I Saw the Cat Cam (PANIC) Meow in Dull Found Footage Flick

Title: Cat Cam

First Non-Festival Release: TBD

Director: Sara Werner

Writer: Hilary Helding

Runtime: 95 Minutes

Starring: Cronin Cullen, Bry Gallagher, Jiavani

Where to Watch: Check out where to find it here

This film’s review was written after its screening at the Panic Film Festival in 2026.

For any pet owners or lovers out there, the idea of leaving their furry friends behind for any reason or amount of time can be daunting. Unfortunately, life demands can get in the way of the relationships we treasure with these little fellas. Thankfully, many inventions and services have been developed over the years to alleviate owner’s anxieties about the time away. What happens when that isn’t enough? Or even worse, what happens when you know something is wrong and you are powerless to do anything about it?

Cat Cam follows the harrowing adventure of Jay (Cronin Cullen) tasked with pet sitting for his sister Sam (Bry Gallagher) and her girlfriend Riley (Jiavani) so they vacation in Paris. Their darling cat, Nugget, is very important to them and they are using this trip as a test for Jay’s responsibility to prove he can be a good uncle for their future child. While they are away, strange things begin happening. Faucets turn on, objects disappear, and soon Jay is shrouded in a mystery of the homeowners that came before them. As he unravels the mystery, more befalls the hapless pet sitter.

A dull indie found footage effort, the gimmick of Cat Cam wears thin almost immediately.

Without being too harsh on an indie film, Cat Cam is simply not good. Before diving into its flaws, there are a few positives to share. The concept itself has horrifying potential, if worked right, and subverts plenty of tropes that are found in usual found footage films. Since cat cameras are meant to be on 24/7, the issues of who continues to film, how and why, are unfounded. Additionally, the cat that plays Nugget is appropriately adorable and works the camera similarly to other furry friends in horror.

Stretching out a concept perfect for short filmmaking, Cat Cam grips its claws into the audience and refuses to let go for 95 minutes. Pacing becomes the killer early on, focusing on the back-and-forth between the homeowners and their cat sitter before mercifully transitioning into their vacation. Once they leave, however, the new issue becomes Jay’s adventures in cat-sitting.

As a character, Jay is simultaneously underwritten and overexposed in the feature. Often at the center of the drama due to his inability to do the simplest tasks, his stupidity borders on unbelievable. Of course, the audience knows that there is a presence in the home, his leap to blaming the paranormal for everything is laughable.

Thus, his relationship with Riley and Sam is strained. The remainder of Cat Cam deteriorates into Jay arguing with the couple over the introduction of the cameras and his irresponsibility in watching their cat, his literal one job as an unemployed would-be uncle attempting to prove himself capable of being in his future nephew/niece’s life.

There is a mystery behind what happened to the three but it plays out in the most obvious way that it is hard to care. Most scares amount to objects moving or falling on their own only to make themselves known by the cat cameras. If they were never there, would there be a story to tell?

Cat Cam doesn’t feel like exploring its more interesting threads either. The disappearance of the previous tenants is fine enough but the implementation almost makes them feel like an afterthought. Amidst the arguing, very little time is actually devoted to shaping the mystery or the horror behind Jay’s conundrum.

It isn’t fun kicking an indie film while it’s down but Cat Cam is a particularly difficult watch. Lacking direction, clear story progression, and any sense of tension, the project fizzles out with a whimper of a finale. Concept alone cannot carry a film. Cat Cam shows promise in creativity in the team behind it but serious work is needed to clean up the story into something more exciting or substantive.

Overall Score? 3/10