A Cat in the Brain

A Cat in the Brain (Un gatto nel cervello, 1990) is an Italian horror film you can watch online on iFILM. Lucio Fulci, the godfather of Italian gore, both directs and stars here — as a fictional version of himself.

Horror director Fulci has spent years staging mutilation and blood for the camera, and now those images bleed into his waking life. The wall between his film sets and reality crumbles. He sees murders everywhere and can no longer trust his own eyes. Enter psychiatrist Egon Schwarz, who promises help but instead hypnotizes the filmmaker into acting out his own sick urges.

It plays as a self-portrait told for queasy laughs: Fulci spliced gore footage from his earlier pictures into a frame story about an artist losing his grip. The result is part slasher, part jet-black comedy about the cost of making horror for a living. Squeamish viewers should steer clear, because the splatter never lets up. Fans of giallo and cult Italian trash, on the other hand, get exactly what they came for. Stream A Cat in the Brain online on iFILM.