Published Oct 31, 2025
Kirsten McCarthy / Cats.com
It’s the week of Halloween, when watching scary movies becomes an especially popular pastime. With all the legends – many spooky – surrounding cats, felines have starring roles in several horror movies, and some are more than nine decades old!
Two movies titled The Black Cat, black and white classics from the 1930s and 1940s, have totally different plots and just share a name. Likewise, two more recent scary movies starring a cat share the Pet Sematary title, but the second one is a remake.
I have mixed feelings about cats being in horror movies – especially black cats, who already are the victims of negative myths regarding witchiness and bad luck. But, we are a community of cat lovers and we know how awesome these animals are – so, we can enjoy these movies for pure entertainment value.
This week, curl up with your cat on the couch, make some caramel corn, and watch at least one of these spooky films.
1. The Black Cat (1934)
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- Genre / Vibe: Crime, Horror, Romance, Thriller
Classic horror legends Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff co-star in this short black and white movie that lasts just a little more than an hour. In the opening, we see a silhouette of a black cat; then, throughout The Black Cat movie, an actual black cat makes a few ominous appearances and appears to be immortal.
Lugosi’s character, Dr. Vitus Werdegast, is a World War I veteran and prisoner of war who returned to Hungary to confront Karloff’s Hjalmar Poelzig, whom he considers a traitor that surrendered the army to the enemy. Meanwhile, a honeymooning couple collide with the drama when the bus carrying them and Werdegast from their train gets into a wreck. That brings them all to Hjalmar’s lair, where he practices Satanism.
Werdegast suffers from an “intense and all-consuming horror of cats,” also known as ailurophobia, and he freaks out during a toast when a sleek black cat walks by the adjoining hall, then stops and enters the room. Werdegast freezes, drops his drink, and then throws a knife at the cat. It appears that he killed the black cat, but don’t worry, cat lovers: This beautiful cat has nine lives, too.
I won’t spoil the rest of the plot. I will say that this film has constant background creepy music, with the score setting the ominous scene and adding to the suspense.
The credits, sadly, do not list the real-life cat who played the movie’s titular black cat, which is also nameless in the film. This shiny little panther is lost to history.
Interestingly, Lugosi goes on to play a role seven years later in the next movie called The Black Cat, which is unrelated to the first film.
2. The Black Cat (1941)
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- Genre / Vibe: Comedy, Mystery
This movie begins with a pudgy, shiny black cat sitting on a tree branch as the opening credits roll. The cat then descends down the tree as a creepy looking mansion appears, and the spooky and occasionally comical mystery begins.
This second movie called The Black Cat, which is a different story than the 1934 movie, has the whodunit feel of the game of Clue. The movie tells the story about Henrietta Winslow, an elderly crazy cat lady before that phrase was a thing. She has numerous beloved cats in her mansion, along with many cat statues. Her cast of cat characters includes two Siamese kittens sitting on her lap as she sits in her wheelchair, and a white cat that sadly meets misfortune. Interestingly, the black cat that frequently appears is an interloper, as Henrietta doesn’t allow black cats in her house. She thinks they are sinister. (Shame, shame – we know better!)
During the reading of Henrietta’s will, the family members learn that nobody will inherit anything until Henrietta’s servant, Abigail, and all the cats – who also aren’t credited in the cast list – are dead. Uh-oh. You guessed it: The movie becomes a murder mystery.
Spoiler alert: The movie ends with a litter of kittens!
3. Cat People (1942)
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- Genre / Vibe: Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
This World War II-era black and white classic features Simone Simon as Irena, a Serbian immigrant sketch artist who meets a nice man named Oliver while sketching a black panther at the Central Park Zoo. The two fall in love, but Irena has a crippling fear of intimacy – and not for the usual reasons. She shares a bizarre story about a ruler in her native Serbia many moons ago, when many residents turned from Christianity to witchcraft. The king killed them, but some escaped – and now, according to legend, they are “cat people.”
Irena fears that, if she had sex with her husband and unleashed passion, she would turn into a panther and attack him violently. Oliver is patient but naturally frustrated with his new wife’s delusions, so he takes her to a psychiatrist. But there are signs that the legend is true: Animals, including that black panther at the zoo, freak out when Irena is there. And an adorable Siamese kitten Oliver gave her as a gift hissed at her!
I won’t spoil how the inevitable disaster unfolds, but I will say there are two adorable kittens that make an appearance. The sleek big panther is gorgeous.
In 1944, a sequel came out called The Curse of the Cat People, featuring many of the same cast members yet a totally different story. It’s an intriguing movie that is more sentimental than scary, and there is only one cameo appearance of a cat at the beginning.
4. Cat’s Eye (1985)
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- Genre / Vibe: Comedy, Drama , Horror, Thriller
You know that any movie based on a Stephen King story is bound to be good, especially when the opening scene shows a close-up of a tabby cat’s eye. This male tabby cat serves as a bit of a nonverbal host in Cat’s Eye, an anthology featuring three short stories. The movie has the horror-comedy feel of Tales from the Crypt, with the cat as the Cryptkeeper who makes an endearing appearance at the beginning and end of each segment.
It’s the third segment that you’ll love the most, because the cat meets a family featuring a young Drew Barrymore as Amanda, the daughter stalked by a malevolent troll who lives in the walls and sneaks into her room at night while she’s sleeping. Meanwhile, Amanda falls in love with the stray cat she names General, but her mother doesn’t like cats.
The troll does the legendary thing Amanda’s mother blames the cat for – trying to suck out the breath of young children. General tries to protect Amanda, but gets blamed for the troll’s misdeeds. The mother even takes him to a shelter, but he escapes to run through the rain and save his girl.
But, all’s well that ends well. You will just love the final scene, where General gets a happy ending.
5. Pet Sematary (1989)
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- Genre / Vibe: Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
This horror classic, based on the novel by Stephen King, remains a favorite scary flick of mine a few decades after high school. A central theme in Pet Sematary is a young girl’s intense bond with her cat – a handsome dark gray cat named Winston Churchill, called Church for short. In fact, none of the movie’s terrible things would have happened if Louis Creed, Ellie’s father, hadn’t buried her beloved cat in an off-limits burial plot in the woods with sour ground known to resurrect any body buried there. But the person or animal buried there is resurrected into a violent monster. (Spoiler alert: This does not end well.)
A likely inadvertent element of Pet Sematary I really appreciate is the promotion of neutering cats, so they are less likely to want to wander away from home. Fast-driving trucks that speed through the community highway would hit outdoor pets, which is what started the “sematary.”
According to IMDB, seven blue British Shorthair cats played the role of Church, and each was trained to do a different action for the camera. Cool!
6. Pet Sematary (2019)
imdb.com
- Genre / Vibe: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
This remake of the original loosely follows the same overall plot as the first movie and Stephen King’s novel that inspired the screen version. But, you’ll see several differences between the two films – some minor details, and others, more significant. There is one change in particular that is shocking and alters the entire storyline, and it is closely connected to the presence of Church.
And speaking of Church, neutering is never mentioned in Pet Sematary, and the cat is now a medium-haired brown tabby. We recently wrote about one of the feline actors who plays Church: Tonic, a Siberian who also starred in the movie Caught Stealing. The three other Church cat actors are Leo, Jager, and JD.
Both Pet Sematary movies are a thrill to watch, so I highly recommend seeing both films!
