Lucio Fulci’s CAT IN THE BRAIN Midnights This Weekend at The Moolah

Lucio Fulci’s CAT IN THE BRAIN (1990) screens Midnights this weekend (June 3rd and 4th) at The Moolah Theater and Lounge (3821 Lindell Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63108) as part of  Destroy the Brain’s monthly Late Night Grindhousefilm series.

After ZOMBIE, THE BEYOND, HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY, and GATES OF HELL, CAT IN THE BRAIN will be the fifth film from famed Italian director Lucio Fulci that the guys at Destroy the Brain has shown at their monthly Late Night Grindhouse midnight series, and the only one I did not see at the drive-in multiple times in the early ‘80s. It never played St. Louis theaters when it was new. Director Lucio Fulci stars in CAT IN THE BRAIN as a famous Italian horror director named…Lucio Fulci! After years and years of witnessing gruesome horror sequences, it becomes hard for Mr. Fulci to separate reality from fiction and he often hallucinates about committing violent murders, descending into a spiral of madness. Even his shrink can’t seem to keep Fulci on the right track. Now, when it comes to pure fun and entertainment value, CAT IN THE BRAIN certainly delivers. The violence is overpowering, nasty, and non-stop. The amount of gore is impossible to describe: Decapitations all around, intestines are spread on all sides of the screen and the chainsaws are working overtime! CAT IN THE BRAIN also becomes unintentionally funny quite soon and will be a perfect experience while intoxicated in a setting like the Moolah.

The best way to interpret CAT IN THE BRAIN is like a personal statement made by Fulci and a direct attack towards censorship. Perhaps after seeing so many of his films – especially the latter ones – being cut by censorship committees and bashed by high-brow critics, Fulci wanted to avenge himself by delivering a gory mess that simply can’t be cut! If you take out all the explicit violence and the truly sick make-up effects out of CAT IN THE BRAIN, you’d only have about 10 minutes of footage left! You can almost hear our director think: “Let’s see how you’re going to censor this now!” Even the entire development of the murder investigation happens in the background. Are the victims missed by any of their friends or relatives? Are there any police officers looking for clues that’ll lead them to the killer? You don’t know and Lucio doesn’t bother to inform you about that, because that would lead to sequences that don’t require gore. After decades of great horror, Fulci clearly enjoyed being in the spotlights for a change. He deserved to have a little extra fun. Lucio Fulci is a genius and you can see that for yourself this weekend when CAT IN THE BRAIN screens at The Moolah Theater and Lounge (3821 Lindell Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63108) Midnights this weekend (June 3rd and 4th).

A Facebook invite for Friday night’s event can be found HERE

https://www.facebook.com/events/933243650126638/

A Facebook invite for Saturday night’s event can be found HERE

https://www.facebook.com/events/637720059725489/

Destroy the Brain’s site can be found HERE

http://www.destroythebrain.com/