Cat People

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Cat People

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Recent Reviews

Cat People Recent Reviews
  • SirPant
    October 1, 2009
    SirPant
    A Classic Val Lewton production directed by the master of shadows, Jacques Tourneur. The first of too few collaborations, this film probably being their best. Although I walked with a Zombie is my favourite, Cat people is technical superior and it?s the film that invented the 'Ju...( read more)mp'. The Swimming pool scene and the bus scene are classic originals that have been ripped off ever since. This is a wonderful film not to be missed and the chances are that your favourite films wouldn't have existed without it!
  • TheMachinist
    September 2, 2009
    TheMachinist
    "Oh, it's alright. It's just that cats don't seem to like me."

    'Cat People' is considered as a cult classic, which is odd for me because this film was very weak. Dull, monotonic and no suspension at all. Many of the 40's horror movies had famous horror actors in 'em but this mo...( read more)vie didn't have a single face that I recognize... The actors didn't even do a good job so what could save this film then?

    The story is about a young Serbian woman who has her own secrets. She meets a man, falls in love (reluctantly) and gets married. Why so serious then? Ain't love beautiful? She believes that she is cursed and her husband's life could be at stake..

    Didn't enjoy 'Cat People' at all. The whole falling in love thing, getting married was done so fast that I just couldn't stop laughing. The story didn't have anything that interesting in it. The only interesting elements in this movie was the two supporting characters, the cleaner at the hotel and the zoo janitor. These two characters saved this movie and stole the film from its stars.

    A film noir classic it might be but didn't work for me. No excitement, dull characters and a weak story with an ending that got my head shaking... Give it a try, see what you think of it.
  • hobster1
    September 16, 2008
    hobster1
    Brooding film noir from producer Val Lewton is a triumph of imagination over budget in this haunting horror film. Relies not on overt shocks, but on a moody sense of dread. The whole cast is brilliant but Simone Simon as Irena is especially effective, suggesting subtle catlike ...( read more)behavior in just her movements. Remade less successfully in 1982.
  • FangsFirst
    July 28, 2008
    FangsFirst
    The most famous Val Lewton picture overall I do believe, and one that has suffered ruination in my past--some documentaries saying "Watch now, this tense scene from Val Lewton's Cat People..." This is one of the most frustrating ways to see anything, as you cannot regain t...( read more)he surprise of context for films, which is part of the reason, I suppose, that I watch what I want when I want to and don't watch television--nothing to be ruined except unintentionally by my own hand, or perhaps, luckily, I will see references retroactively without having had them ruined, and simultaneously enhancing my pleasure in them through associations.

    Irena Dubrovna (Simone Simon) is a Serbian immigrant, working as a fashion designer in America and first seen sketching in front of a black panther's cage in a zoo, repeatedly tossing abandoned sketches, crumpled, into a nearby trashcan--except her aim is poor, and they land at the feet of Oliver Reed (!, not played by the then-five-year-old Oliver Reed, but Kent Smith), who designs ships. He walks up to her and begins to, as they say, "chat her up," and after some reluctance she eventually decides to give into the temptation he presents and invites him up for tea (not in the Eddie Izzard coffee invitation sense though) and the two begin to spend a lot of time together--declaring their love for each other a mere fifteen minutes into the film (!) but now Irene must reveal her fears about the legends of her village. In it, people began to "worship Satan" and practice "witchcraft," eventually leading to the razing of the village by King John, leaving only the most clever of these evil souls to survive in hiding. They were later the "cat people"--women who would turn to big cats in the throes of passion and rend their lovers to pieces. Irene fears this deeply and so keeps a distance from her husband, whose showing concern over the issue makes itself apparent to his co-worker Alice Moore (Jane Randolph), who breaks down and confesses her love to Oliver. Now, with the help of psychiatrist Dr. Louis Judd (Tom Conway) Oliver must try to save his wife from her superstitions and thus save his marriage. Unfortunately, her fears are too strong and she skips out on therapy, still hypnotized by the black panther we first saw her with. Now it's the tension of Irena's feelings of Alice's threat of closing in on Oliver while she tries to overcome her own fears about the legends she was raised with, which she cannot shake her fear of.

