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Nastassja Kinski, Malcolm McDowell, John Heard, Annette O'Toole, Ruby Dee ... see more see more... , Ed Begley Jr , Scott Paulin , Frankie Faison , Ron Diamond , Lynn Lowry , John Larroquette , Tessa Richarde , Patricia Perkins , Berry Berenson , Fausto Barajas , John H. Fields , Emery Hollier , David Blackwell , JoAnn Dearing , James Deeth , Don Hood , Roger E. Reid , Marco St. John , Ray Wise , Danelle Hand , Robert Pavlovich , Harry Hauss , Brett Alexander , The Black Pope , Julie Denney , Arione De Winter , Marisa Folse , Neva Gage , Gregory Gatto , John C. Isbell , Charles Joseph Konya Jr. , Stephen Marshal , Terc Martinez , David Ross McCarty , Francine Segal , David Showacre

In this loose adaptation of the 1942 horror classic of the same name, a 2001-style opening montage establishes some sort of sacrificial, mystical union between panthers and an ancient tribe of humans.... read more read more... Flash forward to 1980's New Orleans, where waifish Irina (Natassja Kinski) meets her older brother, Paul (Malcolm McDowell), a minister, for the first time since their animal trainer parents died and she was sent to a series of foster homes. Paul's Creole housekeeper, Female (Ruby Dee), helps Irina settle into her brother's home, but Paul himself disappears. Cut to a fleabag motel where a blasé prostitute finds an angry panther instead of a client; after mauling her, the cat is captured by police and a team of zoologists: Oliver (John Heard), Alice (Annette O'Toole), and Joe (Ed Begley Jr.). The next day Irina finds herself in the zoo where these scientists work; drawn to the newly captured panther, she befriends Oliver and takes a job in the gift shop. Shortly after the panther's violence turns deadly, it escapes, and soon Paul turns up spouting an unbelievable story about his family's were-cat heritage and his inevitable sexual union with little Irina. On the run from her dangerous brother, Irina takes refuge in a sexually frustrated romance with Oliver, afraid of what might happen if she consummates their passion. Astute viewers will notice that the zoologist characters refer to the film's panthers as leopards; "panther" is actually a generic term for any large cat, especially a black one, but Cat People's panthers are in fact leopards whose black color comes from a recessive trait known as melanism. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

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46% liked it

9,712 ratings

Critics

62% liked it

37 critics

R, 1 hr. 59 min.

Directed by: Paul Schrader

Release Date: April 2, 1982

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DVD Release Date: October 10, 2000

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Stats: 488 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (488)

  • moonrivers
    October 16, 2011
    moonrivers
    Schrader delivers a sexually charged yet lanquid piece about a young woman who reconnects with her long lost brother only to discover an interesting and ancient family secret. Modern day animal animus fantasy done as creative soft porn with Bowie's "Putting Out The Fire With Gas... read moreoline" as the soundtrack.
  • kenstachnik
    March 11, 2011
    kenstachnik
    Entertaining, fun and full of nudity. Not as good as the original, but still worth a watch.
  • WrenchLT
    January 25, 2011
    WrenchLT
    Not seen the original so can't really compare the two, but I imagine it's a million miles away content wise with this remakes' abundance of nudity and moments of bloody violence. I thought this was a pretty good film actually. It's style over substance so it's easy on the eye but... read more dull on the the brain but I enjoyed it. Cool music too. And forget Nastassia Kinski, Annette O'Toole steals the show for me - BEAUTIFUL!
  • ajv2688
    January 11, 2011
    ajv2688
    I hate remakes, but this movie had a good cast, so I thought I'd check it out. The story is extremely confusing, and it's a lot more disturbing than the original too. It's hard to tell what they were trying to do with this movie. I didn't care for this film.
  • flixsterman
    September 12, 2010
    flixsterman
    The only advantage this remake has over the 1942 original is a naked Nastassja Kinski.
  • deano
    May 16, 2010
    deano
    Mixed in sexual frustration and spiritual repression, this remake of the Val Lewton classic relocates the story of a young woman burdened by an ancient curse from the Big Apple to the Big Easy.
    Nastassja Kinski basically makes every film look good and she's damn sexy here, as the... read more confused beauty torn between incest prepositions (by Malcolm McDowell) and sincere declarations of love by John Heard.
    Horror-thriller remake of 1942's Cat People.
  • EightThirty
    March 18, 2010
    EightThirty
    16/03/2010 (ONLINE)

    "Werecats?" I've heard about" Werewolves" but "Werecats?" Pretty cool, I love crap like this! Not bad at all and quite entertaining, the trasformations on this is quite surprising noting the date it was made.

