"Cats or Death!!"

My boyfriend James and I were both graced with the wonder of Videomatica gift certificates this year. We ventured over there yesterday, conveniently only a few blocks from where we live, with the hope and anticipation of buying up some cult trash or horror of some kind. We were successful. It was a little bit overwhelming because there was so much to choose from and so much that we wanted! I settled for a copy of Caligula because it's so sleazy and wonderful and yet I'm not sure I could justify spending my own money on it when there are things of perhaps better quality to purchase. I am quite pleased to have it though. I also picked up a copy of Cronos from the genius Guillermo Del Toro and The Slime City Grindhouse Collection which I can't wait to watch. I remember reading about Slime City in Fangoria and was allured by the brightly coloured gore. Oh yes, and I also picked up a $3 copy of Rhinoceros Eyes because I like Michael Pitt and it's and odd film that takes place inside a prop storage house. James picked up a movie called The Carrier from 1988 which brings me to the main purpose of this entry.


James and I are both typically drawn to virus related films so we thought we'd give this one a shot. The film centers around an outcast boy named Jake living in a small religious town called Sleepy Rock. Jake gets attacked one night by some strange Big Foot/Sasquatch type monster that disintegrates into vague smokiness when he shoots and kills it. This leaves him with a strange plague that infects everything he touches, resulting in a quick and of course smokey death for anyone else's touch.

The first and perhaps best result of this is a man nearly dying from holding a copy of One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. This spreads panic throughout the town as everyday objects, tables, mirrors and even nature become infected and deadly to the touch. These objects are then marked with red ribbon and the townspeople fashion some new digs with veils, towel wraps and garbage bags and clear plastic covering every inch of them.

A rivalry soon forms between those with the black garbage bags, being the more hooligan type members of the town, and those with the white, being the religious and family-oriented folks. A fight over cats then leads to some gruesome deaths, including the accidental death of a child in the forest. You see, the virus only effects living tissue and since there is apparently such an abundance of barn cats in their town, they are needed to test areas for infection. My favourite part of the movie is when a member of the "black" gang shouts his battle cry "CATS OR DEATH!" and raging chaos ensues. Poor kitties.

The movie starts taking a lot of confusing, allegorical turns that generally just don't make a lot of sense. Amidst all of this, Jake is struggling with the knowledge that he is the carrier and will be killed by the angry mob if they find out. He only has his female companion, who generally just spouts off awkward lines that don't always make a lot of sense, to confide in. And on top of all of this, random plot lines are thrown in during the movie that aren't fully explained and seem just a bit ridiculous. Like how apparently the whole town killed his parents for a very poorly explained reason, causing him to become an outcast and thinking that he had done it himself...whaaaaaat?
What could have been a good movie with a really interesting idea was demolished by horrible script writing, absurd and convoluted plot lines and what was obviously a very, very small budget. The beginning of the movie actually felt like we had started watching it about half way through. The story started out confusing enough and the inane dialogue didn't do much to help it. Despite this film never really realizing its full potential, it still manages to grab you and make you want to keep watching. I saw that someone referred to it as a mix of Twin Peaks and The Crazies and I can definitely see that. And hey, at least we have an entertaining movie to watch now and then and I'll definitely toss it at someone without explanation, just to see what they think of it.