Felidae (1994)
Felidae is a German animated thriller/horror film that came out in 1994 in the language of German. Based on the book of the same name by Akif Pirinçci that is part of a series.
How I Watched: Youtube (Remember to click closed captioning) English Dub available if you don't want to read subs.
You know how you look back in your life and remember that one kids movie and still get taken aback how dark and scary it was? Oh, I doubt it was only one! A lot of kids movies especially from my time growing up in in the 90s there are PLENTY of dark themes to movies marketed to kids. I will say that Felidae is NOT a kids movie and I would be hella shocked if it ever was one due to the nature of it.
I did catch this movie on Youtube as linked above and reading through the comment section apparently a lot of people watched this as CHILDREN! Uh What?! I absolutely would never allow my kid to watch this movie. As a teen? I mean, sure.
Enough blabbering. For the short of it, Felidae is a movie about a new cat that just moved to a new neighborhood and observes a string of cat murders. He investigates and realizes that these murders go way deeper than what meets the eye.
The long of it? Oh boy!!!
Francis is the new cat in town as his owner, Gustav, is a writer and just likes to up and move when he gets writer's block so here they are. The second Francis steps in the house, his cat senses be tingling. There is a residual scent that is not resonating well with him. He immediately stumbles upon a fallen feline in his backyard. This is where he meets an old grump named Blaubart (BlueBeard in English) and this cat curses like a sailor, if one exists. He's standoffish yet he did get quite informative in his own blunt way that this is the work of the CAN OPENERS!
Who are the can openers you ask? In Blaubart's own words:
And yes, this is in fact accurate translation and not some rogue troll defiling the caption translate. I know enough German bad words to confirm. DU HAST MICH!!!!
We're barely 15 minutes into this movie now and we see a series of very morbid incidents ranging from nightmares, more cat murders and what Francis stumbles upon: a secret cat meeting in the top floor of his own house to worship Claudandus which included ritualistic suicide.
Francis very quickly learns about the lore of Claudandus and the significance this plays in this neighborhood disharmony. As if it didn't get any more creepy, it turns out that there was this diabolical series of experiments on stray cats. All of them died as a result except for one cat that this doctor has dubbed him Claudandus which translates to "he who must be concealed" in Latin. His whereabouts are unknown but has since been highly revered as a legendary martyr after he killed the doctor and freed the remaining imprisioned cats from their cages.
I mean, the rabbit hole goes deeper.
There is disturbing imagery that also takes form of a series of nightmares that plagues Francis. Straight up disturbing. Such as one where he sees an innumerable amount of feline corpses way past where the eye can see.
It's definitely one of those movies that's so dark but you still would like to see more? You absolutely get that feel and then some. The storyline, the soundtrack. Everything just hits in the right places.
By all means, since this is free and on Youtube, absolutely give this a watch for yourself. It is quite a doozy. I must bear repeating again, NOT a kids movie. Just because it's animated doesn't mean it's okay for the little ones.
There loads of cursing, but I'm sure 90% of that is from Blaubart himself. It's not just the vulgar language there is legit graphic depictions of cat torture and disembowlments. They definitely did not hold back on the morbid imagery! I personally can handle it since it's thankfully just an animated movie but I still get sympathy pains at the sheer extent of the depictions. I mean: There's a lot of blood. However, what I liked the most about it is that the gore isn't cartoonishly cheesy or anything. As they say, a little goes a long way. The abundance of blood in other movies tends to make the effect counterproductive so I am glad they didn't go all gore happy with it.
Disturbing movie. Somber movie. Interesting movie.
Watch it on Youtube when you get the chance. Youtube has the tendancy to just yank stuff without warning due to copyright I wouldn't delay if I were you. I would also suggest downloading it through various Youtube to MP4 sites if you want a copy for yourself. I personally couldn't find this movie on other streaming services that I actually pay for lol.
With that being said, what is my verdict?
Nightmare 90s, man and I dig it
If you are interested in watching Felidae, just watch it on Youtube as linked above. For some wack ass reason, I couldn't find the page for Felidae, even in its English translation.
Muchos gracias for stopping by and reading my silly blog. This is your German horror movie of the day. Stop by my sister blog for your German metal band of the day!
