La Féline

"Cat People" is one of those movies that, by all rights, shouldn't be shown on network TV. That's not a comment on quality; it's one of the best erotic thrillers ever made (next to "The Hunger"). But when you have a movie where, for the last half hour, the female lead is mostly undressed ... how can you *show* the last half of the movie?

Very simply stated, they *don't* show it. I tried to watch Cat People on USA or some other network one night, and the last half hour had been cut down to about five minutes and made absolutely no sense. Worse, I was watching it with someone who had never seen it before, and when it was over, she was thoroughly confused and unimpressed.

So, number one: See this movie, if you haven't already! And number two, when you do ... rent or buy the video, or catch a revival on one of the premium cable channels.

Cat People is smart. Like most remakes that stand a chance, it keeps what worked in the original and reinvents it, twisting the narrative into something else. It's just a shame that this new narrative, for all its sexual implications, isn't terribly interesting.

The beautiful Kinski stars as a young woman who reunites with her religious fanatic brother in New Orleans and begins to realize that he's involved in a series of murders. Is he just a run of the mill serial killer or is he a "cat person" devouring hookers and tourists all around the French Quarter? Also, could she have this trait within her as well?

I'm not sure if it was the Blu-Ray I watched this on or if it was poor sound mixing in general, but the dialogue is so quiet and muffled that I had to turn the volume all the way up just to hear what everyone was saying before having to crank it down every time there was an attack scene. Eventually, I just turned on the subtitles and treated it like a foreign film.

There's a lot to like about Cat People. It has moments of the style, the acting is pretty good, and there's a twisted sexual perversity running throughout the story., but it's a bit overlong at nearly 2 hours and there's not enough to justify this runtime. We still don't really get a feel for most of the characters and Kinski's mid-film switch from sheltered, repressed virgin into femme fatale fails to convince.

It works pretty well as erotic horror/fantasy. Yes, there are some quibbles. Some of the special effects seem a little cheesy now, in the age of computer graphic effects. But, hey, it was 1982. A couple of times it was obvious that a character had jumped down and walked backward, and then the film ran in reverse to make the movements look more feline. Malcolm Mc Dowell came across as creepy and menacing, as usual. I had forgotten how beautifully doe-eyed an sylph-like Nastassja Kinski looked in this. And Annette O'Toole was great as the contrasting but lovely every-girl.

In general terms, the basic premise of both original 1942 CAT PEOPLE and the 1982 Paul Schrader remake are the same: an exotic European beauty is given to transforming into a black panther when sexually aroused. But Schrader unravels this fantasy concept in some very overtly Freudian directions, setting his version in against the decadent charm of New Orleans, introducing a theme of incest, and ramping up the original with a lot of nudity, a lot of sex, and some of the most graphic violence around. The result is an American blood-and-gore horror film with a hypnotic European sensibility that equates both sexual frustration and orgasm with violent death.

The story line concerns two orphaned siblings (Natasha Kinski and Malcom McDowell) who are reunited in New Orleans as adults--but they are, unbeknownst to the sister, the descendants of a mutant race who can only mate with their own kind without transforming into ravening beasts who must then kill to regain their human form. When sister Natasha rejects her brother's advances and then falls in love with a hunky zoo director all hell breaks loose.

In some respects the film is extremely, extremely frustrating, often sliding over the edge from a sexually provocative shocker into moments of annoying silliness--but on the whole it works extremely well as a both a sexual fantasy and a semi-camp statement in gratuitous sex and violence. Kinski is ideally cast as the sexy but virginal Irena; you can literally see the "cat" side of her nature emerge more and more as the film progresses. McDowell is equally interesting as her mad brother, and John Heard, Annette O'Toole, and particularly Ruby Dee offer excellent performances in the supporting cast. The New Orleans backdrop is extremely effective, and (speaking as one who has been there) the darker side of the city is perfectly captured; the Moroder score--which includes some sultry vocals by David Bowie--is also extremely good.

A great many people will loathe CAT PEOPLE, and the reasons will be diverse. The film is extremely bloody, often to a can-you-stand-to-look-at-the-screen degree; there is tremendous nudity and considerably sexual activity; and the combination of sex and violence into a sadomasochistic eroticism is quite disturbing. Beyond this, more critically inclined viewers may find themselves annoyed by the script's silliness and the fact that it does not always go as far over the top as it leads you to expect, and certainly the film's very literal depiction of fantasy elements will not be to every taste. But if you have a hunger to walk on the wild side, CAT PEOPLE (which is rapidly gaining status as a cult film) will suit your need as guilty pleasure.

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Paul Schrader's version of Cat People is a movie that I've heard of, but never seen. After reading some of the reviews of the movie, I've decided to see on my own for the first time. I must say that I wasn't expecting a whole lot out of this movie because a lot of people who have seen it compared it to the original 1942 Val Lewton picture from RKO. Well, I was very impressed by this version of Cat People and I must say that it's a exceptionally well made, well acted psychological horror film.

Irena, (Nastassja Kinski), arrives in New Orleans, visiting her brother, Paul, (Malcolm McDowell), for the first time. As the movie begins, Schrader sets up the movie very well. Hundreds of years ago, the feline group of mysterious people, called the Cat People, have the ability to change into a black leopard after mating. Unknowable to Irena, Paul starts to develop a incestuous feeling toward her as in one scene, which is, one of the best scenes in the movie, he stalks her while she sleeps in his house for the first time.

Soon enough, Irena is given a job at the local zoo in New Orleans by Oliver Yates, (John Heard). Yates soon starts a relationship with Irena after he witnesses her watching a black leopard, roaming around its cage, milling for food. Irena doesn't tell Oliver about her family secret. Instead, the movie gets even better when Heard and Kinski start a relationship between the two while McDowell takes a turn of the worse, using his cat-like instinct to kill and prey on women, living in New Orleans.

Almost some of Paul Schrader's films walk a tightrope between sexual tensions. He never back away from that particular theme in Cat People. Schrader, as you may know, written the screenplay for Taxi Driver and also directed two feature films, Hardcore, which shares some of the same elements in this film and American Gigolo. His films are quite daring, but nevertheless, interesting and engaging.

Some people might look at this movie as a sleazy exploitation horror film. But, to the tell you the truth, it is not. This is a very good looking movie, with great cinematography, showcasing many colorful sets and sights in New Orleans. Some of the scenes are quite suspenseful, almost ranking up there with the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. The imagery that is used in this movie are very well shot and photographed. One scene that sums it up at all up is when Kinski witnesses a leopard, tearing out a zookeeper's arm. What makes that scene work is that Schrader cuts that with a shot of a pool of blood, running through Kinski's shoes and into a drain in the floor of the zoo. That's very well done, indeed. You can almost feel the darkness and mystery of the picture itself, thanks to the superb music score by Giorgio Moroder.

Nastassja Kinski, I think, steals the movie, away from John Heard and Malcolm McDowell. She is one of the most interesting and mysterious actresses I've ever seen. She provides the movie with a spice of eroticism that lights up the scenes. You can't talk your eyes off of her nor ignore her. She is really something in this movie. Unlike so many other female characters in horror movies, she gives Irena a mind of her own when she develops sexual feeling toward the two completely different men. That's very daring for a actress to do in the movies.

Cat People is a very scary horror film that's very well made by Paul Schrader and also scored very effectively by Giorgio Moroder. An very good movie for adults to see. ★★★ 1/2 3 1/2 stars.