Cat’s Eye (1985) is one of those delightfully odd Stephen King projects that feels like you stumbled onto it at 2 a.m. and somehow it’s still stuck in your brain the next day. In a recent episode of Occult Pop, hosts Danica Simone and Guy Quintero dig into the film through an occult lens, specifically focusing on the third segment of the anthology, “General,” and the surprisingly rich spiritual symbolism hidden inside a story about a cat, a child, and a tiny creature in the wall.
If you haven’t watched the movie in a while, Cat’s Eye is structured as three short stories: “Quitters, Inc.,” “The Ledge,” and “General.” Simone and Guy skip the first two to zoom in on what they see as the heart of the film’s mystical theme: a stray tabby cat on a mission. Throughout the earlier segments, the cat keeps appearing, as if being pulled forward by something unseen. By the time we reach “General,” we learn why... he’s been receiving visions of a little girl named Amanda (played by a 10-year-old Drew Barrymore) who is in urgent need of protection.
Amanda is being preyed upon by a small malevolent being that slips through a hole in her bedroom wall at night and climbs onto her chest to steal her breath (or life essence). Guy connects this to a well-known motif in folklore: entities that target children, especially in homes without traditional guardians like dogs or cats. Amanda’s household is a perfect setup for vulnerability. No protective animal presence, only a bird, Polly, whose distress signals go ignored. In occult terms, it’s a classic “warnings unheard” scenario: intuition chirping in the corner while the conscious world sleeps.
The creature itself sparks an interesting debate. Simone calls it a troll, which aligns with the film’s presentation, but Guy suggests a more specific classification: a type of Fae sometimes called a “Cap,” named for the distinctive cap these beings wear. He notes that “Red Caps” are portrayed as especially violent in European lore, while smaller variations may be less physically imposing but still dangerous, particularly when their aim is energetic extraction. Whether you label it troll, cap, or simply “fae-adjacent,” the point remains: something parasitic is feeding on a child’s vitality.
That’s where General, the cat, becomes more than just a heroic animal. He becomes a familiar.
Simone frames General’s bond with Amanda as a spiritual connection: the cat is not merely adopted; he is called. The visions suggest an etheric link, as if Amanda’s higher self (or some protective force around her) reached out for help. Guy expands on that idea, pointing to the “superconscious” and the concept that our higher selves may operate closer to the divine, guiding protection into our lives when we can’t consciously do it ourselves.
What makes “General” so satisfying is how cleanly it maps onto the familiar/guardian archetype. General seeks Amanda out, arrives exactly when needed, and remains singularly focused on shielding her from unseen harm. And Amanda, in turn, chooses him back, reinforcing the bond. It’s a spiritual partnership wrapped in a simple story: a child believes, an animal responds, and the unseen threat loses its foothold.
In the end, Cat’s Eye becomes less about horror and more about the quiet magic of companionship. As Guy puts it, animals aren’t just pets; they can be allies. For the spiritually inclined, the message is clear: sometimes protection doesn’t arrive as a grand ritual. Sometimes it shows up as a stray cat with a mission.
Transcript & Show Notes
00:00 - Stephen King's Cat's Eye (1985) Occult Movie Review
Danica Simone: This is Occult Pop, where we talk about popular culture through an occult lens. I am Danica Simone.
Guy Quintero: And I'm Guy Quintero.
Simone: Thanks for joining us today. We have a really interesting movie we're going to be talking about: Cat's Eye. Which is from, it came out in 1985, written by Stephen King. And Cat's Eye is actually an anthology.
Guy: Yeah.
Simone: There's three different stories happening, and it follows the cat on its journey. We’re not going to talk about the first two. We're only really talking about the third one. And that's called, well, let me get into the synopsis really quickly. I don't want to skip through the synopsis. So Cat's Eye came out in 1985. It's an American anthology horror thriller film written by Stephen King. It comprises three stories: Quitters, Inc., The Ledge, and General. And like I said, we're gonna be focusing on specifically General.
00:55 - General the Tabby Cat: The Ultimate Guardian Familiar
Simone: General is a stray tabby cat on a journey to track down a girl he sees in a vision. He sees the vision throughout, like the first anthology and the second anthology. And this, the whole movie is about his journey on trying to get to the girl, because he has this vision that she needs help. So he's on a journey to track down a girl he sees in a vision. She's in dire need of a guardian. The girl, Amanda, played by a 10-year-old Drew Barrymore, is in mortal danger from a small malevolent troll that emerges via a hole in one of the walls in her room and tries to supernaturally steal Amanda's breath.
