Kitty Kitty (2011)

“Cyberchondria: The practice of leaping to dire conclusions while researching health matters online.”

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I would like to thank independent filmmaker Michael Medaglia, director of Kitty Kitty for giving me one more thing to worry about.

This 10-minute horror film about toxoplasmosis, brain parasites and love is affecting. So very affecting. In fact, the short stayed with me for days and days. I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Apparently, according to my obsessive online research “up to one-third of the world’s human population is estimated to carry a Toxoplasma infection.” It is caused by contact with cats and/or raw meat. It has been linked to mental disorders like schizophrenia and depression.

For people with normal immune systems, there’s usually nothing to worry about. But sometimes and for some, the impact is …profound. And according to this short, quite repellent.

In Kitty Kitty, we meet Val and Seth, an average couple with a problem. Seth is in a “funk.” He’s quiet, oddly watchful, prone to staring at the TV. Val takes him to the doctor but they find nothing wrong.

Nonetheless Val knows something is wrong. So very, very wrong.

Gross, scary and at times laugh-out-loud funny, Kitty Kitty deftly shows us the devolution of Seth. Filmed beautifully in a David Fincher-style green-tinted stock, the performances are terrific and the storytelling remarkable – particularly when you consider its 10-minute runtime. Like I said, I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

It doesn’t help, of course, that I’ve been having a rather uneasy relationship with my cats of late. They are misbehaving because I’m spending less time at home taking a very dull course. The cats climb on my counters, scratch the banisters and act out …er, very, very badly particularly when I turn on the vacuum cleaner.

So does Seth.

I highly recommend you see this part particularly if you are looking for an appetite suppressant. It worked for me.

The good news for horror fans and people with ambivalent, strained relationships with their cats, this film is going to be available for free on June 10. Lend your bloodshot, film-obsessed eyeballs to the team’s goal of getting more than 1 million eyes  on this movie.

You won’t be sorry you did.

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10 minutes