her feline friend, Wellington). And the final tale sees an actor hunted by a killer cat after he murders his wife in order to be with a younger woman.

The movie begins promisingly enough with the first tale managing to be both suspenseful and quite bloody. However, the film ultimately disappoints, with the other stories failing either due to their laughable premises or (in the case of the third) the semi-comedic approach taken in its telling.

The usually reliable Cushing and Pleasance give rather poor performances: Cushing's character is a jittery crackpot and only serves to annoy, whilst Pleasance proves that comedy is not his forté.

I hate to be a sourpuss and make catty remarks, but The Uncanny is definitely NOT the cat's whiskers.

As a movie The Uncanny smells like week old tuna. Some good actors, obviously not at their best. I'm sure i must have seen worse films in my life, but i just can't recall their titles at present. But if taken as a documentary on the true nature of cats, then it is a lot more successful. Don't turn your backs on them, people! They'll kill you! I rate this one 3 hair balls out of 10.

This Canadian/British production imitates the Amicus anthology formula – emerging to be lesser than most of their films that I've seen, though not too bad in itself (it has a great title and a splendid cast, but the premise is rather silly).

Peter Cushing and Ray Milland appear in the linking story as an author and his proposed publisher respectively; the former suffers from a phobia of cats and has accumulated a series of cases which demonstrates the evil nature of felines and their inherent hatred of mankind. Unluckily for Cushing, Milland is fond of cats – but he's willing to hear him out and, so, three stories are played out for our consideration.

The first has a period setting: wealthy old recluse Joan Greenwood has decided to alter her will and leave her fortune to the assortment of feline pets in her house rather than to her no-good nephew. Unbeknownst to her, the latter's girlfriend (played by Susan Penhaligon) has taken a position as Greenwood's maid – overhearing the conversation between her mistress and the family solicitor, she conspires with the young man to steal the new will. The cats, however, will have none of that and, left alone in the house with them (the maid having killed the old lady in the meantime), Penhaligon suffers one attack after another by the army of felines. Eventually worried, after having heard nothing from his girl, the nephew goes to the solicitor who – accompanied by the police – force their way into the house, only to be met with a most grisly scene!

The second episode turns out to be easily the least of the lot, and is overlong into the bargain: an orphaned girl goes to live with her aunt's family, incurring the wrath of older cousin Chloe Franks because she has brought along a black cat (the former was never allowed to have a pet, since mother Alexandra Stewart is a stickler for tidiness). So begins Franks' torment of the girl and her feline companion, little imagining that her cousin's mother's interest in the occult wasn't merely superficial and that the daughter is herself a practiced exponent. The cat reappears after an attempt to get rid of it and, together, they exact a terrible revenge – inspired by THE DEVIL-DOLL (1936) or, perhaps, DR. CYCLOPS (1940) – on Franks.

The final episode is interesting and amusing, though rather undone by its heavy-handed comedic approach and the rampant hamminess of Donald Pleasence and Samantha Eggar's performances (reunited 15 years after DR. CRIPPEN [1962]). He's a Shakespearean film actor, she's his lover – together they plot the 'accidental' death of his wife, the co-star of his current vehicle; naturally, he suggests Eggar replace her on screen as well (except she's a terrible actress – much to the consternation of producer John Vernon). The cat owned by wife no. 1 knows what's going on, and somehow follows the two on the set – one night, when Eggar and Pleasence stay behind to rehearse a torture scene involving the former held in the grip of an iron maiden, the feline makes sure that she gets a taste of it (after which it turns on Pleasence himself)!

The three stories over, Cushing leaves Milland's house with the promise that he'll sleep over the idea of publishing his work; however, his cat has other plans and duly hypnotizes its master into burning the manuscript! Out on the streets, Cushing himself falls foul of a bunch of stray cats who attack him without any provocation (a twist ending which, however, is both repetitive – having already seen the cats 'working' on Susan Penhaligon's character from the first episode – and unwarranted, since the book-into-the-fire image would have provided a more fitting closure)!

