Samantha grows attached to the kitten she dubs Meow despite the landlord’s strict No Pets policy, but amidst a series of shockingly bloody occurrences begins to think the sweet kitten may be capable of murder.

MEOW is a bloodstained genre mash offering life lessons in demonic cats, dubious landlords and overbearing mothers. The film follows Samantha, a strong willed young woman in her 20s, who ignores her landlord’s strict No Pets policy and takes in a stray cat from the alleyway behind her newly settled apartment. Things quickly turn furry and bloody as the film turns into an 80’s themed horror flic.

As a filmmaker and cat owner with a passion for atmospheric horror I set out to use genre to effectively evoke the feeling everyone has experienced when a cat gazes into their eyes with that cold vacant stare. My story of Samantha, housing a stray cat during her bout of post-college angst, is told through the stylized lens of an 80s fright fest, injecting the film with moody atmosphere and goofy humor akin to the film’s far-fetched situations. I hope that even at the film’s most dramatically heightened moments, people can relate to our main character Samantha; as uncertainty looms over her like an ominous shadow, causing her to desperately grasp for the companionship of a stray albeit blood-thirsty cat in an alleyway.

Director Chris Jopp does all the things a horror film is supposed to have, but when adding the parodic and extreme touches, the film almost seems to grasp a nostalgic feel. Kept on constant edge with its synth-y soundtrack and blazing performances by Eleonore Dendy and Charles Hubbell, the absurd storyline lets us watch the film with a certain smirk. Cat people will love cats even more and cat doubters will become even more skeptic after watching this.