‘What Could Have Been’ is a continuing look into the reels of film history, analysing movies that could have been something special, but due to problems with script, production, budget, or any other type of issue, did not reach its full potential.
Talk about a rather convoluted story. Writer/director Luigi Cozzi’s The Black Cat (1989), which seemingly would be named after the famed horror short story by Edgar Allan Poe – which helped inspire other films such as 1934 and 1981’s The Black Cat (the latter reviewed here on Filmizon.com), 1934’s Maniac, Roger Corman’s 1962 anthology Tales of Horror, 1973’s Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (also reviewed here), as well as 2016’s Tomcat, when, in actuality, it has nothing at all to do with this tale. . . it instead simply being a film within a film that the actors are working on in this movie’s narrative.
Throw in the fact that this movie was also called de Profundis as well as Demons 6: Armageddon, which instead throws in a secondary horror tale revolving around a quasi sequel to Dario Argento’s Suspiria – that two of the characters are working on for their next motion picture, along with the reality that Cozzi hid a sci-fi plot within this movie – which is what he truly wanted to make (but the producers wouldn’t allow him to), and you’ve got arguably too much going on here.
Intriguingly, Argento’s ex Daria Nicolodi was the one to come up with the inspired Suspiria sequel – Argento had released its sequel, but had yet to film the trilogy ender, but it led nowhere until she tried to get her friend Cozzi to make it. In a rather dramatic position, he did not want to offend Argento by making a sequel to his films, instead working it into this already convoluted piece. In a relationship often described as volatile, talk about a lot of drama (you have to wonder if the main couple are based upon them).
Following two powerhouse movie couples that are also friends, Marc (Urbano Barberini) and Anne (Florence Guérin – originally the part Nicolodi was going to play), as well as Dan (Maurizio Fardo) and Nora (Caroline Munro – her second film with Cozzi after Starcrash; seen to your right with Filmizon.com’s Nikolai Adams), the former pair plan to direct and star in their next film – a story loosely based upon the same book as Suspiria, while Dan is on board to co-write. . . while his gal Nora desperately wants the starring role as well.
Excitingly, the legendary and long retired (so much so, some thought he was dead) now wheelchair bound producer, Leonard (Brett Halsey) is looking to fund the project. . . despite his rather old school, strict ways – seen in Marc and Dan’s first meeting with him.
Eerily, Anne soon starts getting haunted by the witch written about in her husband’s horror screenplay – Levana. Unsure if it’s reality, a horrific trance-like nightmare, perhaps she’s going crazy, or maybe even something different (or is it something to do with being a new mother), bizarre happenings begin to occur – from the refrigerator smoking and mirrors exploding, to fantastical children and repairmen showing up at their home. . . when in reality, they aren’t actually there.
With some questionable dubbing, random inserts of black cats (after Fox acquired the project, CEO Menahem Golan demanded Cozzi do so – as he had acquired the Poe rights and wished to promote it as such), striking cinematography somewhat reminiscent of Argento’s Suspiria, and unusually disconnected sci-fi and horror elements, there is no doubt that there are many intriguing premises here. . . and plenty to like, but in its rather disjointed finished form, it’s a bit of a quagmire of a conundrum. As an art house picture, a straight horror joint, a gross and gory goo-fest, or a meta sci-fi tale, it might have worked out rather well. . . as many elements look quite impressive for its low budget, but its ‘throw everything at the screen but the kitchen sink’ doesn’t wholly develop into anything congruent here.
A tale of mystery and multiple imaginations, The Black Cat is a curious exploration of a slew of themes pieced together in a most abstract way. Living somewhere between a reality and a dream, nothing is ever really discernable. . . a meandering enigma that feels a bit like you’re working on an abstract puzzle that’s missing some of the pieces. Nonetheless, it might be of interest to fans of cat horror, 70’s and 80’s Italian horror, or Suspiria. So, something wicked this way comes – you just have to decide whether it’s evil or excellent or something in between.