The Cat Scare Revisited

I was watching the movie "Wolfen" last weekend with Fretty and Trey. It was a pretty damn good movie, but there was something missing I couldn't quite figure out. Then, as the protagonist stuck her head out the window to investigate a noise, a cat comes flying into her face and scares the shit out of her. Ah-Ha! The cat scare! Now this movie was bumped from good to great in a matter of one scene.

I saw Trey physically jump about 6 inches in the air. Trey, not being conditioned to such horror movie tactics, fell victim to one of the most common scenes in horror movie history.

I figured, in an homage to the cat scare, I'd re-post my original piece on the subject.


Wednesday, March 22, 2006

The Cat Scare

I've noticed, over my many years of horror movie viewing, that there is a recurring theme in every good horror film... the cat scare.What is the cat scare? It is a suspense technique used to give the audience a thrill, followed by a sense of relief, and typically followed by somebody getting killed or chased by a killer. Still unclear? This is how a typical cat scare will go.

Enter victim to dark room, stage left mostly.

Victim: "Hello? Is anybody in here?"

a noise in the corner startles him/her

V: "Is that you, Brad? This isn't funny!"

a noise from the closet prompts him/her to investigate

V: "Brad your such a jerk, if your trying to scare me I'm going to kill you."

he/she timidly opens the closet door (suspenseful music plays)

cat dives out of the closet

Cat: RRRRRAAARRRR!
V: "HOLY SHIT!!!! Whiskers! You scared me!"

At this point the audience is kicking themselves for being such pussies (no pun intended) and jumping at a damn cat flying out of the closet.After the initial thrill is over and just about the time the audience is feeling safe again, the killer emerges and makes everyone shit their pants.

There are, however, some instances where the cat scare is overused.The first "Alien" movie uses three cat scares in a matter of five minutes. Seriously? It's a big stretch to use two in an entire movie. But three in five minutes? Lets get real Ridley Scott.

Posted by Shep at 7:37 AM