The Cat with Hands (2001) User Reviews

Bugged-Out Short Film

[EVOL666 · 8/10 · 23 April 2006]

This little short was pretty damn cool. It would probably make a decent feature or perhaps a longer "short", since this one clocks in at about 4 minutes or so.

Basically an old man is telling a story about a cat-creature that "steals" body parts from others in an attempt to become "human". Turns out that the person he's telling the story to is this strange creature who has already gotten all the "parts" he needs, accept for one...

Some strange and chilling imagery make this one one of the better super-short films I've seen. Production values are also actually pretty high for such a small film. Definitely worth checking out...8/10

Hands to check

[mrdonleone · 8/10 · 29 January 2020]

Great premise: what if a cat had hands??? What would be the reason for such a creature to live!!? Definitely worth the view.

a petrifying and visually stunning short

[framptonhollis · 8/10 · 9 September 2017]

The only problem I had with this film was that I desperately wanted it to last longer! I could probably watch a feature length version of this film and be equally, if not even more impressed than I was by the original. This makes me hope that animator Robert Morgan manages to get a bit more support and cash so he can break into the film industry with some top notch animated features.

"The Cat with Hands" is a legitimately terrifying horror short from 2001 that has gained something of a cult reputation (particularly among fans of the internet's new wave of horror, which includes creepypasta,YouTube ARGs, deep web videos, and short films such as "Rubber Johnny" and this that may have been made before this "new wave" but have gained a lot of attraction because of it) due to its extreme creepiness and terribly unnerving vibe. The animation is disturbing, but its also beautifully in a demented sort of way. For stop motion animation, it is top notch and approaching Brothers Quay level quality! The animation plays an important role in the film's overarching mood as the animated characters look naturally freaky, so when the viewer sees these bizarre figures doing violent, messed up things, the scares are heightened to a frightfully fantastic extreme!

The Cat With Hands went from tame to bizarre quicker than a cat's purr.

[TheMovieDiorama · 6/10 · 10 October 2018]

Why is this not a full feature length film? This is the perfect example to illustrate my adoration for short films. There are no boundaries. One's imagination can be conveyed in the most creative ways, and this film proves it by utilising a combination of live action and stop motion. That's without mentioning how bizarrely creepy that cat was. A very short retelling of a story about a cat wanting to be human. Doesn't sound frightening at all. Heck, it sounds more cute than anything. But those expectations are quickly demolished when this cat quickly starts consuming bodies and mimicking specific bodily parts. What starts off with a cat with hands soon becomes a cat with hands and a human face. Gradually, the expressive imagination of director Morgan is fully realised. Turning an innocent domestic pet into a demonic creature that manifests the physical qualities of humanity. The inclusion of stop motion animation only further enhances the ominous story that is being told. The live action aspect is uninspired and reminiscent of a low-quality pantomime, so let's pretend those scenes do not exist. The sheer creativity and imagination in the stop motion is what makes this short film memorable and surprisingly eerie. It's unfortunate that the whole short isn't in the same aesthetic style, and if only it was that little bit longer to make more of an impact. Suffice to say it left me wanting more, but damn that was a harrowing four minutes. I'll never look at cats the same way...

A beautifully dark tale and my favourite short film!

[garnet-93 · 10/10 · 5 August 2008]

Prior to starting to make a short film of my own, shorts had never been my thing. I felt they were too....well........short to have any potential. Looking for inspiration for my own upcoming short film, I began to scan YouTube for scary short films with the atmosphere I wanted for my film, and I found this! This must be my favourite short film I've yet watched! I have a thing for dark movies (which I divide into three groups - Gothic, neo-noir, and twisted). This was twisted with a side dish of Gothic! I loved the atmosphere. Plus the whole story had a "campfire storytelling" style. I can't say what it's about because the twist ending is so surprising! (I love twist endings). If you love films like this, I recommend this one all the way! It's only three minutes long, but it squeezes all the magnificence it needs into that timeframe.

Good: Acting was good (although the movie didn't really require much from the actors); animation sequence (although it was puppet animation); surprise ending (I love those).

Bad: It should have been longer to flourish it's beauty! Overall: [10/10] It was a beautiful, dark, surreal short film.

Pretty creepy, a decent watch

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 11 September 2015]

"The Cat with Hands" is a 4-minute short film, which is actually a mix of animation and live action. The movie was made almost 15 years ago by Robert Morgan, who is a BAFTA Award nominee, but wasn't back then. So far he has only done short films and I wonder if his other works also mix live action and animation and if he someday will try making a good full feature film. This short film here was not overwhelmingly good, but it's a solid watch for a runtime of 4 minutes. This was certainly perfect as with 2 or 3 minutes more it may have dragged a bit. Decent Bristish short film overall I must say and I recommend watching it. Make sure your children don't watch it with you if they are small. This is certainly not the Hello Kitty cat story kind of stuff.

Never trust a kitten with human hands

[Rectangular_businessman · 9/10 · 5 February 2013]

"The Cat with the hands" is a brief, but genuinely creepy short, which combines animation with live-action footage in order to create a surreal tale of fear.

