Cat People (1982)

Cat People, from 1982, is an odd one. I would guess that this is one of those movies that was made up as they went along - it can't quite decide what it is. Is it a supernatural mystery? An action movie of voodoo and love? An erotic incestuous thriller? A documentary about zoos and were-cats? All of them? None of them? It's impossible to really pin this down. 

Mostly unrelated to the 1942 movie of the same name, Natassja Kinski plays a woman who goes to live in New Orleans with her brother (Malcolm MacDowell). Almost immediately he begins hitting on her (!), and her response isn't quite what you'd imagine. Instead of revulsion and disgust, she is simply chilly and uncomfortable. It's the first in a series of unusual interactions between them. 


Eventually he tells her that they are both ... you got it ... cat people. Were-cats, they turn into giant cats if they have sex with normal humans, and turn back into people if they kill. Ok, so far so good.  Then he tells her they must be mates, it is the way of the cat people. 

Again, her reaction is very strange - instead of denying it, or embracing it, she again has an odd, cold, pensive reaction. Throughout the movie she seems to be continually uncertain of how to take any new information that comes her way. 

Complicating matters is zookeeper John Heard, who has a major (and inexplicable, given her attitude towards him and everything else) crush on our cat lady protagonist. When he learns of her affliction, he is strangely unfazed. Nobody's perfect, I guess, he seems to think. Heard is simultaneously hunting down the murderous MacDowell in cat form, so he's involved with the whole family. 

The plot, as you can tell, is essentially nonsensical. This movie is about *atmosphere*. New Orleans is spooky, especially by night, and it's phantasmagorical to see giant cats in urban settings. They don't come across as especially scary, but they are disturbing nonetheless. The strange, cold, flat dialog throughout lends itself to the eerie feel of the movie as well. And the famous scenes where Kinski is nude but acting like a cat come across not so much as sexy as psychedelic. A lot of interesting things going on.

Directed by Paul Schrader (American Gigolo, Mishima), and screenplay by Alan Ormsby (My Bodyguard, Porky's II), it had a budget of $18 million but only made $7 million.