A 40-Year-Old Stephen King Movie Will Soon Be Streaming for Free

Stephen King fans have a unique nostalgia trip coming their way when the 1985 film Cat’s Eyes hits Tubi on June 1st. This is one of King’s lesser-known films, but the author was more directly involved with it than many other adaptations of his work. Cat’s Eyes is anathology film, with three separate vignettes told one after another. The first two are short stories by King — “Quitters Inc.” and “The Ledge” — while the third is an original story created for the movie, called “General.” The only things connecting the three stories are a mysterious cat and a little girl played by Drew Barrymore. Since the movie will soon be streaming for free, it’s definitely worth checking out.

Cat’s Eyes was directed by Lewis Teague, but what really sets it apart from most adaptations is that the script was written by King himself. “The Ledge” was first published in 1976 in the magazine Penthouse, then included in the 1978 collection Night Shift. “The Ledge” was first published in Night Shift, and “General” was written especially for this project. Like many of King’s stories, these three involve psychological torment and some psychic powers, but the third vignette gets a lot more supernatural.

Cat’s Eyes attempted to capitalize on the success of the film adaptation of King’s novel Firestarter, released the previous year. According to AFI, producer Dino de Laurentiis was impressed with Barrymore’s performance in Firestarter, and wanted to pair her up with King’s work again. De Laurentiis already had the rights to a few of King’s short stories, so he approached the author with the idea of creating a new story centered around Barrymore. He would use that overarching narrative to tie together the other stories for a cohesive movie.

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The results were mixed — both in terms of box office returns and critical reception. Cat’s Eyes was made on a $7 million budget, and it grossed just over $13 million. Critics at the time liked the movie, though many felt they were beginning to see the formula behind King’s writing. They compared it to other adaptations like Carrie. In the years that followed, Cat’s Eyes did not have the same lofty legacy as other King movies, though it didn’t lose favor either. At the time of this writing, Cat’s Eyes has a 68% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and an even lower 54% positive rating among user-submitted reviews.

King fans will definitely want to check this obscure gem out for themselves while they can. Cat’s Eyes will be streaming on Tubi starting on Sunday, June 1st.