Cats may be regarded as the cinematic equivalent of anthrax, but it turns out it hasn’t actually killed dozens of people. What will probably go down as the flop of the year was trending on social media recently, as a user posted a screenshot from the film’s credits apparently showing that an awful lot of people died while making the movie.
But legendary fact-checking and urban legend busting site Snopes was fast on the case, pointing out that this is merely a list of crew who were thanked for their help making the pic. Or, as they put it:
“This is a genuine still from the film credits of “Cats.” However, it doesn’t list dozens of people who died during the movie’s production. This portion of the credits simply lists various crew members who worked on the film. Many of the names that appear in the above-displayed image can also be found on IMDB’s list of crew members, where they are presented without any mention of someone’s passing.”
https://twitter.com/NintenZ/status/1208469366825721862
But while Cats may not have actually killed anyone, it may yet kill the careers of some of the people involved. The movie has received an absolutely scorching reception online, with audiences turned off by the creepy humanoid cat people with weirdly smooth groins and fleshy cat asses. Even the furry community, who you would think would go nuts for this sort of thing, aren’t happy.
The Cut interviewed some of them about the film and one of them replied as so:
“Many assume the fandom would be all about this. Okay, it’s got cat’s ears and tails. But look at it this way: I like Spider-Man, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I like spiders.”
Fair point. It seems the movie’s natural audience has turned out to be disillusioned Twitter comedians hungry for the next thing to mock. Whether that’s a sustainable audience for a ridiculous boondoggle like Cats remains to be seen. I’m tempted to check it out just to see how bad it really is, but I suspect it’s a decision I’ll fast regret when I’m sat in that cinema seat.