Three tales of terror. One cat who knows exactly where he needs to be.
If you spotted Cat’s Eye on the video store shelf in 1985, the title alone was enough to make you curious. Stephen King’s name was right there, Drew Barrymore was staring back from the box, and somehow a perfectly ordinary-looking cat appeared to be mixed up in all of it.
What you got was three very different flavors of horror. One involves the most aggressive stop-smoking program ever devised. Another puts a terrified man on a skyscraper ledge. The last sends a tiny troll creeping through a little girl’s bedroom while the adults remain completely useless.
The wandering cat is what ties everything together, drifting from one nightmare to the next before finally arriving where he is needed most. It gives Cat’s Eye a playful quality that separates it from darker Stephen King adaptations of the era.
James Woods is terrific in the wonderfully nasty “Quitters, Inc.” segment, while Robert Hays spends “The Ledge” discovering that looking down from several stories up is a very bad idea. Then Drew Barrymore takes over for the finale, where the movie turns into a miniature creature feature.
Director Lewis Teague keeps the whole thing moving. There is dark humor, suspense, practical effects and just enough weirdness to make it feel like something you absolutely would have discovered during a Friday-night video store run.
And unlike plenty of horror movie pets, this cat actually earns his keep.
Cat’s Eye (1985)
Stephen King delivers three unforgettable tales of suspense tied together by one wandering cat. From a terrifying stop-smoking program to a deadly walk around a skyscraper ledge and a tiny bedroom troll, Cat’s Eye remains one of the most entertaining horror anthologies of the VHS era.
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Vault Quick Stats
- Smoking Cessation Success Rate: Terrifyingly Effective
- Fear of Heights: Newly Acquired
- Troll Height: Small Enough to Hide, Big Enough to Ruin Your Night
- Adult Competence: Questionable
- Cat Heroics: Off the Charts
Fun Fact: “Quitters, Inc.” and “The Ledge” came from Stephen King’s collection Night Shift, while King wrote the final story, “General,” specifically for the movie.
Extra Trivia: An earlier version of the project was also going to include Stephen King’s “Sometimes They Come Back,” but producer Dino De Laurentiis believed that story could support a movie of its own.
Legacy: Cat’s Eye never became one of the biggest Stephen King adaptations, but it has aged into a wonderfully rewatchable VHS-era anthology. The shifting tones, practical effects and surprisingly heroic feline give it a personality all its own.
“Three nightmares walk into a movie. The cat is somehow the only one with any sense.”
Why Cat’s Eye Is Worth Renting
Three Flavors of Stephen King
“Quitters, Inc.” brings the dark comedy, “The Ledge” delivers sweaty-palmed suspense and “General” sends the movie into full creature-feature territory. You are basically getting three different rentals without having to rewind the tape between them.
The Little Troll Still Works
The bedroom creature may be tiny, but the practical effects give him real personality. He runs, climbs, hisses and causes enough chaos to make checking underneath the bed seem completely reasonable again.
Finally, a Horror Movie Cat With a Job
The General is more than a cute animal wandering through the movie. By the final story, he becomes the hero, and watching him square off against a bedroom troll turns Cat’s Eye into one of the strangest and most satisfying cat-versus-monster movies ever stocked in the horror aisle.
Rewind or Fast Forward?
Rewind. Cat’s Eye is breezy, weird and incredibly easy to revisit. You get Stephen King, dark humor, practical creature effects, James Woods losing his mind and a cat who proves more capable than almost every human in the movie.
If you like Stephen King with a little more fun and a little less doom, Cat’s Eye makes an excellent late-night rental.
Rent or Buy on AmazonCat’s Eye Official Trailer
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