For a Subtle Chill

There was a time when horror movies capitalized on atmosphere instead of gore.

During the forties, Val Newton of RKO Pictures produced a series of romantic, moody horror movies that relied on shadows in the dark--and not pools of blood--to scare its audience.

Cat People was the first and best of these films. It is the story of Irena Dubrovna (Simone Simon), a beautiful young Serbian woman who is cursed to turn into a panther whenever she is sexually aroused. Obviously, love is a dangerous thing.

Unfortunately, though, we're in the 1940s, and love is inevitable. Irena meets Oliver Reed (Kent Smith) at the zoo, in front of the panther cage. In love before the blink of an eye, Oliver proposes and they marry, against Irena's better judgement. They have not even gone as far as a simple kiss.

Irena's bliss is to be short-lived--an encounter with another potential "cat woman" brings back her fears. She desperately wants to be "everything that the name Mrs. Reed means," (this is as close as the movie gets to talking about sex) but the spectre of the panther always looms over her. Oliver, good red-blooded American that he is, dismisses her European myths. He sends her to a psychiatrist.

The leering Dr. Judd (Tom Conway) does more harm than good, and soon Irena is stalking her husband and his supposed "other woman" (Jane Randolph). Does her jealousy turn Irena into a big cat? One can never be sure. All the scary scenes in Cat People are shot in the shadows, where no one--not the characters, not the audience--is sure of what is going on.

Cat People was shot during the war, and it could be argued that it relied on this sparse brand of horror to maintain a low budget.

But some, including producer Newton and director Jacques Tourneur, would argue that beasts in the shadows are far more frightening than blood in the face. For them, imagination fills in the dark spots on the screen better than anything else.

Cat People is about fear of the unknown. If that's not enough to scare you, then hop on back to the video store--you can always pick up the 1982 remake with Nastassia Kinski. It prefers its sex and violence to be explicit.

Cat People

Directed by Jacques Tourneur

At your favorite video store