''Are We Not Cats'' is a 2016 horror romance film written and directed by Xander Robin, about two strangers who spark romance through an unusual habit. The film stars Michael Patrick Nicholson, Chelsea Lopez, and Michael Godere. The film premiered at the

73rd Venice International Film Festival The 73rd annual Venice International Film Festival was held from 31 August to 10 September, 2016, at Venice Lido in Italy. English filmmaker Sam Mendes was the jury president of the main competition. Italian actress Sonia Bergamasco hosted th ...

and was listed as one of the top 10 horror films of 2018 by

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

Synopsis

After losing his job, girlfriend, and home in a single day, Eli, a desperate twenty-something accepts a delivery job in a remote upstate backwater. There he meets Anya, a beguiling young woman with whom he shares a strange habit. Eli's skin picking is reminiscent of

Excoriation disorder Excoriation disorder, more commonly known as dermatillomania, is a mental disorder on the obsessive–compulsive spectrum that is characterized by the repeated urge or impulse to pick at one's own skin, to the extent that either psychological or ...

and

Trichotillomania Trichotillomania (TTM), also known as hair-pulling disorder or compulsive hair pulling, is a mental disorder characterized by a long-term urge that results in the pulling out of one's own hair. A brief positive feeling may occur as hair is rem ...

, while Anya's hair picking is reminiscent of Trichotillomania and

Trichophagia Trichophagia is a form of disordered eating in which persons with the disorder suck on, chew, swallow, or otherwise eat hair. Citing The term is derived from ancient Greek θρίξ, ("hair") and φαγεῖν, ("to eat"). Tricho-phagy refers onl ...

, leading to a climactic case of

Rapunzel syndrome Rapunzel syndrome is an extremely rare intestinal condition in humans resulting from ingesting hair ( trichophagia). This syndrome occurs when a trichobezoar (hairball) reaches past the small intestine, and sometimes even into the colon produci ...

Cast

* Michael Patrick Nicholson as Eli * Chelsea Lopez as Anya * Michael Godere as Kyle * Dean Holtermann as Al * Charles Gould as Ari * Adeline Thery as Madeline * Alice Frank as Alice * Tuffy Questell as Dennis * Theodore Bouloukos as Dr. Mooney * Carson Grant as Hawke * Joe Buldo as Jack * Ernst Zorin as Shvitzer Sam * Marika Daciuk as Sonia *

Bill Weeden Bill Weeden (born August 8, 1940) is an American film and stage actor, comedy writer, and songwriter. Early life Weeden was born on August 8, 1940, in Melbourne, Florida He graduated from Yale University in 1962. Film and television career Weede ...

as Diner Dad * Alex Goldberg as Max

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

as the closing film of the Critics Week sidebar. It later screened at 2016

Sitges Film Festival SITGES - International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia () is an annual film festival held in Sitges, Catalonia, Spain. It specializes in fantasy film, fantasy, Horror film, horror and Cult film, cult films. Established in 1968, the festiva ...

Stockholm International Film Festival The Stockholm International Film Festival () is an annual film festival held in Stockholm, Sweden. It was launched in 1990 and has been held every year since then during the second half of November, and focuses on emerging and early career fil ...

Oldenburg International Film Festival The Oldenburg International Film Festival, sometimes called the ''European Sundance'', has covered the international film scene in all aspects since 1994. It is held in Oldenburg (city), Oldenburg, Germany. History Films such as Park Chan-wook� ...

Chicago International Film Festival The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964 by Michael Kutza, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America. Its logo is a stark, black and white close up of the comp ...

, and won best narrative feature at the 2017

Sidewalk Film Festival The Sidewalk Film Festival is an annual film festival taking place during the last weekend in August in the Theatre District of Birmingham, Alabama, since 1999. The festival typically screens at seven venues located within downtown Birmingham, fea ...

. ''Are We Not Cats'' was released in North America in 2018 by

Cleopatra Entertainment Cleopatra Entertainment is the film division Los Angeles–based label Cleopatra Records Cleopatra Records is a Los Angeles-based independent record label that has the sub-labels Hypnotic Records, Goldenlane, Stardust, Purple Pyramid, Deadl ...

. It was later released to stream on Shudder.

Reception

the film has a rating of 91% based on 11 reviews. On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

it has a score of 68% based on reviews from 5 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

References

External links

* *
''Are We Not Cats''
on

Letterboxd Letterboxd ( ) is an online social cataloging service for film founded (partially with investment company Tiny since 2023) and owned by Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow in 2011, and headquartered in New Zealand. Members can rate and review ...

*
Are We Not Cats
' on

''Are We Not Cats''
on

2016 independent films 2016 films American independent films American body horror films {{2010s-US-film-stub