Friday, October 5, 2007

Cat People (1942) (nat)

Not so much scary. Or even creepy. The basic premise is that Irena, who is Serbian but living in the US, meets Oliver, your average all-American and they fall in love. Well, except this is a "horror" movie so something has to go wrong. But it doesn't so much go wrong as is wrong. Oliver just doesn't listen. The people of Irena's village in Serbia had a mythology of cat people--those who were especially connected to witchcraft and the devil--who had escaped to the mountains when vanquished by Christianity and its sword. These cat people may look feline but the real problem is that when aroused (we're talking 1940s movie aroused--smashed face kissing and allusions to sex) they turn into panthers and kill people. Irena shows signs of being one of these cat people (a strange fascination with a panther at the zoo, a kitten hates her, she disrupts a pet shop, and she kills a canary accidentally) and it was rumored that her mother was one. She tells Oliver this and they never even kiss much less consummate their marriage. Oliver becomes despondent thanks to the strictly platonic nature of his marriage and hangs out a little too much with Alice, his coworker who has professed her love. Apparently, jealousy is equal to arousal and Irena is certainly jealous because she is trying to overcome her curse but, of course, can't (despite what her therapist might think). Well, surprise, surprise, Irena the cat-woman/panther goes after Alice, Oliver, and the therapist and it all ends tragically.

It's ok. Not terrible but certainly not very interesting.

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