"The mouths of the reanimated dead emitted a gruesome, bloodcurdling howl that sounded like a burial march played backwards and became a whirlpool of sound. The hairs on my back stood on end like wire bristles. I was afraid I would lose my mind if I had to witness this insane performance any longer, but there was no escape..."
Felidae. With the plot of a Film Noir, it is obvious that the novels and the movie are not for kids. But even that belies just how horrifying it is at times...
- The dream sequences. All of them.
- The numerous gruesome deaths in the movie. This includes Felicity's decapitation, and kittens being ripped out of their mother's womb. And no, there is no Gory Discretion Shot. Then again, the deaths already happened when Francis gets to them save for Claudandus.
- Felicity is arguably the worst, even compared to Solitaire and her torn-out kittens. Francis finds her with her head torn off and moved to one side, staring blindly out. What he says later makes it even worse: 'It was as if, even in the moment of her death, she still was straining to see...'
- During the cult scene, some cats get electrocuted voluntarily as part of the Claudandus ritual, getting more and more crazed with each jolt. Even Francis lampshades that what he's watching "is not a scene out of The Aristocats." In the novel Francis also mentions the Aristocats.
- After Francis finds out that Pascal/Claudandus is the one behind the murders, he destroys the computer containing said information on the murders, subsequently causing an electrical fire. The final battle between Francis and Claudandus plays out like Simba and Scar's final battle, only Claudandus gets clawed in the stomach, ripping it wide open, causing all of his guts to spill out. Don't eat anything while watching the scene.
- The footage of Pretarius testing his compounds on the cats, which sadly has some truth in television. It's so gruesome the fact that he's doing it while drunk on cheap wine actually isn't the worst part of it.
- The worst part of it all: Claudandus's plan would not have worked. Like every "master race" madman before him, he operated under a complete misunderstanding of evolutionary theory that really only existed to serve his own ego. All of this was pointless.
- The film, like its spiritual cousin Watership Down, gives a very frank, dark look at what our cuddly, beloved pets are really like. No, obviously they aren't really evil masterminds, nor do they secretly have their own little society behind our backs (probably), but as far as the violence, sex, and killing, that's what cats are really like. We can anthromorphise them all we like, but at the end of the day, cats are not humans. They're a barely domesticated predator species that sticks around because humans offer food and comfort.
- The novel contains arguably the most gruesome and shocking scene in any book at the time. In the dream, Francis finds himself back in the garage where he and Bluebeard had found Deep Purple's body. Only Deep Purple is very much alive. What happens next is pure, unadulterated Body Horror and Gorn as Deep Purple's neck wound sprays a fountain of blood, and the next thing you know, he's screaming at Francis to get off his territory. But it gets worse. Francis proceeds to describe Deep Purple pulling live kittens out of his neck wound and throwing them against the wall. Soon, Deep Purple starts rotating, continually throwing the kittens onto the wall until the room is left covered in blood before Francis finally wakes up. Many, many fans will tell you that this is the novel's most disturbing scene, and they're not kidding.
- The end of the video diary, which is Claudandus glaring hatefully at Dr. Pretarius.
- Similarly, the disgusted look Ziebold gives Pretarius.
