Cat's Eye

Three linked tales revolve around a stray cat that slips from one vignette to the next. The opening segment follows Dick as he fights to quit smoking and the pressure tightens into a creeping nightmare. In the middle, Johnny, a married man with a wandering eye, is forced by his lover's husband to stand on a perilous ledge above the city, testing nerve and loyalty. The finale centers on Amanda, who becomes a target for a malevolent gnome whose presence places the family cat under suspicion and turns a quiet night into a claustrophobic trap. The feline connection threads these separate stories into a single tense experience. Together the events loom, hinting at a dark moral undercurrent that remains unseen.

Directed by Lewis Teague, Cat's Eye adapts Stephen King's short fiction into a truly three-part thriller. The ensemble features Drew Barrymore, James Woods, and Alan King, backed by a modest seven million dollar budget that aimed for tight, atmospheric suspense.

Worldwide box office totaled about 13.1 million, roughly double the budget and signaling a modest commercial performance for a mid 80s Stephen King adaptation. The result kept the project afloat without becoming a blockbuster and reinforces the era's modest returns.

Cat's Eye is noted for its clever linking device, a stray cat that drifts through three separate tales, giving the film a singular through line. Drew Barrymore's memorable early performance anchors the anthology, while Stephen King's presence helped cement the era's appetite for horror wrapped in short formats for fans.

Reception was mixed, with critics noting the brisk suspense of each segment and the cat linking device as a clever through line. The film probes temptation and consequence, the danger in ordinary settings, and how appearances can mask predatory threats. It's a compact, sometimes uneven anthology that delivers tense moments.