    Easy to follow, although "John Heard" who I've ... read moreactually never heard of, had some amateur lines during the movie, the film was good enough for me to ignore those shocking lines and laugh a little in disbelief.

    Slightly erotic, but not so much that it kills the flow of the story like some budget scare flicks where there is more tongue festivities than an actual story.

    A treat for bordensyndrome.
  • FilmFanatik
    December 20, 2009
    FilmFanatik
    It will never hold a candle to the original, it was an interesting film though.
  • ScoopOnline
    December 11, 2009
    ScoopOnline
    Not Original Idea, but nice to watch.
  • cancercapricorn2002
    January 31, 2008
    cancercapricorn2002
    This is an interesting interpretation of the original, using the same themes of repressed emotions and sexuality and taking it to the next level. Nastassja Kinski is a young woman, newly come to America to live with her older brother, Malcolm McDowell. What she doesn't know is th... read moreat she and her brother are the results of incest (parents were brother and sister) and, as if that wasn't bad enough, descended from a long line of inbreeding shapeshifters. It seems that the members of her truly twisted family can only mate with each other. To do otherwise causes them to transform into vicious black panthers, which must kill to regain their human shape.

    Set in New Orleans with dreamy flashbacks to a mysterious desert land of red skies and massive bare trees draped with exotic panthers, Cat People is visually stunning. Haunting and moody, it moves at the pace of a dream that gradually turns into a nightmare. It doesn't lack for good performances either. Nastassja Kinski is flawless; sultry, vicious, frightened and innocent all at once. Her scenes with her transformed brother/wild panther, are absolutely hypnotic as the two beautiful creatures lock eyes and blood flows. Malcolm McDowell is perfect as her perverted brother, casually menacing and always bestial, killing with barely a shrug and raging as the transformation overtakes him.

    I've never understood the bad reviews this film has always received. I thought it was very well done, very atmospheric and tense, It paid homage to its predecessor with a great swimming pool scene and a spooky jog through a night time park. You'll either love this film or hate it. While I can't say this film is a lost classic, I do feel its a film worth checking out

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Critic Reviews

Dave Kehr
September 26, 2007
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

Paul Schrader's hammering, art-porno remake of Jacques Tourneur's deft little thriller. Full Review

Variety Staff
September 26, 2007
Variety Staff, Variety

Kinski was essential to the film as conceived, and she's endlessly watchable. Full Review

Roger Ebert
October 23, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Cat People is a good movie in an old tradition, a fantasy-horror film that takes itself just seriously enough to work, has just enough fun to be entertaining, [and] contains elements of intrinsic fasc... Full Review

David Nusair
October 28, 2011
David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews

...an art-house experiment gone horribly wrong. Full Review

Steve Crum
February 21, 2008
Steve Crum, Video-Reviewmaster.com

Paul Schrader's redo has its own share of chills.

Kim Newman
September 26, 2007
Kim Newman, Empire Magazine

In 1982, Paul Schrader seemed a very odd choice to remake Val Lewton's classic 1943 horror movie. The original was a model of restraint and subtlety and the remake, frankly, isn't. Full Review

September 26, 2007
Film4

Schrader's rather misogynistic film is confused in its intentions. Full Review

September 26, 2007
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Ludicrous or not, Cat People is gorgeous to behold, due mostly to cinematographer John Bailey's marvelous detailed rendering of New Orleans in autumn. Full Review

Cole Smithey
November 10, 2006
Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com

Sexy, scary and super cool.

June 24, 2006
Time Out

The seductively exotic surface of this mythically underpinned fantasy might be offset for some by much graphic gore, but if you can buy the romantic metaphors for the primitivisms of sexual obsession,... Full Review

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

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Cat People Trivia

  • In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, when the man was rolling the cart through town, picking up dead people, what was the old lady hitting against a pole?  Answer »
  • What actress links the following films: "Tess", "Cat People" (1982), "Paris, Texas", "Terminal Velocity", "One Night Stand" (1997), and "Inland Empire"?  Answer »
  • What is the Name of the Actress in the Movie "Cat People"?  Answer »
  • In which creepy 1942 movie, remade in 1982, was the heroine terrorized in an empty swimming pool?  Answer »
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