ts techniques would be adopted by noir, its themes are aped by horror films and thrillers today.
Comment
09/26/07
Cat People (1942)
94 %
Reviews Counted: 32 Fresh: 30 Rotten:2 Average Rating: 8/10
Consensus:
Influential noir director Jacques Tourneau infused this sexy, moody horror film with some sly commentary about the psychology and the taboos of desire.
Runtime: 73 mins
Synopsis: Irena Dubrovna (Simone Simon) is a young, Serbian artist living in New York City. When she meets American Oliver Reed (Kent Smith), she falls in love and gets married. But their union hits the rocks when she becomes consumed with the belief that she is the victim of a curse. According to Irena,... [More]
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Starring: Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Tom Conway, Jane Randolph, Jack Holt
Reviews
Top Critic
First in the wondrous series of B movies in which Val Lewton elaborated his principle of horrors imagined rather than seen, with a superbly judged performance from Simon.
06/24/06
Top Critic
No mere creature feature, this 1940s classic offers more subtle chills.
01/01/00
Top Critic
Cat People wasn't frightening like a slasher movie, using shocks and gore, but frightening in an eerie, mysterious way that was hard to define; the screen harbored unseen threats.
09/26/07
Top Critic
More a film about unreasoning fear than the supernatural, this work demonstrates what a filmmaker can accomplish when he substitutes taste and intelligence for special effects.
09/26/07
What works the best, though, is the compelling sense of conviction -- something missing from most 1940s horror films.
05/17/06
Ladies who have such temptations -- in straight horror pictures, at least -- should exercise their digits a bit more freely than does Simone Simon in this film.
03/25/06
Top Critic
Female sexuality is a rich source of a certain kind of horror - the kind of horror that plays upon the anxieties that prudish bourgeois men have about their wives' sex lives.
11/01/05
The way it messes with your head -- and Jacques Tourneur's deft ability behind the camera -- make it quite the '40s standout.
10/06/05
It's what you don't see in a Val Lewton production rather than what you do see that makes it frightening.
10/05/05
Pretensioso, artificial e com uma péssima atriz como protagonista, o filme empalidece frente à refilmagem comandada por Paul Schrader.
02/03/05
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• Cat People at Rotten Tomatoes
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