CATHY’S CURSE (1977)
aka Cauchemares

Article 3607 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-15-2011
Posting Date: 6-30-2011
Directed by Eddy Matalon
Featuring Alan Scarfe, Beverly Murray, Randi Allen
Country: France / Canada
What it is: A denizen of its own little world

A man moves into his dead father’s home with his wife and daughter. The daughter finds a doll that belonged to her aunt, and gets possessed by the aunt’s spirit. Strange things happen.

I’m mystified as to what effect this strange little movie that hovers in a no-man’s-land somewhere between THE EXORCIST, THE OMEN and CARRIE is trying for. If it’s horror, it missed the mark; however, if it’s head-scratching befuddlement, it succeeds all too well. Oh, it has the trappings of a horror film, all right, but it gets lost somewhere in a labyrinth of confused writing, direction, acting and editing. Scenes follow scenes without continuity, rhyme or reason, people react (or don’t react, as the case may be) in the oddest ways to strange, supernatural events, and if the ghost of the aunt has any real consistent agenda, it’s lost in the muddle. Watching this movie is like listening to someone tell a long, rambling anecdote that you keep listening to in the hope that it has a point, only to discover it’s nothing but one long non sequitur. It’s watchable in its way, but don’t try to think about it too much; it will only give you a headache.