Friday Matinee

Cat People (1982)

Director Paul Schrader stylishly reimagines Jacques Tourneur’s 1942 classic as a searing erotic fantasy of blood and sex fueled by a dreamlike Giorgio Moroder synth soundtrack. A hypnotic Nastassia Kinski stars as a young woman who finds first love but discovers consummating her fiery passion could have cataclysmic consequences. Co-starring Malcolm McDowell, John Heard, and Annette O’Toole.

“Cat People retains the psychological suggestiveness of the original while adding a blazing, carefully controlled eroticism and violence as well as state-of-the-art special effects and a ravishing over-all physical design. And it has the quintessential cat-person in Nastassia Kinski. As with all horror classics, what might be ludicrous is transformed into something gripping by the passionate logic of a grotesque metaphor. Alan Ormsby’s screenplay has the logic and Paul Schrader has the passion. The result is Schrader’s best work as a director.” – Jack Kroll, Newsweek

“Cat People moves back and forth between its mythic and realistic levels, held together primarily by the strength of Kinski’s performance and John Heard’s obsession. Kinski is something. She never overacts in this movie, never steps wrong, never seems ridiculous; she just steps onscreen and convincingly underplays a leopard. Heard also is good.” – Roger Ebert