The Black Cat – Severin Films (4k UHD/Blu-ray Combo)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy, 1981
Director: Lucio Fulci
Writers: Biagio Proietti, Lucio Fulci
Cast: Patrick Magee, Mimsy Farmer, David Warbeck, Al Cliver, Dagmar Lassander, Bruno Corazzari, Geoffrey Copleston, Daniela Doria

Release Date: October 13th, 2026
Approximate Running Time: 91 Minutes 48 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 HDR10
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono Italian, DTS-HD Mono English
Subtitles: English, English SDH
Region Coding: Region Free (4K UHD), Region Free (Blu-ray)
Retail Price: $49.95

"In a rural English village, an increasingly deranged professor (Patrick Magee of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE and ASYLUM fame in his final lead role) obsessed with the supernatural will instill his pet feline with powers of homicidal mayhem." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.5/5 (4K UHD), 4.25/5 (Blu-ray)

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "newly restored and scanned in 4K from the original camera negative."

The Black Cat comes on a 66 GB dual layer 4K UHD.

Disc Size: 59.5 GB

Feature: 58.4 GB

While Lucio Fulci’s The Black Cat is a film that has never fared well on home media, Severin Films' release aims to correct that. Although the source still has some minor damage, including a line that appears on the right side of the frame a few times, it has never looked better on home media. Flesh tones and colors look correct, image clarity and black levels are strong throughout, there are no issues with compression, and the image retains an organic appearance.

The Black Cat comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 40 GB

Feature: 27 GB

This Blu-ray uses the same master that is used for the 4K UHD disc.

Audio: 4.25/5 (Both Audio Tracks)

This release comes with two audio options, a DTS-HD mono mix in Italian and a DTS-HD mono mix in English. The two tracks are comparable; both tracks are an improvement over previous home media releases. Both tracks sound clear and balanced, and the ambient sounds and the score are well represented. Included are removable English subtitles for the Italian-language track and removable English SDH for the English-language track.

Extras:

Extras on the 4K UHD disc include a theatrical trailer (2 minutes 59 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles).

Extras on the Blu-ray disc with the film include a theatrical trailer (2 minutes 59 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), an interview with composer Pino Donaggio titled Symphony for a Black Cat (11 minutes 33 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with camera operator Roberto Forges Davanzati titled Nine Lives (16 minutes 37 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with special effects artist Paolo Ricci titled Of Bats and Cats (11 minutes 48 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), and an interview with screenwriter Biagio Proietti titled Mr. Poe and Me (26 minutes 55 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles).

Extras on a second Blu-ray disc include a career-spanning interview with actress Dagmar Lassander titled Frightened Dagmar (20 minutes 10 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo German with removable English subtitles), an archival interview titled At Home With David Warbeck (70 minutes 20 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with Stephen Thrower, author of Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci, titled From Poe Into Fulci: The Spirit of Perverseness (25 minutes 39 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles) and a locations featurette with Stephen Thrower titled In The Paw-Prints of The Black Cat (8 minutes 28 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles).

Summary:

A professor with psychic abilities uses telepathy to communicate with a black cat who kills his enemies.

After two decades as a director, Lucio Fulci was hitting his stride in the late 1970s/early 1980s with what is widely regarded as his most celebrated films. The Black Cat, made during this outstanding run of films, is often overlooked when discussing his other horror films from that era. While The Black Cat takes its name from an Edgar Allan Poe story, it is a very loose adaptation that actually borrows elements from other Poe stories.

There are two areas where The Black Cat is noticeably different from Lucio Fulci’s other films from the early 1980s: it is not as gory and how grounded in reality it is. When it comes to the scenes where the black cat attacks, Lucio Fulci employs a POV camera that greatly heightens the mood. The visuals are overflowing with atmosphere and they are infused with a gothic horror style that is reminiscent of the Hammer Horror films and the Roger Corman Edgar Allen Poe films of the 1960s.

Although Lucio Fulci’s films are more known for their mood than their performances, The Black Cat features an outstanding performance from Patrick Magee (A Clockwork Orange), who portrays a professor with psychic abilities. The only performance that disappoints is Mimsy Farmer’s (Four Flies on Grey Velvet) portrayal of a photographer, an outsider visiting  the town. Other notable cast members are Dagmar Lassander (Hatchet for the Honeymoon), Al Cliver (Zombie), and David Warbeck, who worked with Lucio Fulci on his masterpiece The Beyond.

While not as gory as one has come to expect from Lucio Fulci, The Black Cat features several well-crafted moments of carnage. When it comes to the special effects, they hold up well considering their limitations. The most notable moment is a scene where a room is engulfed in fire. Not to be overlooked when discussing The Black Cat is Pino Donaggio’s (Carrie) remarkable mood-enhancing score. Nine years after this film, Pino Donaggio would score his second of two The Black Cat adaptations for Dario Argento’s Two Evil Eyes segment.

One’s opinion of a film can be significantly influenced by the timing of when it is watched, particularly in relation to other films by the same director. This has certainly been true for me, as I viewed The Black Cat after watching all of Lucio Fulci’s other horror films from the late 1970s and early 1980s. Upon reflecting on The Black Cat, I have found that my opinion of it has evolved over the years. Nevertheless, The Black Cat remains a solid horror film that takes familiar story elements and subverts them.

Severin Films gives Lucio Fulci’s The Black Cat its best home media release to date. Highly recommended.

Note about the 4K screenshots: It is not possible to make Dolby Vision or HDR10 screenshots that faithfully match the experience of watching a film in motion on a TV. Instead of not having any screenshots, all of the 4K screenshots are m2ts taken with a MPC-HC player and lossless PNGs.

                                                 An example of the source damage.

Written by Michael Den Boer