    Simon's French accent is thoroughly noticeable but easily dealt with by the logical plotting of a foreign character, while Smith is sufficiently conflicted in figuring out how to deal with a woman he thinks he loves who keeps so far from him, and Randolph manages the "best friend who has actually been in love with the protagonist the whole time" shtick quite well, too. Much is made of Lewton's subtlety, including by me in previous reviews, but studio interference ruins it in this film--there is no debate, as the movie is shown, as to whether the superstition is real. It's actually even disappointing when the question vanishes. This doesn't distract from the artistic skill of the film, Jacques Tourneur's skillful direction and the fast clip of its pacing keeping even a fifteen minute-in declaration of love seeming temporally reasonable, establishing passage of time clearly but not clunkily. The noir-esque shadows filling the film (and often hiding the panther that, but for the studio's ham-handedness, may or may not be there) add just the right element of confused mystery, as you are often seeking out the image--is it Irena in the shadows or a cat?--only to find nothing but darkness, looming mysterious shapes and the shifting of them as light plays off different objects and casts different shadows--especially in the infamous pool scene.

    I take some issue with the film's character approach, even as I applaud it--I had similar issues with Bedlam, which came later--because I found myself suffering a great distaste for everyone around Irena, who was originally to be left alone, only to be swept up by Oliver, who then decides to leave her for another woman, even as she has asked for time and he has promised it. Alice's "Oh, I've loved you from afar...!" is almost nauseating--couldn't she have said something before the stupid sap was bloody married? And of course the rather lascivious and morally suspect Dr. Judd, who seems intent on prescribing a treatment for Irena that would be termed malpractice without question by most souls. And then, of course, we have the studio's interference--now, somehow, the fact that we know the truth of the curse (rendering any idea of mystery around this moot, and retroactively setting the movie in a world where it isn't a question) means that, indeed, Irena is, in some respect, an uncontrolled evil. This sucks far too much sympathy away from a truly tragic figure, abused by a quack of a shrink, left by a husband for a woman who recommended her shrink, and that husband, too, sharing these intimate details with his "just a friend" female. It's awful to watch these people around her--and it feels like a slap in the face to be denied even the possibility that these acts were performed by a woman lost and confused by superstition--now it was inevitable that if her husband had kissed her, she'd have mauled him, so good for those two irritating lovebirds who ruined her, because she was already ruined.

    But, to have this reaction, I suppose says something of the quality of the film, though it really says more of the loss suffered when the studio insisted on more panther footage and an accurate "horror" billing that meant clearly defining the curse as true. A shame, but one that does not, again, distract from the quality of the work put into it anyway.
  • webalina
    January 20, 2008
    webalina
    This eerie story, of a mysterious woman who who carries a dark secret, has lost some punch over the years, but still has its moments. Made on a low budget by Val Lewton and Jacques Tourneur, they had to do more with less. A lot of the scary stuff is implied rather than shown. The...( read more)y say the mind can scare itself better than anything on the screen can, but in this day of "torture porn" and in-your-face horror, our imaginations may be a little weak by now. The most well-known of the Val Lewton-produced films, its still worth a look if you still like atmosphere over gore. It will at least make you think twice about walking down a dark street alone.
  • CHILIcheeseDONUTSwithTUNAonTOP
    September 4, 2009
    CHILIcheeseDONUTSwithTUNAonTOP
    A modern (for the time) horror with a gothic edge. A Serbian immigrant in NY marries a local guy. Troubled by strange nightmares about turning into a cat since she was a child, her new husbands looks to get her help with a psychologist. He confides some of these problems with a f...( read more)emale friend of his, which angers and embarrasses his wife. The husband gets closer to his female friend and his wife gets angrier and crazier, so they decide to lock her up, which apparently will not be a solution for whats wrong with her, an actual cougar.
  • emiliotejera
    August 27, 2009
    emiliotejera
    Good idea, but too quiet film, keeping you so much in the expectative. 1982 remake overcame this aspect, but maybe too much, so it lost a lot of the oriignal subtility of the film.
  • cinnamontree
    July 29, 2009
    cinnamontree
    I adored the subtleness and the play with shadows. Excellent eerie film noir.
  • brandonklaus2
    June 22, 2009
    brandonklaus2
    Hated this movie the first time I saw it back in college and this time I loved it. The lighting is incredible.
  • Blaxunshine
    June 14, 2009
    Blaxunshine
    You never know if your wife is truly an animal in the sack
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