Cat People

Based on Jacques Tourneur’s 1942 thriller, Cat People follows Nastassja Kinski’s Irena Gallier as she arrives in New Orleans to meet (and stay with) her biological brother (Malcolm McDowell’s Paul) – with problems ensuing as Paul mysteriously disappears one night and a panther begins attacking local residents. Filmmaker Paul Schrader, working from Alan Ormsby’s screenplay, opens the proceedings with a dull prologue that is, in the final analysis, indicative of everything that’s wrong with Cat People, as the needlessly avant-garde introduction paves the way for an off-kilter drama that boasts few horror-specific attributes. The pervasively uneventful, slow-moving atmosphere is perpetuated by the ongoing emphasis on Irena’s dull exploits, with, in particular, the character’s growing fascination with a local zoo (and its hunky head zookeeper) ensuring that the film’s midsection is often nothing short of interminable. And although Schrader has admittedly peppered the movie with a handful of striking moments (eg the grisly fate of Ed Begley Jr’s character), Cat People‘s style-over-substance sensibilities ultimately cement its place as an art-house experiment gone horribly wrong.

*1/2 out of ****