Cat Sick Blues Review from Monster Pictures!
From Australia comes this batshit crazy tale of grieving pussy lovers — some homicidal, some just trying to cope with their loss of losing their favorite feline friends. Cat Sick Blues raised over $14,000 from backers to be made, and if its mission was to make an original and insane blackened humor horror movie then it has succeeded. The film surprised me and really punches you in the gut with its quirky but equally disturbing content.
From the intro with two girls getting dispatched by our cat mask wearing killer — who looks more awkward than scary — I could tell Cat Sick Blues was going to hold my interest throughout just with the sheer delivery alone. The acting is generally good especially from lead Matthew C. Vaughn as Ted, the psychotic yet somber killer whose life has been stricken by immeasurable guilt after his cat Patrick literally explodes in front of him from over eating! Cat Sick Blues goes for the over-the-top jugular, and a lot of the times avoids making sense in order to carry through its crazy message. Ted was obviously severely mentally disturbed even before his cat’s passing, because any person who now takes on the persona of a cat, including making cat sounds, shitting in a litter box, getting a custom pair of cat claws made as weapons, and most evidently getting a “cat cock” strap-on also manufactured for his personal endeavors is someone who has broken through some severe mental boundaries and taken a leap over the fuckin’ edge so far down they will never find their way back again.
We also meet the other female lead, Claire (Shian Denovan), who has a cat named Imelda. Imelda was an internet sensation but one day a traumatizing event (watch the movie, the scene is very disturbing) changes all this and causes Claire to mentally breakdown. In her grief she decides to attend a rather ridiculous animal grieving group to discuss her feelings. At this group she meets Ted and the two pursue a rather bizarre relationship. All the while Ted is creeping around killing whatever random women he can find so he can reach a total of 9 lives, drain the blood of the victims and use it to revive his dead cat Patrick!?
Cat Sick Blues also offers up social media commentary, since apparently we didn’t know social media is turning the world into one big cesspool of cell phone obsessed and uncaring viral video masturbating assholes. The visuals of Ted brandishing that phallic strap-on cat cock and shoving it down girls throats is harrowing enough, and the grotesque misogynistic violence towards women is gleefully apparent throughout Cat Sick Blues. I appreciate its offbeat styling but towards the end it takes a drastic down turn until thankfully recovering for the conclusion, because I frankly didn’t know what the fuck was going on. The mixed emotions used in Cat Sick Blues really fucks with you, and the ending turns out to be quite sad and emotional even with the extreme content featured.
Cat Sick Blues starts off strong with a disturbing, shocking and dark humor infused vigor but it gets a bit trying as it continues. It drops off just before the conclusion in la la land but recovers for the ending. Matthew C. Vaughn really steals the movie with his generally subtle yet sometimes over-the-top portrayal of the killer. The soundtrack is killer, the music really transforms particular scenes into something more. It has enough gooey geysers of gore to please gorehounds, and enough subversive content to hold on to the more jaded horror buffs looking for that extra edge in their films.
Directed by: Dave Jackson
Written by: Dave Jackson, Andrew Gallacher
Produced by: Dave Jackson, Harley Hoshi, Matthew C. Vaughan
Cinematography by: Daniel Cowan
Editing by: Dave Jackson
Music by: Matthew Revert
Special Effects by: Deiter Barry, Liz Jenkinson
Cast: Matthew C. Vaughn, Shian Denovan, Noah Moon, Rachel Rai, Hwee Hall
Year: 2015
Country: Australia
Language: English
Colour: Colour
Runtime: 1h 41min
Studio: Monster Pictures