Saw the original version of Cat People, the one from 1942. It follows a man who falls quickly in love with some Serbian woman who comes from a small village which is rumored to harbor "cat people" who are cursed to transform into carnivorous cats when they fall in love. The man assumes his girlfriend is crazy and tries to get her help but, predictably, this is of no avail.
I liked the film! It's a slow-burn psychodrama, as the girlfriend becomes slowly more menacing. There's no transformation sequence, but there's a great animated dream interlude involving malevolently loping cats. There's also a lot of ominous dread mined from the characters simply being freaked out. We don't need to see the panther to be frightened. We only need to see the character we care about becoming panicked.
On top of this classy restrained creepiness, there's the rich symbolism of the cat transformation. It's something that happens after the marriage is consummated, and it originates from a far-off, old land. The girlfriend fears reverting to some primitive, monstrous state. It could so easily be read as a metaphor for anxieties around sexual desire, or as an immigrant's shame of their country of origin. There's a scene where a cat-like lady hostilely greets the girlfriend as a "sister." The girlfriend gasps and turns pale, but refuses to explain. It's explicitly about being a cat-person, but it could be, implicitly, about many things. Very good!
The film is old and a little pokey and black and white and some of the acting is a little wacky. There's nothing too terrible (no blackface!) but it's an old movie, just be aware. If you can stomach that, then take a look, this is a surprisingly good film!
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