by: -RoG-

Cat's Eye is a fun little horror anthology film based on three short stories written by Stephen King, and it never seems to get brought up when people talk about the other popular anthologies like Creepshow or Tales from the Darkside. I've always loved it though, and any film that has a variety of subtle nods to other Stephen King works (including Christine) certainly deserves some time in the spotlight.

The first story is called "Quitters, Inc.", and is about a man (played by James Woods) who hires a company that goes to extremes to quit smoking. The second story is called "The Ledge", and is about a jealous casino owner who kills his wife and forces her lover to endure a terrifying ordeal on the ledge of a high-rise. These first two tales came from Stephen King's book, Night Shift.

Now the connecting glue between these tales is a stray cat that wanders into each one, and then becomes the star of the show in the final segment created exclusively for the film called "General", which is where today's featured horror moment comes from. This is the Internet, right? I'm pretty sure this is where we're supposed to talk about anything involving cats. And talk about cats we shall!

A little girl named Amanda (played by a young Drew Barrymore) absolutely adores the cat that just wandered into her life, and proceeds to name him "General". Problem is, her mother doesn't trust General, because Amanda also owns a pet parakeet, Polly. Guess she saw one too many Sylvester vs. Tweety episodes of Looney Tunes.

To make matters worse, there's an evil little troll living in Amanda's walls. He even has a tiny little troll warrior knife and jingle bells on his hat. JINGLE BELLS! The troll uses some kind of magic to open up a cracked doorway in Amanda's walls every night, and then when he leaves, he can reseal it so her parents would never know he was ever there. Sneaky lil' bastard.

In his first appearance, he goes straight for Polly's cage and mangles the poor bird. During all the commotion, the cage falls over and the troll quickly makes an exit for the wall. With the troll nowhere in sight, General is naturally blamed for the death of Polly, so the mom brings him off to a shelter, and now the troll has Amanda all to himself.

Oh, and after she notices the Troll for the first time, he hits her with an obscene gesture: the dastardly bras d'honneur! Yeah... I kinda love this Troll now too.

Anyway, with General out of the picture, the troll comes back to Amanda's room the next night to obtain what he really wanted all along: her breath! Apparently trolls get a wicked high from stealing the breath of young children. Of course, trolls don't care if this kills said children, but you wanna know who does care? General!

After nearly being euthanized at a shelter, the General manages to escape and make it all the way back home in the middle of a rain storm to save Amanda from the Troll. And they say dogs are man's best friend? Pfft. He saves her in the nick of time just after the troll had started stealing some of her breath. And with that, their incredible battle to the death begins.

They first slash away at each other on Amanda's bed, and she tries screaming for her parents, but her voice is temporarily lost due to the troll stealing her breath. The troll soon ends up on the floor and tosses various items at General such as pens and roller skates, but his feline foe continues the pursuit. He tries to make a break for his opening in the wall, but a book falls on top of it during the battle, so his exit is blocked.

With his escape plan ruined, he grabs some floating helium balloons, and after some comical swats from General, the troll eventually ends up landing on top of Amanda's record player. This ultimately proves to be the worst place he could've landed, because General appears to be a big vinyl fan. He flips on the record player switch and you can probably guess what happens next.

Mr. Troll holds onto the record player spindle for dear life, but Amanda (after getting her voice back) tells General to flip the switch and make it spin faster. The speed continues to increase until he can no longer hold on anymore annnnnnnd...

*SPLAT!*

The troll is sent soaring directly into a box fan sitting on the floor, and in an instant, he's cut to shreds in one big bloody mess. Amanda's parents finally come rushing into her room, and her mom is furious to see that General somehow made it back. She tries explaining to them that he saved her life from the troll, and at first they don't believe her. However, when she points at the fan and they see the gory scene, they realize she was telling the truth all along.

On the floor, they see the remnants of the troll, including that adorably tiny dagger of his. Well done, General! You've earned your place both in Amanda's home and in our hearts as a champion troll fighter.

The world of horror needs more hero cats like General. Stephen King sure seems to agree. After all, he wrote Sleepwalkers too, and that movie had a hero cat named Clovis. I guess when I'm saying is, Stephen... if you're reading this, please write a new story where General and Clovis save the entire world from deadly horrors. Or maybe they can just be buddy cops. I'm pretty sure the Internet will approve either way.

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