Crimes of the Black Cat (1972)

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Any movie with cat-throwing has got to be good. But when the cat is an actual murder weapon then there's a fair chance it's brilliant! In "Crimes of the Black Cat" someone is bumping off disreputable types (like blackmailers, heroin addicts, lesbians etc.) by throwing around a cat whose claws have been dipped in poison. Typical of a spaghetti suspenser - Yep! It was made by Italians - this copied the shower scene from "Psycho" and made its inspiration look like a manicure. Grisly!

The Hand (1981)

I love Michael Caine. He is to shouting what Maria Callas was to singing. In "The Hand" (directed by Oliver Stone for God's sake!), Michael plays a cartoonist who loses his hand in a road accident. He then develops a psychic connection with the hand and it starts killing his enemies. There are some good hand effects and a great cat-jumping-through-a-plate-glass-window scene, but it was shouting I came for and shouting I got. When the hand came off I thought I was going to faint!

"Where's me bloody 'and gone?"

"Where's me bloody 'and gone?"

Witchery (1988)

Lots of sex and gore in "Witchery" and I'm talking about the movie not the fashion line. Linda Blair, in a fabulous 80's mega-mullet, goes to a hotel haunted by the mysterious Lady in Black played by Hildegard Knef (of all people). Annie Ross has her lips sewn together and is cooked up a chimney and David Hasselhoff has his face splattered by an exploding zit.

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