The Cats of Ulthar

 Book: The Cats of Ulthar

Rating: *****

"It is said that in Ulthar, which lies beyond the river Skai, no man may kill a cat..."

    A man gazes upon his cat as he lies in front of the fire, and reminisces about the tales of cats told back throughout history. The secrets they hold, the families related to him throughout jungles and Africa, the ways they are worshipped, and how "he", the cat, is "more ancient than the Sphinx, and remembers that which she hath forgotten."

    In June of 1920, horror author H.P. Lovecraft wrote the short story The Cats of Ulthar, and was one of his most favorite works he wrote - and it ended up being one of my favorites too. A short story of only two and a half pages, I was surprised at how much I got out of it. How enchanted I was, and also how creeped out I got from a small number of paragraphs. The way it is written, the story that follows - especially the ending, and the mental image it leaves behind in you has made it a story to stick in the back of my mind forever since. 

    A relatively simple premise, The Cats of Ulthar tells the story of how a law was passed in a town called Ulthar that banned anyone from killing a cat. In the town, an old cotter and his wife live there and are known for murdering any cats that come around their home. However, one night, they strike the wrong victim, and that is where the story takes a spin-around from just kind of weird to absolutely horrifying paranormal cultish expectations. 

    It is written in a memory-setting, a man dwelling on a story of the past, remembering the story about the law, and everything of how the story is written shows through memory-versioned third-person. It also supports this by having "eye-witnesses", other people reporting, and a lot of hearsay from others, which makes the story very effective in screwing with your mind.

        The ending, that of which I will not spoil, left me shivering, and I cannot look at my two cats myself the same way again - I must now give them much more respect and love that they deserve (although that's not possible as I already shower them with the stuff) because deep inside... they have dark powers...

    H.P. Lovecraft's The Cats of Ulthar is one of my favorite horror short stories - no, horror stories period - to have ever been made, and it was a privilege to read it. It gives me chills each and every time I read it, and think of that ending scene of what went on at that house - although it is very vague of what happened, we all very well know what did once you read the story. Honestly, the quote from the book here fits perfectly at the end of this small review for this small, yet heavily packed horror story.

    "And in the end the burgesses passed that remarkable law which is told of by traders in Hatheg and discussed by travelers in Nir;, namely, that in Ulthar no man may kill a cat."