The DivX copy I watched was culled from the initial R2 DVD release of the film from Carlton (as part of a dubiously-titled "Classic Horror Collection", (which also included HANDS OF THE RIPPER [1971] and MONSTER aka I DON'T WANT TO BE BORN [1975]) rather than the more recent re-issue from Network.

Horror anthology featuring three grisly tales and a wrap-around story starring Peter Cushing as a car fearing author and Ray Milland as a sceptical publisher. There are plenty of negative reviews here but personally I really enjoyed it. A British/Canadian production it has the look and sound of those wonderful Amicus movies that make perfect late night viewing. In addition to those already mentioned the film boasts a fine cast, including horror legend Donald Pleasence, who hams it up in the third part. Cats are very intelligent creatures, obviously this film does stretch the imagination but this is fantasy and should be treated as such. One thing is for sure - sufferers of Ailurophobia best avoid this one!

Horror omnibus films were more often the output of Amicus studios, but some other production companies produced them as well; and this Canadian/English production is not one of the best of them. Not that it's a particularly bad example, but none of the stories are particularly great. The wraparound story concerns a paranoid writer, played by the great Peter Cushing, who has come to believe that cats are the devil in disguise and secretly rule over humans. This idea actually isn't bad, and the film succeeds at making cats seem eerie and evil! The writer then begins telling his stories, the first of which concerns an old woman who decides to leave her fortune to her many cats; much to the dismay of her money-grabbing nephew and his girlfriend, her maid. This story is the most violent of the three and also features the most cats. It's not a bad story, but it's very simple - so much so in fact that the thirty minutes dedicated to it actually feels too long!

We then move on and the second story is the worst of the bunch and actually feels more like a children's fairytale story rather than something out of a horror film. One could also say that it's not actually about cats at all - there's a cat featured but it's really only a co-star. The tale concerns black magic and the daughter of a witch who goes to live with a foster family after the death of her parents. The best thing about this story is the two child actresses, who deliver good performances. The third and final tale is the best of the bunch and sees the film take on a comic style. This tale is lead by Donald Pleasance, who is great as usual, and Samantha Eggar; who completely steals the show with her role as a screechy wannabe actress. Despite the fact that this story features drowning kittens; it's very funny and mostly unexpected and I'd say this story just about saves the film. All in all, The Uncanny is just about worth a look; it's certainly not the worst anthology ever made, and the cast list is fairly impressive at least.

In this anthology film, a writer tries to convince his publisher that cats are secretly ruling the world.

Peter Cushing stars in the wraparound story (Montreal 1977) as an eccentric writer urgently trying to get his book published so the world knows the horrible truth about cats. He references three stories in which cats commit horrible crimes against humanity:

• London 1912: An elderly woman changes her will to leave all of her possession to her cats, and her spoiled nephew tries to intervene.

• Quebec 1975: A young girl interested in witchcraft goes to live with relatives after a family tragedy, and she brings her cat along.

• Hollywood 1936: An actor's wife dies on set and he replaces her with her younger stand in, but his wife's cat has other ideas.

It feels like I've seen a hundred of these 1970's anthology movies and The Uncanny was one of the weaker efforts. The first two stories (London & Quebec) were flat out boring. The third story (Hollywood) was decent, but might've been the "weak" story in a stronger anthology movie.

I think the film's problem is it's neither scary nor funny enough. It's not scary at all, even though a lot of the movie plays it straight. Some humor does shine through in the third story, but it's low hanging fruit type of comedy. Considering how often the characters look frightened and the camera pans to an innocent looking cat, maybe this movie would be funnier in a group setting with the aid of some stimulants, but that's not my bag.

It's always good to see Peter Cushing in a horror film, but he doesn't get a lot of screen time considering he's in the wraparound story. Donald Pleasance stars in the Hollywood 1936 story and does a fine job. It's funny to think that only a year later, Peter Cushing turned down the role of Dr. Sam Loomis in John Carpenter's Halloween, while Donald Pleasance had to be convinced by his daughter to accept the role. Yet neither had any problem starring in THIS.