While cats have been involved with horror stories many times before (And I 'm a bit tired of the cliché of "cats being evil") "The Cat with the hands" uses this kind of concept in a quite original way, with effective results.

It had a magnificent atmosphere and a beautiful animation style which fit perfectly well with the dark, dream-like tone of the plot, which echoes some classic horror stories. Definitely more than worth-watching.

8.5/10

Cat got your tongue, and everything else!

[Foreverisacastironmess123 · 8/10 · 2 November 2019]

This short features an older man who tells a young silent man all about the frightening local legend of a strange hungry beast that seeks to make itself more human piece by piece, and which is said to have only one last organ to add to make itself complete, and as it turns out the old man should have been more careful of the company he kept... I never really appreciated this early short by Robert Morgan before, it's not a hugely mindblowing sick fleshy animation like his grotesque masterpiece Bobby Yeah is, but watching it now I really love the folklorish, dark fantasy quality that it has, it's very rustic and oldie world looking and it has a wonderful lyrical vibe that gives it the feel of a grim visual poem that perfectly sets itself up and ominously closes in a short but satisfying amount of time. The animation and the live action parts really go together great to me, the animation highlights the more fantastical elements and gives it a viscerally mystical feel. And oh my what a truly bizarre creation, it reminds me a little of the monster from Jeepers Creepers, but I kind of liked this one better! The cat as it first appears looks like a bizarre chimera of cat and man, kind of cute and harmless as it licks its human fingers, but then you see it devour a child and growl and it morphs into something much more monstrous and predatory, when it has the boy's face it looks positively grotesque and nightmarish, very unsettling and unnatural, you wouldn't want to pet it, and you'd never want it anywhere near your lap! And at the end when it looks completely human and unexpectedly rips the tongue right out of the unsuspecting man's mouth and stretches its own mouth to inhuman proportions in order to eat its poor victim alive and then sings in his voice, it's really spooky and weird! Is the hungry cat-thing finally done now that it's a whole stolen person at last or will it never stop eating up the unwary in its human guise? Grim ghastly fun and magnificently put together, this pleasantly creepy fable is one of Robert Morgan's best and really shows that he had his own particular brand of whacked out animation magic from the start! "With an artful of cheer..."

A+ short, terrifying, unnerving, and clever

[AstenCulloski · 8/10 · 26 November 2015]

I'm a big fan of Robert Morgan, and he succeeds to impress with this short film. The unnerving and downright strange nature of the entire film puts the viewer in a weird and vulnerable mood, establishing the atmosphere perfectly for what is to come. Morgan is a master of nightmarish stop motion flicks and in The Cat With Hands you'll see plenty of said technique. The human, live-action clips are almost unnecessary (I almost like the Pilot version better), but they do a good job in rooting the story in reality, giving it a bit of a background and meaning, and they do a very good job at showing the contrast of real life to the nightmarish land that depicts the cautionary tale in action. There's something extremely unsettling about Morgan's work and in this film it delivers full force, which is why I enjoy his work so much. He doesn't use cheap jump scares and throw things at the viewer with loud sounds to establish "horror" (which I would argue isn't even horror at all), instead he creeps you out to a breaking point where you're mind is messed up for the rest of the day thinking about what you just watched, and I love it.

the best short so far

[superkazabro · 10/10 · 6 March 2013]

what i think of the cat with hands well shocking out of nowhere whats the story about well it starts where a old man go to a well to get water while telling a story to this no named person who at the end we find out is the "cat with hands" well we see a flashback of a boy who first saw the "cat with hands" it goes to a cool claymation of the cat and the boy when we see the hands they look real all down to the finger nails and when the cat takes the boys face it removes it from the face it self and haves it blank while the cat has his face but i was confused when the cat "eats" the boy cause the old man said it took each peace of each person but if it ate the boy it must of fuse to it but the end was a BIG SHOCK is where the old man was going to say "but there was one peace he still don't have the ton-" the the man who did not talked kissed the old and but he bit of the tongue and rip it out and we find out is the "cat with hands" and he "eats" the old man and it just ends there and after that i got into the creator of the cat with hands and i think is the best short i seen so far

That was scary

[ericstevenson · 10/10 · 19 November 2019]

This was one of the earliest short films I saw on the Internet. It's only three minutes long, but boy, does it get its message across. It was literally based on a dream. Given the atmosphere, it's very easy to tell. The whole thing seems like a dream, especially the flashback. This tells the story of a guy who tells a story.

It's about a cat with hands and later a lot more. I admit to not being into stop motion, but the kind used here was very effective. It helps that it makes up the entire flashback. "Cats With Hands" was actually the name of a newspaper comic. Well, it's pretty much forgotten by now. This is a truly frightening film executed perfectly. ****

Well That was Terrifying!

[dieamylein · 10/10 · 21 March 2022]

Never want to see that again, will be showing this to my friends.

But I have one question: Why in the 9 levels of hell would you make this???A Cat with Hands?? Whyy?!