Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		2.5

Cathy's Curse Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 26, 2017

There’s something undeniably charming about hearing participants on a commentary track, especially those who identify themselves as a “superfan” of any particular film, rather cheerfully admit how little sense that film makes. That’s the case with Cathy’s Curse’s commentators Brian Collins and Simon Barrett, who don’t try to skirt the issue that this film has some narrative gaps that might give certain voids in the Grand Canyon a run for their money. This new Blu-ray release from Severin Films offers two versions of the film, and while it’s notable that the commentary is appended to the shorter U.S. theatrical version, even the commentators mention that the longer Director’s Cut, while perhaps marginally more developed, has some of the same deficits as the version they speak about. Collins mentions adding a text card to the U.S. version to help bridge certain unexplained elements, quickly going on to admit that it doesn’t really add enough information to do much. That said, the introductory text card does at least give a bit of context for a prologue that takes place in 1947, where a father and daughter have been abandoned by their wife and mother, a woman who has taken off for (again, unexplained) reasons, taking her young son with her. Nothing is very clear in this sequence, least of all why the father drags the little girl out into a cold wintry environment for a mad car ride, one which ends in tragedy with a fiery accident that claims the lives of both of the characters. The film then segues forward twenty or so years, to find that aforementioned little boy who was kept with his mother now grown up, married and with a little girl of his own. For reasons that can probably best be explained with a “well, you wouldn’t have a movie otherwise” statement, George Gimble (Alan Scarfe) moves his family back into the home where his late father and sister exited so hurriedly decades previously. That sets up the general premise of Cathy’s Curse, where George’s apparently sweet daughter Cathy (Randi Allen) falls under the sway of the spirit of the deceased little girl from George’s own past, a venegeful wraith who seems to be out to get people because—well, you wouldn’t have a movie otherwise.

George’s travails aren’t limited to his apparently rather quickly possessed daughter, and in fact quite a bit of the early going of Cathy’s Curse is more concerned with the psychological unraveling of George’s wife Vivian (Beverley Murray), a distressed woman who is recovering from a recent nervous breakdown. Vivian lashes out at George when he innocently mentions how easily Cathy is adjusting to their new digs, asking her husband if the subtext is that Cathy should be as disturbed as Vivian herself is. While this particular plot element is actually kind of interesting, like so much else in the film, it’s inadequately developed and just kind of posited as a given without any significant attempt made to have it add to the obviously intended feeling of angst that permeates much of Cathy’s Curse.

As the commentary track ably documents, there are all sorts of unanswered questions from virtually the get go in Cathy’s Curse. Weird little cutaways like a scene showing Cathy waking up in the family car as the Gimbles arrive at the house and stretching out her arms, which then cuts to a bed supposedly in the house where sheets magically turn back of their own accord, are apparently there to hint at some kind of psychic connection, but the more salient questions as to why Cathy and her long dead aunt are “linked”, and what exactly the aunt is trying to accomplish (other than scaring the bejesus out of people, not to mention indulging in some passing homicidal tendencies), are never really explored much, if at all. That leaves the film offering a series of vignettes, some of which are creepy enough, but many of which are undeniably humorous, as even the commentators admit at several junctures.

One of the funniest of these (at least to me) comes relatively early in the film, when Cathy is already starting to show signs of being possessed, and is out in her yard playing with some neighbor kids. Meanwhile, Vivian is inside entertaining the kids’ mother and another woman who just happens to be a medium (because, you know, it’s suburban Canada, where mediums are plentiful). The medium fixates on a picture of George’s father, and almost immediately begins having visions of the car crash conflagration that took his life and that of his young daughter. Intercut with this is Cathy’s “playdate” outside where she has the kids pretend they’re in a car crash and where she parrots her grandfather’s inimitable quote (from the prologue) “all women are bitches”, teaching the little boy she’s playing with to spit it out with appropriate venom. The upshot of all of this is that Cathy ends up seriously injuring one of the neighbor kids, while inside the medium’s trance leads to the shattering of the photo. None of this is particularly humorous, but the closing of the scene is a classic. The mother of the kids, including the injured child, just picks up her brood and exits saying it’s best she leave quickly, while Vivian and the medium have a spectacularly outré conversation (at least considering what’s just gone down) where Vivian very politely tells the medium to come back for coffee anytime she’s in the neighborhood.

Moments like that at least partially elevate Cathy’s Curse, if only because they’re so oddly comedic, but the film tends to lurch from bit to bit somewhat uneasily, and for some reason things are never exploited in a true Grand Guignol fashion that might have considerably upped the angst quotient. The longer Director’s Cut does at least do a better job of introducing a couple of supporting players (AKA potential victims), including the couple who act as the house’s groundskeeper and maid. But even the longer version never really adequately details what exactly has troubled Vivian for so long, nor does it ever explicitly explain the connection between Cathy and her aunt, not to mention the bizarre doll which is evidently some kind of conduit between this world and wherever it is that villainous spirits hang out, waiting to wreak havoc.

Cathy's Curse Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Cathy's Curse is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Verbiage on the back cover gives a kind of generic "transferred in 2K from recently found film elements", without specifying exactly what those elements were. Reactions to this transfer will probably vary somewhat depending on how much experience any individual viewer has had with previous (often bootleg) releases of this film. As both commentators mention, previous home video releases by the likes of Brentwood and Mill Creek have been sourced off of secondary (at best) sources and have been blurry, unstable messes. This transfer at least has stability on its side, as well as a generally much clearer image, though it shows signs of aging, especially with regard to a fairly wan palette at times. The entire transfer can be on the soft side, though some close-ups reveal decent levels of fine detail (see screenshot 11). Contrast is erratic at times, and many shots have blooming whites (as can be seen in some of the screenshots accompanying this review). Grain generally looks organic, though can achieve some yellow chunkiness at times, especially in some of the opticals.

Cathy's Curse Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Cathy's Curse features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono mix which delivers dialogue, effects and score clearly enough, but without a lot of bombast in the mid to lower registers. For a supposed horror enterprise, this can be an awfully talky outing, and as such, the limited ambitions of the sound design are served well enough by this problem free but rather narrow sounding track.

Cathy's Curse Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Tricks and Treats: An Interview with Director Eddy Matalon (1080p; 20:16) is largely in French with English subtitles, and reveals that Matalon evidently thinks more information is presented on screen than some viewers will have gleaned.


• Cathy and Mum: An Interview with Randi Allen and Costume Designer Joyce Allen (1080p; 12:42) is an engaging interview with the actress, whose only feature film credit this is, and her mother, who did the costumes.


• Audio Commentary on U.S. Cut is by BirthMoviesDeath Critic Brian Collins and Filmmaker Simon Barrett.


• Introduction to Cinematic Void Screening (1080p; 4:28) also features Brian Collins.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:36)

Cathy's Curse Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

When even this film's "superfans" spend quite a bit of time discussing the various failings of the object of their affection, you know you're not about to be discovering some long lost masterpiece. Cathy's Curse actually has an interesting (if derivative) premise, and a couple of the sequences have at least a fair amount of suspense, if never really any over the top gore. But the film is hobbled by a weirdly fragmented screenplay and some unintended comedy from Cathy's shenanigans. Video is miles better than old PD releases, but isn't at optimal levels, while audio sounds fine. Severin has assembled some appealing supplements which should delight the film's fan base.