Intensity: 🩸1/2 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Directed by Sara Werner
Written by Hilary Helding
Cat Cam marries up the themes of Paranormal Activity and Good Boy. It utilizes stationary cameras (by way of “cat cams”) to document the goings-on of a haunted house. The couple who own the house prepare to leave for a French vacation, and the underachieving little brother is left to cat-sit while they are away. When the owner’s away, the ghost will play, and Nug knows what’s up. Cats have that extra sense, plus the cunning instincts to know to stay away from the ghost.
” In late September, three people went missing from a house in California and are presumed dead.
Their last known appearance was captured on cat cameras.
Authorities are still searching for the key witness… the cat.”
Preamble to Cat Cam
There have been so many great horror dogs, but proportionally fewer great cat horror movies. Cats are probably smart enough to avoid human filmmaker shenanigans, as they might be aware that they are going to be used as a jump scare prop. No thank you, human! On occasion though, a cat gets to take center stage. Recently, A Quiet Place: Day One featured the magically unkillable Frodo the cat, a harbinger of luck for that film. But, notoriously dogs are much easier to train than cats.
I’m pleased to say that in Cat Cam, they were able to get the cat to be its natural self. Eating cat treats, hiding under the bed, and staring at supcious cabinets. Largely though, this is a story about Jay, who has been entrusted to cat sit for his sister and her wife. It is a responsibility that he takes seriously, but you can’t help but think that he’s going to mess something up badly. So, it has a cat focus, and you realize that cats have innate intuition about bad vibes.
Cat Cam uses the mechanical devices (literally) of Paranormal Activity. Stationary cat cameras record the events from multiple locations in the house. The movie prepares the audience for ghostly goings-on by employing a sub-bass rumble. The cameras occasionally pick up “Person Detected”, and there’s nobody in frame. Not even a cat. And you hear footsteps. Yes, camera traps can pick up ghosts with today’s technology. Unfortunately, Jay is unaware of the cat cameras for much of the movie, and Riley who set the cameras up is away on vacation and isn’t rewinding footage. The proof is in the recordings. Too bad nobody thought to hit rewind.
The Cast of Cat Cam:
- Cronin Cullen plays Jay, an unlucky loser who is looking to prove himself worthy of his sister’s trust by caring for her wife’s cat, Nug. Jay has a bad track record of mistakes and failures to make amends for.
- Bry Gallagher plays Sammy, Jay’s older sister, who just bought a house in California that just might be haunted. She’s a pragmatist, looking to mend fences between Jay and Riley.
- Jiavanni plays Riley, Sammy’s wife, and an obsessive cat owner. She has deployed several cat cams in the house to make sure her beloved Nug can be monitored at all times. She disapproves of Jay, and does not believe he is capable of caring for her cat.
- Elizabeth Yamauchi plays Delia, Jay’s ex girlfriend, who dumped him for his inability to keep a job. She’s dabbles as a mystic medium, which just might come in handy.
- Nug… is a cat. She is orange and white and fluffy.
A Synopsis of Cat Cam:
Sammy and Riley are getting ready to leave on a vacation for France. They recently moved into their new bungalow, and haven’t really settled in yet. Riley is so worried about making sure that Nug settles in that she installs seven cat cameras in the house. One in the bedroom. Two in the living room. One facing the kitchen. Another one looking down the hall. The Door camera. And one is part of a treat dispenser. Sammy freaks out when she finds out that Riley put a camera in the bathroom, so she hides a third camera in the living room behind a house plant.
Jay arrives to get instructions for watching Nug while the women leave for a Parisian holiday. Food? Check. Distilled water? Check. (You can’t trust California tap water.) Clean the litter box? Check. Jay takes notes, but Riley still does not trust him. He broke a window at their previous apartment, and has a reputation for being sloppy and inattentive. In a private moment, Sammy urges Jay to be responsible for a change, and confides that she and Riley are planning on having a baby. Jay is thrilled, and insists that he will be the best uncle (A Bunkle) and that he will show how great an uncle he will be by taking good care of their cat.
At first, things go smoothly, though Jay forgets to use the bottled water for Nug, and uses the faucet. Things are going to be great. Bunkle Jay and Nug will become besties. Or, so Jay hopes.