01:38 - Why the Fae Attack Unguarded Homes & Children
Guy: Yep, and that's definitely a prevalent story amongst the Fae.
Simone: Yep.
Guy: The Fae, which we covered in a previous episode on our flagship show, the Veil Between podcast. So they like to go after children. And houses without dogs and cats are very susceptible. And this one did not have a dog or cat. They had a bird, I believe. Right?
Simone: Yeah, they had a bird. She had a bird, Polly.
Guy: The bird was chirping, but no one was listening.
02:01 - The Supernatural Pet Connection: Ethereal Bonds Explained
Simone: Until General finally found her. He was, like I said, a stray, but he had visions of her. So he had this connection, this bond, like he knew this little girl needed him.
Guy: Yeah.
Simone: And so he found her through this journey. And that third anthology is he finally finds Amanda, the little girl. And when he gets there, yeah, there's this troll that comes into her room at night. I mean, it's a tiny little thing.
Guy: Yeah.
Simone: And like we said in the Fae episode, trolls can either be small or they can be really, really large, like giants. And so this one was tiny and would stand on her chest and like try to like suck out her breath, which is just another way to say, he was taking her life essence.
02:48 - Caps vs. Trolls: Identifying Malevolent Fae Entities
Guy: I don't think this nomenclature specifically was a troll troll. I think this was a type of Fae known as a Cap because they wear a cap. So there's different types of Caps, but the Red Caps are the more crazy violent ones. The smaller Caps are what I think Stephen King was trying to convey in the story.
Simone: Not to be confused with the Kappa, right?
Guy: No, no.
Simone: Okay, cause…
Guy: They're just, the Europeans call them Caps.
Simone: Okay.
Guy: Because they wear caps.
Simone: Okay.
Guy: That's the kind of their style. So this one kind of wore like a jester stocking cap. Regardless, it is still the same thing. Whether they’re trying to steal the child's essence, energy, soul, you know, like that. The Fae kind of blend, they kind of sometimes they kind of blend territories. So this one could be a troll; someone might see it and think it's a cap. Either way, there's still the same problem. They're going after the children in an unguarded home. Sorry, I'm just throwing out that occult lore out there.
03:46 - Signs Your Pet Has Chosen You as Their Familiar
Simone: No, that's great. That's what we're here for. So, as far as the familiar bond, I would definitely say that General was Amanda’s familiar, and he was a guardian spirit for sure. A guardian familiar.
Guy: Yeah, he definitely, well, he bonded with her quickly. It's quicker than the process actually takes place, but…
Simone: It shows, it portrays him choosing her.
Guy: It does portray him choosing her. Yes.
Simone: He sought her out.
Guy: Yeah.
Simone: He felt that bond already. He felt it ethereally, and he sought her out.
Guy: Yeah.
Simone: And he was a true guardian familiar because he was solely focused on protecting her.
Guy: He was. And she chose him. So I think that's one of the things that strengthened their connection.
Simone: Yeah. She bonded right away.
Guy: Right away with him. Like she kind of knew he was supposed to be there.
Simone: Yeah. I mean, you might also think that if he's having visions of her, I mean, she was in the vision, she was like, “You have to find it. You have to help me.”
Guy: Was the superconscious reaching out to him?
Simone: Was she reaching out? Yeah. Was she reaching out unknowingly, unconsciously reaching out for help? And he was tuned into it and was like, I'm coming.
Guy: Yeah. It’s a possibility. Our higher selves know what's best for us. That higher self is closer to God than we are.
Simone: Anything else to say? Because I think I think that really covers it.
Guy: That does really cover it. The beauty of animal familiars.
05:05 - How Dogs and Cats Protect You from Unseen Spiritual Threats
Guy: The animals are very special and, you know, we've, God gave us dominion over them. And they’re a good thing to have. I would suggest if you have children, get some pets unless you're allergic, of course, to things happen like that. But if you're spiritually inclined, I would suggest you get a pet, a dog, a cat, at a minimum. Because they can really help you out a lot with the unseen and a lot of things that happen on the other side that we can’t, we're not aware of immediately.
Simone: Okay. Well, with that, we'll say have a good rest of your day, and we'll see you next time.
Guy: Thanks for joining us. Like, share, and subscribe. A little late on that one, right?
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