Cat's Eye | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Lewis Teague |
Produced by |
Dino De Laurentiis Martha Schumacher |
Written by | Stephen King |
Based on | "Quitters, Inc." and "The Ledge" by Stephen King |
Starring | |
Music by | Alan Silvestri |
Cinematography | Jack Cardiff |
Edited by | Scott Conrad |
Production
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Distributed by | MGM/UA Entertainment Co. |
Release date
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Running time
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94 min. |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $7 million |
Box office | $13,086,298 |
Cat's Eye (also known as Stephen King's Cat's Eye) is a 1985 American anthology horror film directed by Lewis Teague and written by Stephen King. It comprises three stories, "Quitters, Inc.", "The Ledge", and "General". The first two are adaptations of short stories in King's Night Shift collection, and the third is unique to the film. The three stories are connected only by the presence of a traveling cat, which plays an incidental role in the first two and is a major character of the third.
Its cast includes Drew Barrymore, James Woods, Alan King, Robert Hays and Candy Clark.
A stray grey alley tom tabby cat is chased by a disheveled St. Bernard dog, and nearly gets run down by a red 1958 Plymouth Fury. He hides from the dog in a delivery truck, which drives to New York City. The tomcat hears the disembodied voice of a young girl (Drew Barrymore) pleading for help because something is threatening her. The cat is then captured by an employee from Quitters, Inc.
Cigarette smoker Dick Morrison (James Woods) is advised by a friend to join Quitters, Inc. to kick his habit. Clinic counselor Dr. Vinnie Donatti (Alan King) explains that the clinic has a 100% success rate due to a uniquely persuasive method: every time Dick smokes a cigarette, horrors of increasing magnitude will befall his wife and child.
Using the tomcat that Donatti's assistant Junk has caught in the street, Donatti demonstrates the first of these horrors: the cat is locked in a cage and tormented with electric shocks. Donatti explains that if his new client should be caught with a cigarette, Dick's wife Cindy will be subjected to the same shocks while he is forced to watch. For subsequent infractions, his young daughter afflicted with Down Syndrome will be subjected to the shocks, then his wife raped, and after the fourth infraction, they give up (i.e. kill him). Not wanting to worry them, Dick hides the looming threat from his family.