by Cats are creepy. No one should ever own cats unless you have children. I didn’t always feel this way, but as I’ve grown up I’ve realized that our feline friends are odd and unusual and if you live alone with a cat then you have some serious underlying issues. With that said, they aren’t creepy enough to be scary. While I don’t like them jumping in my lap or rubbing against my legs they aren’t exactly frightening. The eighties saw a plethora of oddly themed horror films in an attempt for many filmmakers to find an unusual premise. They were basically throwing ideas at the wall hoping something would stick, and for the most part these experiments were failures. The next decade saw this trend continue, but the better ideas had all been used up. I’m sure a few people got together and thought to themselves “hey, no one has made a horror film about cats, and wasn’t that film about the dog with rabies a success?” This is how Strays came to be. I recall watching this film when I was a kid and I found it moderately creepy. I haven’t thought about it in a long time, but it crossed my mind the other day and I thought it might be worth a look if not just for a few laughs. It was actually a lot better than I expected, but it’s a horror film about cats after all so keep your expectations in check.
The film opens with a scene of an old lady living by herself in the countryside. Well, she isn’t exactly alone out there as we quickly see she’s a crazy cat lady who has too many pets and even feeds the strays (whom she refers to as her ‘guests’). She hears loud cat snarling in the distance, and is soon dispatched by an off-screen force. Fast forward a while later and her house is up for sale with not a cat in sight. Divorce attorney Paul Jarret and his author wife Lindsey are the first to look at the house due because Lindsey’s sister Claire is a real estate agent. Paul and Lindsey (the latter in particular) want to move out of the city to raise their daughter, and figure that this house would be the perfect setting. Things go smoothly until they discover a mother cat and it’s kitten are living in the attic. Lindsey is bent on keeping the two despite her husband being allergic to them, and she has the upper hand in this argument due to catching her sister making advances on Paul one morning. Unfortunately for him it looks like he’s stuck with these monsters.
Soon after they awaken one morning to find cat urine all over their room, a vent knocked out of place, and their beloved small dog injured under the stairway outside. Paul is convinced this is the doing of cats, but the veterinarian (who doesn’t seem quite all there) reminds him that it’s just a cat, and the injuries to their pet are most likely from a raccoon or fox. Of all things he gives them a water gun to ward off any feral cats they may be concerned about. Paul heads off to work leaving his wife and daughter to continue fixing up the home. Unfortunately Lindsey finds her daughters crib overrun with cats, and a feral male who is obviously the culprit in all of these shenanigans. They must fend for themselves against this army of cats, and their situation soon proves more dire than can be fixed by simply closing a door or squirting the animals with the gun.
I actually found the characters, their interactions and the story to be somewhat enjoyable. The family is instantly likable especially Paul whose dialogue feels really natural for a low budget made for TV movie. With that said, this is still a horror film about cats. The victim count is very low with just three people who meet their doom at their claws of fury, and there isn’t much tension in the day to day scenes. In the first half of the film the stray cats take the backseat to the family drama, but the latter half is focused almost entirely on our feline friends. Creating intimidating cats as a horror film antagonist is no easy task, and they did surprisingly well even if the results are often ridiculous. I found myself laughing far more than I usually would while watching a movie of this kind. The cats breaking through the door with their paws was especially enjoyable for all the wrong reasons. Furthermore, it’s downright hilarious to watch the characters wrestle with a domestic house cat, and for the most part, get overpowered. They really tried to make this a serious horror film but the odds were stacked against them.
I must admit though that some of the sequences are a little more effective than I would like to admit. The cats crying out in the darkness with thunder and rain in the background creates decent ambience. Furthermore, the effects department did a great job of making our star cat look feral and many of the camera angles enhance its size. They actually managed to make him look, dare I say, intimidating. Other cats featured here lack this feature and just look cute and cuddly. The crazy characters, such as the old lady in the beginning and the veterinarian, are pretty unsettling with the way they talk to and about cats, and if I didn’t know any better I would say there’s some commentary buried somewhere in this film. For every decent scene though you have another with obviously fake cat hands swatting at pillows stuffed into vents, or cats breaking through doors ala Jack Nicholson in the Shining.
I’m kind of embarrassed to admit that I didn’t hate Strays. I found the characters likable, and the scenario somewhat enjoyable, but it’s not a good horror film. All elements of the genre are extremely poor here. For a serious horror film there’s a lot of hilarity that ensues. Cats just aren’t a good topic for a scary movie, and this one was destined to fail the second they put the idea to paper. I will say though that with what they had to work with the filmmakers did a pretty bang up job. Unfortunately I would never recommend this to anyone, and additionally, I will most likely never watch it ever again.
Pros
- Great story
- The main family is very charming
- The cats are surprisingly creepy
Cons
- Tries too hard
- Not very scary overall
