Chad

TheBigDave

If you're streaming this, I recommend watching it at Movies Anywhere. They have a much better print. Vudu's version has a lot of damage.

I'm not sure if it's the same as the Criterion restoration. But the MA version looks pretty good.

Trevor

A near annual watch for me, fantastic film. The old Val Lawton DVD set is great, I often watch this with the supplements and the sequel, but this time I watched the newer Criterion Blu-ray.

MysterioMan007

First time viewing for me... I don't have much to say on this one. I liked it. It was a very charming movie and I enjoyed it.

TheBigDave

I just watched the sequel for the first time (Curse of the Cat People). Wow. Other than carrying over the same cast/characters, it has nothing to do with the original movie. I wouldn't even call it a horror movie.

Undeadcow

I'm a fan. Cat people is different enough despite it's age to feel exotic. I don't quite buy the love triangle with the husband's co-worker - they don't seem to have the same chemistry but maybe that makes the point that while Irene was too cautious about romance her husband too casual as polar extreme. It is odd that the lead so frequently finds herself at the zoo in night but the caged panther is a great image. The ending is a big odd that the husband is so deadpan when the morbid fact that his wife was turning into a panther is revealed. It's not clear to me why she collapsed/dies.

Edit: Thanks to TBDave below, appreciate that detail I must have missed.

TheBigDave

She was stabbed with the doctor's sword. When the panther knocks her down, the jacket falls off and you can see it sticking out of her back.

jacob_b

Movies are MUCH different back then to now. 75% of the movie was just talking and maybe one or two very slight chills. Acting is pretty good, at least. I just don't get the approval rating it has gotten. Maybe because there was nothing like this back then or something? Felt to me more of a romantic Lifetime type film (better acting here, of course) than a horror film. It just seemed like Alice just wanted to get it on with Oliver for the first half of the film.I was expecting more.

numbercrunch

A genre classic and one that has inspired a number of future directors like William Freidken. Cat People is a demonstration of gradual tension building.

wishbone

Third viewing and first time I noticed this.

Undeadcow

You make valid points. I appreciate the subtle building of character driven tension, the talky emphasis on evil with symbolism more than outright chills. It is a difficult balance because could be quite boring if the film didn't offer a bit more like with the woman claiming to be a sister or the psychiatrist going on about evil nature. I think films like Cat People use irony much more to build tension, stuff like that we know the assistant and the husband are involved and the wife does not yet. Movies are much different now but one could argue that we've gone too far to the other extreme of having visceral visual scares with too little character development.

Trevor

This.

I get the love for more visceral films too, horror and otherwise. Sometimes I want monsters and aliens and impossible situations. But a film like this I can more relate to the humanity in the characters and imagine myself in their predicaments.

jacob_b

Yes, it is a very hard balance and today just loves jump scares. I'm a big fan of getting images stuck in your mind and psychology films. I think it's why I really enjoyed Midsommar. I just felt like it could have given us more. I think maybe I just got annoyed with the main actor. He knew his wife wasn't going to have sex or anything. She discussed this early on with him. Just seemed more focused on the assistant wanting to jump the main actor for a good period of time, which isn't good considering the movie is only a bit over an hour long.

WillieMLF

They also mentioned and showed the broken cane handle. During Mank's commentary he mentions a lot of edits that were required by the censors, and I assume one was the cane fight where Irina gets stabbed (not seen and somewhat poorly implied).

My first introduction to this movie was Schrader's Cat People, and that one really traumatized me as a kid. The Criterion disk looks really good, and I need to dig out my Lewton DVD box. I've seen two TCM docs covering Lewton and discussing Cat People, and I believe on of those is on the Criterion disk. I listened to some of the commentary and Mank mentioned that those shadow scenes really got the audiences worked up.

I'm also annoyed by the whole love triangle. Alice waits to tell Oliver that she's in love with him after he's married. Oliver mentions that he loves all the people at work especially Alice. Come on people!

I have a cat, and mine would never go into a shoe box for the entire day without bleeding me and/or running off...

3onameathook

Kinda felt sorry for Irena. I mean she felt that if they got intimate after they were married she would transform into the cat faster. This "curse" drove a wedge into the relationship and Irena through her jealousy and bitterness had made her transform any way. So yeah in a way I felt sorry for her doomed life.

rbrown498

This one is handily my favorite of the Lewton films, and it's my second-favorite horror film of the '40s (with The Uninvited being the first).

I appreciate it because it feels modern, and it must have felt even more modern to contemporary audiences. A psychiatrist in a horror movie?! Get out!

I bet that the bus scare probably provoked a LOT of screams.

Hokeyboy

I love this movie. Essential viewing every year. A really entertaining supernatural(?) thriller with enough subtext to float hours of vlogger Psychosexualty 101 analysis. Simone Simon

And if you don't have that Val Lewton DVD set, go out and get that Val Lewton DVD set. That Seventh Victim ending...

Undeadcow

It's hard to believe more of the Val Lewton films have not been made available in high definition or even 4k - what's that about?

Darth Maher

Same for me. I did like the first one. It was a little slow, but it kept for engrossed in it. The "sequel" however, had me yawning the whole way through. I kept waiting for something to happen (Irene passes the curse onto Amy as some sort of revenge on Ollie and Alice?). And what's with "The Cat Woman" from the first movie playing Barbara Farren in this one. I thought SHE may pass on the cat curse or something as revenge on her mother or because she hated Amy... I don't know. I realize that this thread is for Cat People and here I am bitching about it's "sequel" instead. Sorry.