[6]

Nastassja Kinski stars in this slow-moving tale of a woman who discovers her sexual urges transform her into a black leopard. Kinski learns her brother, played by Malcolm McDowell, shares the same curse and wants to forge a sexual (and incestuous) relationship with her so they can both experience sex without killing their partners. But Kinski ends up having the hots for a zoo-keeper (John Heard) and the police are closing in on the brother and the sister as the community suffers more and more mysterious animal mawlings. 

Cat People has more in common with An American Werewolf in London than the 1942 original film (though there’s a pool scene that pays homage to the original). It’s about sexuality and the monster within, but from the female perspective, and with a different outcome that what we get in London. I wanted to like Cat People more, but it moved too slowly for me. I was way ahead of the story for the first hour, and right as McDowell’s character complicates matters and the movie is at its most interesting, the story retreats into safer territory and plods along once again to an inevitable final confrontation. That final confrontation, however, is one of the film’s most striking moments. Kinski fails to impress and McDowell doesn’t get enough screen time. The music and visual effects are a little dated and hokey, but there are a few makeup effects that impress. Kinski is full-frontal in a few scenes, which probably goes a long way in explaining why the film has developed a cult following. With Annette O’Toole and Ruby Dee. Directed by Paul Schrader.