Far from being a horror film, it's a touching, perceptive and lyrical film about childhood, psychologically astute and occasionally disturbing as it focuses entirely on the child's-eye view of a sad, cruel world.
Curse of the Cat People (1944)
Runtime: 73 mins
Synopsis: In this excellent, eerie sequel to Jacques Tourneur's CAT PEOPLE, a widower, Oliver Reed (Kent Smith), the father of the introverted six-year-old Amy (Ann Carter) remarries. Lonely and curious, Amy begins to explore her late mother's life and discovers her maternal bloodline is cursed. In... In this excellent, eerie sequel to Jacques Tourneur's CAT PEOPLE, a widower, Oliver Reed (Kent Smith), the father of the introverted six-year-old Amy (Ann Carter) remarries. Lonely and curious, Amy begins to explore her late mother's life and discovers her maternal bloodline is cursed. In her dreams she visits her alluring but devilish mother (Simone Simon) and learns her people become panthers when their blood is aroused. In addition Amy makes friends with Julia (Julia Dean), an elderly actress who lives in a spooky old Victorian next door, and begins competing for her affection with Julia's real daughter, Barbara (Elizabeth Russell). Director Robert Wise's debut (codirected with Gunther von Fritsch) concentrates on childhood fantasy more than suspense and horror. A haunting film nonetheless, CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE, with its ethereal dream sequences, is beautifully chilling. [More]
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Starring: Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph, Elizabeth Russell, Ann Carter
Reviews
Marvellously eloquent, and touchingly accurate in accessing the secret landscape of a child's mind.
Often unjustly neglected in favour of its predecessor, The Curse of the Cat People is a great film in its own right, perhaps second only to the magical realist The Spirit of the Beehive as an evocation of the horrors of childhood.
This picture remains one of the most ethereal looks at childhood the cinema has produced.
Made as sequel to the profitable Cat People, this is highly disappointing because it fails to measure up as a horrific opus.
One of the weakest movies from the Val Lawton unit. It's difficult to tell whether it's a horror film, a ghost story of just the imaginings of a sad, lonely, little girl.
It makes a rare departure from the ordinary run of horror films and emerges as an oddly touching study of the working of a sensitive child's mind.
This rather silly follow-up to Cat People isn't so much unwatchable as it is merely unnecessary.
RKO expected to get another supernatural chiller, with people turning into panthers and killing folks in the streets. Boy, were they disappointed.
This movie is not for everyone, but children who can identify with Amy will like it.
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by: lamia 8/11/03


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