Storyline
After years of separation, Irina (Nastassja Kinski) and her minister brother, Paul (Malcolm McDowell), reunite in New Orleans in this erotic tale of the supernatural. When zoologists capture a wild panther, Irina is drawn to the cat -- and the zoo curator (John Heard) is drawn to her. Soon, Irina's brother will have to reveal the family secret: that when sexually aroused, they turn into predatory jungle cats.
Directors
Cast
Ed Begley Jr., Ray Wise, Malcolm McDowell, Lynn Lowry, Francine Segal, Frankie Faison, John Heard, John Larroquette, Annette O'Toole, Ruby Dee, Nastassja Kinski, James Deeth, Marco St. John, Robert Pavlovich, Scott Paulin, Harry Hauss, Ron Diamond, Tessa Richarde, Berry Berenson, Fausto Barajas, Julie Denney, John H. Fields, Emery Hollier, Arione De Winter, Jo Ann Dearing, Danelle Hand, Neva Gage
Trailer
Reviews
88
Cat People moves back and forth between its mythic and realistic levels, held together primarily by the strength of Kinski's performance and John Heard's obsession. Kinski is something. She never overacts in this movie, never steps wrong, never seems ridiculous; she just steps onscreen and convincingly underplays a leopard. Heard also is good.
80
Paul Schrader’s reworking of the 1942 Val Lewton-Jacques Tourneur Cat People is a super-chic erotic horror story of mixed impact. Kinski was essential to the film as conceived, and she’s endlessly watchable.
75
Slant Magazine
The opening credits immediately insist that director Paul Schrader isn’t interested in merely reprising your grandparents’ beloved version of Cat People, the 1942 horror film memorably directed by Jacques Tourneur and produced by Val Lewton. Set to the background of a profoundly bright brick red, which is soon revealed to be a desert jungle-scape, Giorgio Moroder’s primal synth score prepares us for an erotic blowout that overtly literalizes the Cat People conceit for the sake of a little soft porn fun.
75
Slant Magazine
Unjustifiably compared to the original film upon its release, Schrader’s Cat People is more of an erotic reinvention of the Bodeen story. Though Schrader keeps the Fangoria crowd at bay with a series of grisly tableaus, he remains less concerned with the body-horrific than he does with the rituals of sex—mandatory and otherwise.
70
While Cat People feels like an early Bruckheimer production, it’s also permeated with the themes that personify Schrader’s work as a screenwriter and filmmaker: obsession, sex, the strange permutations of destiny, and man’s bottomless capacity for cruelty and violence.