The Ghost:
After the first night, an invisible force turns the faucet back on and tosses a creepy mask out of one of the hallway cabinets. Nug senses something is amiss and hides under the bed. When Jay returns, he thinks the faucet has a leak. He turned that spigot off, right? He puts the mask back in the cabinet. Jay informs Sammy that there is a plumbing problem, which tips Riley off that he’s not giving Nug proper water. Not good.
Jay gets a bottle of wine to watch TV with, and when he steps into the kitchen, the ghost tips it over, breaking it and staining the area rug. Jay blames Nug, but cleans up the mess as best he can. Once again, after Jay goes home for the night, the ghost’s mischief kicks in. The ghost turns the faucet on again and knocks pictures off the wall. This time Jay calls a plumber, who informs him that there is nothing wrong with the plumbing. It’s a mystery!
Now Jay suspects a ghost. He tells Sammy about the possibility of a ghost, which Riley already suspected. Sammy insists that Jay drop that idea. He will find the ghost. Make things right. He calls Delia for her advice, and to help rid the house of bad spirits. When she arrives, she immediately senses a bad presence, so they burn some sage (cough cough) and set up a crystal. The two reignite their romantic flame, but before things get too far, Delia spots a cat camera and accuses Jay of being a creeper. This devastates Jay, unable to explain the cameras.
Now it’s him and Nug, alone versus a ghost. He researches the house and discovers that the previous owners went missing. Will Jay be able to handle this before the ladies get back? It’s doubtful.
Evaluation of cat cam:
This is largely a redemptive story for Jay. Sadly, he’s not really up to the task. It’s not that he doesn’t try or is unworthy, but he seems to attract bad luck. This is Cronin Cullen’s first major headlining feature performance, and he’s great. Jay, though a bona fide loser, is a highly sympathetic character. His goofy charm works well here. The relationship with Riley and Sammy is orchestrated well. The tension between Riley and Jay pops from the screen instantly. As a story about Jay, this movie works. Jiavani also makes a strong impression of an overly anxious cat owner. The natural and believable dialogue works. Props to writer Hilary Helding.
As a horror movie, it doesn’t generate any terror. The ghost is 90% benign, with only the preamble hinting at something bad to come. Messing with household objects and flickering the lights at night are certainly supernatural, but not dreadful. That isn’t to say the ghost isn’t malevolent, but the story fails to generate much fear from this spook. The backstory for the haunt is limited to the disappearance of the former owners. That’s not enough to raise a hair on most horror fans. The ending of the movie is terrific when the ghost gets aggressive, but it doesn’t feel earned by the lead-up.
Also, I would have liked to have seen a lot more Nug. For a few of the nights, Nug watches in the dark, staring at the suspicious cabinet that spits out objects. Eventually she determines that enough is enough and goes into hiding. By the end of the movie, she is nowhere to be found, much to the panic of all of the humans, but a well-placed meow suggests that Nug has successfully avoided the ghost.
Concluding Thoughts:
It’s a cute film with a sucker punch ending. Cat lovers may adore this film. Watching Jay struggle with something so simple as cat sitting was entirely empathetic. You tried hard, buddy! I know you meant well. There is a one-bad-day-after-another feel to the plot. I can identify with that. If bad days are a source of your nightmares, this may be triggering.
It could have been a lot scarier. The ghost could have gotten violent earlier, and I was Jonesing (take a nod, Jonesy) for a cat-versus-ghost moment. The movie played it straight, however. Nug is a true scaredy-cat. No shame in that. Compared to Good Boy, however, it feels like a lost opportunity to become THE cat horror movie to end all cat horror movies in the same way that Good Boy was for dog movies. Good Boy is a scary movie. Cat Cam, not so much. But it is charming and relatable.
Credit the filmmakers for getting as much good film footage of Nug as they could. 100% guaranteed, this was a real cat, not a digital cat. Indie films have to make do with the real thing. I wonder if Nug is Sara Werner’s cat. How much unused cat footage was shot? Probably plenty.
Big plus: Nug is absolutely adorable.
Cat Cam is a featured film as part of Popcorn Fright’s Streaming Festival. It is still available for viewing ($10) individually or as part of the streaming package online, between August 6 and August 16. So, there are still a few days to catch this at the time of the posting of this review. The movie is unrated, and would likely be a PG-13 movie, with some foul language and some violence towards the conclusion of the film. This movie would be fine for teenagers and scaredy-cat humans.
Review by Eric Li
