Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3218 in VHS
• Released on: 1998-06-08
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Black & White, PAL
• Original language: Czech, English
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 73 minutes

Synopsis
A woman tainted by a curse marries her lover, but becomes jealous of his relationship with another woman. Events lead to murder...

Customer Reviews

Classic cat
Cat People is a horror film before the days of CGI and vivid body counts. Tense, dark, tragic and romantic, this movie is the hypnotic tale of a woman's curse in pursuing the happiness of love.So many moments are left to the imagination whilst never selling us short. Top drawer.

The Power of Suggestion
Producer Val Lewton was forced to work with a small budget during his time with RKO, but faced with financial contraints and lack of star power, he hooked up with director Jacques Tourneur (Out of the Past) to create several horror films that over 60 years later are still considered the finest ever made in the genre. "Cat People" is one of those films.

Lewton and Tourneur did this by letting the imagination of the viewer make up the horror, as everything is in the unseen. It was a device they would use in several films and it always worked. Lewton and Tourneur new that what we could imagine in our minds through cinematic suggestion was far worse than anything they could graphically show on screen.

Simone Simon, small and elegant, is perfect as the sweet Yugoslavian girl Irena Dubrovna, living in New York City and trying to fit in. Even after she meets and marries Oliver (Kent Smith) there is a shadow on her life which stands eerily between the happiness she desires and the curse she feels inside her, that of the "Cat People". Is her fear irrational or does such a thing exist?

A scene in a restaurant when 'one of her own kind' recognizes the panther inside her is particularly unsettleing. Tom Conway is the doctor who tries to help and Jane Randolph has a nice part as Oliver's friend Alice. As Irene wrestles with her fear Oliver begins to confide in Alice and it becomes obvious to Irena that there could be more. But jealously may awaken the panther inside Irena and put all their lives in danger.

A film that is full of atmosphere and dripping with doom, there are some genuinely scary moments here. A scene late at night as Irena walks alone down the street and a terrifying scene by a pool are both legendary. Simone Simon brought a fragile, and yes, cat like grace to the role, and gives a terrific performance. We feel her fear and feel sorry for her.

Watch this one late at night, but don't watch it alone...!

What you can't see "will" hurt you.
The first thing you should notice is that this is a Producer Val Lewton film. Val was given the film title in hopes of luring people in that liked cheap thrillers. However as with all Val Lewton films we get a classic physiological thriller of which we can see more with each viewing.

At the New Orleans zoo, Architect Oliver 'Ollie' Reed (Kent Smith) meets a strange woman Irena Dubrovna (Simone Simon), with a European accent; He strikes up a conversation which leads to his marrying her. She seems shy, but she actually carries a sinister secret.

Seems she knows she came from a line of "Cat People" and passion can bring out her claws. This is reinforced in a scene at a restaurant where another one of her kind (Elizabeth Russell) who recognizes Irena for what she is. Irena also suspects her new hubbie's female assistant Alice Moore (Jane Randolph) has designs on him. So we get a spooky scene at a swimming pool at night when Alice is alone in the gym.

There was not enough money or sufficient technology to show scary cat people. They tried people in cat suits, but they just looked cutesy. So they decided to just show shadows and sounds. The rest was up to your imagination. It is a psychological movie with a touch of film noir.