Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		2.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		2.5

Cat People Blu-ray Movie Review

Me-ouch!

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 21, 2014

Val Lewton was a Russian émigré who, like so many other newcomers to the United States in the 1920s and 1930s, was ineluctably drawn to the film industry. Lewton worked in publicity for many years, taking a bit of time off when one of his novels unexpectedly hit the best seller charts (it later became the Gable-Lombard film No Man of Her Own). While Lewton was evidently an uncredited writer or story editor on any number of films of that era (reportedly including Gone with the Wind), where he really ended up making his mark on the film industry was in low budget horror. Lewton took a basically dormant idiom (at least at RKO, where he worked) and transformed it into one of the most defining genres of the 1940s, one that had typically been more associated with Universal Studios. Lewton’s catalog of horror titles from this era contain a number of now iconic films, including I Walked with a Zombie, The Body Snatcher, and what was the first of Lewton’s RKO horror outings and perhaps still the best remembered, 1942’s The Cat People. The Cat People was actually based on a Lewton short story and was a moody, psychologically underpinned drama that had a simmering subtext of sexuality as it depicted the life of a young woman named Irena (Simone Simon) who was afraid to commit to her lover out of fear that she would transform into a panther. It may sound silly, but the original Cat People was a model of understatement, implying horror while showing very little and establishing an almost palpable sensation of impending doom despite its relatively short running time. Director Paul Schrader’s remake came some forty years after the original film debuted, and by the time of the early eighties, much more overt sexuality could be depicted, something that this version fairly relishes in. Schrader is certainly a very smart director, and his reboot of Cat People has several nice scares, but it frankly lacks the completely suffocating mood of the Lewton original. It’s certainly more explicit, and it contains some fantastic performances and a couple of well done set pieces, but newer and shinier doesn’t always necessarily mean better.

Irena Gallier (Nastassja Kinski, billed in the film as Nastassia Kinski) arrives at the New Orleans airport and is met there by her long estranged brother Paul (Malcolm McDowell). Paul seems to recognize Irena on an almost instinctual level, despite the fact that the two siblings have not seen each other since they were children. Paul takes his sister to his New Orleans townhouse, where he introduces her to his enigmatic housekeeper Female (Ruby Dee), which is pronounced Feh-MAHL- lee. Paul takes Irena upstairs and surprises her by showing her their parents’ circus equipment, something they used to play with together as children. Irena doesn’t notice Paul drinking in the scent of her hair.

The film seems to take a decidedly lurid left turn as it moves on to a scene with a prostitute at a seedy rendezvous site expecting to meet her latest client. Instead she’s surprised by a large black leopard hiding under bed, which nearly tears her leg off. The attack seems to wake Irena from a sound sleep—several miles away. When she gets up the next morning, Paul is nowhere to be found. Already Schrader and scenarist Alan Ormsby are laying the groundwork for the film’s “werecat” conceit, but the film is deliberately slow to reveal its feline transformations. Instead we get a scene of zoologist Oliver Yates (John Heard) and his assistants Alice (Annette O’Toole) and Joe (Ed Begley, Jr.) showing up to capture the errant cat, and then yet another left turn when Irena, who is sightseeing around New Orleans, feels an atavistic pull toward the New Orleans zoo, where she’s entranced by the now captured leopard. She is so entranced in fact that she stays past closing time to sketch the animal. Oliver sees her and unintentionally frightens her, at which point we get the first discursive clue that Irena has a few catlike tendencies herself as she seeks to get away from him.

Cat People has a much more explicitly sexual ambience than the 1942 film (not to state the obvious), and it’s that aspect that is both one this version’s most interesting elements but also one of its most problematic. The creepy interplay between brother and sister Paul and Irena provides a couple of standout scenes, but the film’s formulation of the “werecat” mythos is also just a bit on the laughable side. In this version, only brothers and sisters can “cure” each other of their transformative tendencies by indulging in a few carnal pleasures with each other, while casual sex with “outsiders” transform the “werecats” into their feline forms, with killing their partners offering their only chance to return to their human version. It’s patently silly, and perhaps too convoluted for its own good.

The chief allure of this version is probably the performances of Kinski, who undergoes a rather nice (psychological) transformation during the film, and McDowell, who offers a disturbingly salacious take on Paul. John Heard is stolid as the putative love interest as well, and the supporting cast, which includes Annette O’Toole and Ed Begley, Jr., are fine in somewhat underwritten roles. Schrader plays his horror cards fairly close to his vest, not really showing a real full on transformation until very late in the film. However, even with the added effects this more modern treatment of the story provides, some may prefer the decidedly smaller scale but somehow more evocative version produced by Val Lewton.

Cat People Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Cat People is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory (an imprint of Shout! Factory) with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. I don't have definitive word on whether this transfer stems from the same master used for the German Blu-ray reviewed by my colleague Dr. Svet Atanasov, but a cursory comparison of screenshots seems to suggest that it does. The best thing about this high definition presentation is the color, which is accurate looking and very nicely saturated throughout the entire film. Contrast is also generally quite strong, helping to define the many night sequences. However, this offering shows very aggressive digital noise reduction. There is grain apparent here—you can see it in dribs and drabs if you freeze frame the image—but it's been mitigated to the point where it's virtually invisible. This therefore has nothing approaching a naturally filmic appearance. When coupled with some of the extreme filtering (as in color grading) that Schrader and his DP John Bailey utilize in a couple of notable sequences, fine detail is negligible at best.

Cat People Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Cat People's original stereo mix is presented via DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, while a good if not overly immersive surround mix is presented via DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. The surround mix does significantly open up Giorgio Moroder's synth heavy score, but there are also good foley effects (like the roar of various leopards) that have been directionally positioned in this new mix. Dialogue is very cleanly presented and fidelity is very good throughout the presentation.

Cat People Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Cast and Crew Interviews include:

  Nastassja Kinski (1080p; 5:56)

  Annette O'Toole (1080p; 8:25)

  John Heard (1080p; 6:12)

  Malcolm McDowell (1080p; 7:35)

  Lynn Lowry (1080p; 5:53)

  Giorgio Moroder (1080p; 5:32)

  Paul Schrader (1080p; 9:13)

• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:18)


• TV Spot (1080i; 00:31)


• Photo Gallery (1080p; 9:32)


• Production Art and Posters (1080p; 2:41)

Cat People Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Cat People is an interesting enough reboot, and of course Kinski is an eyeful (the film features quite a bit of full frontal nudity, for those who care about such things), but dramatically things never really approach the stifling atmosphere that makes the Lewton - Tourneur version so memorable. This release has great audio and the accompanying interviews are very much appreciated, but a dated and problematic video transfer and the lack of the extras from the Special Edition DVD make this release difficult to recommend.