Review of Cat People (1942) by Joe G — 19 Feb 2013

We get to see the start of low budget but effective horror movies in Cat People. It may not be a perfect horror movie and pretty damn tame by today's standards, but it's use of psychological thrills is unique and priceless.

A young Serbian fashion designer, Irena, meets a marine engineer, Oliver, and the two fall in love and get married. But while at the wedding dinner a strange woman confronts Irena and Irena begins to become obsessed with an old Serbian folklore about the curse of the Cat People, and she believes herself to be an evil cat creature. Though Oliver pushes Irena to get professional help from a psychiatrist, she is still hellbent on believing she is cursed. But then again, maybe she really is. This movie is more psychologically thrilling than actually seeing cat people, but the build up of the story is quite unique. This is a story of obsession, jealousy and desire. It is quite dated though, but various combination of themes are clearly visable which makes this movie more creative than your usual supernatural thriller. Simone Simon and Kent Smith particualarly do a great job.

Though not quite a noir movie, Cat People does serve as one of the blueprints to the noir genre. The movie entirely plays on what you don't see. Cat People is famous for having numerous scenes where we're expecting to see something frightening, or anything just to pop up and scare us. But it's all in the head and leaves us to use our imaginations to concieve what's happening. But even better is the way this movie is made, because it really does look like a flat our noir film. Cat People was made with an extremely low budget. You're not going to see anything fantastic, except for the use of light and shadow. There are just so many scenes where the set is completely dark except for one light on, which not only works great for suspence and thrills, but also helps hide the fact that this movie is cheaper than it looks. It's because this movie had to cut back on so many things like good looking sets and extras and it gives off a horror/fantasy feel. That somethign isn't quite rights. And that works on so many levels.

Ok, the thought of being terrorized by a cat that is actual a human isn't all that scary. When I think of horror, I don't think of cats. And the story, though different, isn't the best of the genre. But what Cat People achieved with it's lack of money is influencial and proved effective when used in further movies.