The Film (4/5)

     20 years ago George Gimble survived a horrible car wreck which took the lives of his Mother and sister. Now having hit upon some hard times he takes his estranged wife Vivian and his daughter Cathy to his family estate to live, while they get back on their feet.   Cathy while exploring the house finds an odd-painting of her young, deceased Aunt and what appears to be an old, handmade doll. Soon after she begins to act strangely, and people in and around the house including the housekeepers begin to die.

    Cathy's Curse is Canada's answer to William Friedkin's the Exorcist and Richard Donner's the Omen. It seems like in the wake of those 2 films success, especially the Exorcist, every studio or producer wanted to cash in on their success. Of course, Cathy's Curse is much more fun than many of those Exorcist knock-offs.

   OK, so I'm going to cut to the chase. Cathy's Curse isn't particular well made or well acted. But it has a sense of weirdness that cannot be beat. There is something in this film's internal rhythm that I just caught on to. Between the soundtrack, and the anything goes atmosphere at play here (and probably the all too late hour I was watching), I really got into this one a lot.

It is obvious screenwriters Myra Clement, Eddy Matalon, and Alain Sens-Cazenave didn't really care so much about the powers that Cathy had while possessed, and just loaded her up with whatever abilities they felt would shock audiences, moment to moment. This anything goes approach might not work for some viewers, but it gives the film an aura of absolute strangeness that works in its favor. The negatives are overwhelming from the poor dialogue, to the terrible acting of said dialogue. That being said the finest actors couldn’t save this stuff, and in its own odd way contributes to the weirdness on display. I’ve watched a lot of Exorcist knock-offs in my life, and many of them are bad and some of them are better than Cathy’s Curse, but for sheer weird entertainment value none of them can beat this Canadian oddity.

Audio/Video (3.5/5)

    Cathy's Curse is presented by Severin Films in a quite solid 1:66:1 1080p AVC encoded transfer. Textures here are nice and solid, detail is well handled, blacks are solid, and grain is very natural here. Cathy's Curse isn't a very visual movie, but Severin's handling of the film is the best it has ever looked, and will probably ever look.

    We get an English track in mono that sounds great, the score comes across loud and clear and dialogue is audible throughout.

Extras (4/5)

    Severin presents fans of Cathy's Curse with the director's cut and the U.S. alternate cut. We get an interview called Cathy & Mum with costumer Joyce Allen and Actress Randi Allen.  There is an introduction to an L.A. screening by Birth Movies Death writer Brian Collin's and a commentary between film and filmmaker Simon Barrett. The disc is rounded off by the theatrical trailer.

Overall

     Cathy's Curse is a quite fun and truly bizarre Canadian rip off of the Exorcist. The Blu-ray looks and sounds excellent, and has a great slate of extras. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.