My take: This movie is full of subtle frights and sexual frustration, there were times when I wanted to smack the characters over the head and tell them to get on with it. But that at least kept it interesting.
Rating: 2 out of 4 stars
Cat People is a far departure from other films of the period. While Universal monster movies were all about the visual monsters (The Wolf Man and Frankenstein), this movie kept the horrors hidden in the shadows and left you wondering if it was all in the characters’ minds.
Oliver and Irena when they first meet at the zoo.
Cat People is about Irena Dubrovna, a Serbian immigrant in New York who meets a dashing, young, and naive man named Oliver while she is sketching panthers at the zoo. He sweeps her off her feet in quick fashion.
But there’s a catch for the unknowing Oliver. Irena firmly believes in the folktales from her home village in Serbia, where witches once roamed and took the form of cats. Legend has it that if a young witch kisses a man and is held in his embrace, she will have the uncontrollable desire to kill him.
Irena starts to believe that she is descended from these witches. As a result, she won’t even let poor Oliver kiss her let alone share a bed once they become married.
My 2014 mind could not fathom a world where a husband would not at least kiss his bride prior to marriage. And it didn’t surprise me at all when Oliver’s eyes started roaming toward the girl in his office, Alice. Irena notices Oliver’s wandering gaze, and seeks her revenge in stalking poor Alice like the cats of legend.
In that way, Cat People is a slow-burn thriller. It called to mind Fatal Attraction and other stories of obsession bordering on mental illness. For this reason, I would recommend this to people who like psychological horror and subtle horror movies.
I got a copy of the movie through Netflix’s DVD service. You can also buy it on Amazon. Here is the trailer on youtube:
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