66. Cat People (1982)

February 2, 2014

Based on the 1942 movie of the same name, Cat People tells the story of an ancient race of humans that (after intercourse) turn into panthers. Panthers that have to kill someone to turn back into a human. With such an incredibly silly concept, Cat People could have easily been a forgettable and stupid movie, yet somehow they made it work. The cast (including John Heard, Nastassia Kinski, Malcolm McDowell, Annette O'Toole, and even a brief appearance by Ed Begley, Jr.) was fantastic. Kinski arrives in New Orleans to meet up with her brother, McDowell. Not long after, McDowell goes missing, and a panther shows up after mauling a prostitute. Zoo workers Heard, O'Toole, and Begley get the call to come get the cat and take it to the zoo, so they sedate it and cage it. Kinski is mysteriously drawn to the cat, and stays in the zoo past closing time, staring at it. Heard becomes infatuated with Kinski, and offers her a job at the zoo in the gift shop. She accepts and the two gradually become something like a couple. The panther escapes and McDowell returns, and he explains to Kinski the nature of their family. He tells her if they make love with a human they will turn into a panther until they kill someone. He also says that they need to make sweet brother and sister love in order to survive, and that their parents were brother and sister as well. She reasonably refuses him and he stalks her back to Heard's place. Eventually, she exhibits the curse of the panther people, after she has sex with Heard. When she turns back into a human, she tells Heard of her nature and they do it again, so she can remain in panther form and live in his zoo. Trying to describe the plot of this movie makes it sound unbelievably ridiculous, but I really do enjoy this movie. It has a great cast, solid direction, a well-crafted atmosphere, and above-all an awesome theme song (Cat People by David Bowie): all the elements of a classic. Fortunately, Scream Factory just released it as a special edition blu-ray, so I recommend you pick it up and revisit this very weird but very cool movie.