Movie · 1982 · Fantasy, Horror · 1h 58m · R · English
Curator score: 2.9/10 (26.8K ratings)
They are something more than lovers who are about to become something less than human.
Overview
After years of separation, Irena Gallier and her minister brother, Paul, reunite in New Orleans. When zoologists capture a wild panther, Irena is drawn to the cat – and zoo curator Oliver to her. Soon, Paul will have to reveal the family secret: that when sexually aroused, they revert into predatory jungle cats.
Ratings
Curator score: 2.9/10
IMDb: 6.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 66%
Metacritic: 61
TMDB: 6.0/10
Director
Paul Schrader
Production
Universal Pictures, RKO Pictures, Charles Fries Productions
Cast
Nastassja Kinski, Malcolm McDowell, John Heard, Annette O'Toole, Ruby Dee, 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, Stephen Marshal, Robert Pavlovich, Julie Denney
Curator Review
Verdict
A glossy, feverish remake that swaps straightforward horror for erotic unease, lush atmosphere, and operatic weirdness. It’s more fascinating as a mood piece and a cult artifact than as a clean, effective monster movie.
Best for
viewers who like erotic horror and taboo-heavy melodrama
fans of 1980s cult cinema with strong visual style
people interested in New Orleans gothic atmosphere
audiences who enjoy movies that feel unhinged, sensual, and symbolic
Skip if
you want tight, suspense-first horror
you dislike overt sexual content or incest-adjacent taboo material
you prefer subtle performances and grounded tone
you want a faithful, reverent remake of a classic
Overview
Cat People is less interested in scares than in desire, doom, and the sticky heat of bodies in a city that feels permanently feverish. Paul Schrader turns the premise into a lurid psychosexual fantasy, pushing atmosphere, music, and imagery far harder than plot mechanics or horror payoff. The result is messy, but memorably so: a movie that seems to sweat through the screen.
Worth noting
Nastassja Kinski gives the film its haunted center, while Malcolm McDowell leans gleefully into the film’s grotesque excess. The special effects and creature work are uneven, but the movie’s commitment to mood makes those rough edges part of the experience. It’s a remake that behaves like a provocation, not a correction.
Bottom line
If you’re open to a horror film that is more erotic nightmare than monster thriller, there’s plenty here to admire. If you want clean genre satisfaction, this will probably feel frustrating. As a cult object, though, it’s hard to forget.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Logan Kenny (4★) · 965 likes
paul schrader is a horny bastard who has no idea how to make a horror movie so instead of focusing on fear, he focuses on weird as shit atmosphere and cultivating this overwhelming feeling of intense horniness throughout essentially every damn frame. it plays like a coke addicted porno consuming psychopath's hallunicatory wet dream with malcolm mcdowell going apeshit and the most beautiful woman in the world having short hair, being naked all the time and battling with her family… more paul schrader is a horny bastard who has no idea how to make a horror movie so instead of focusing on fear, he focuses on weird as shit atmosphere and cultivating this overwhelming feeling of intense horniness throughout essentially every damn frame. it plays like a coke addicted porno consuming psychopath's hallunicatory wet dream with malcolm mcdowell going apeshit and the most beautiful woman in the world having short hair, being naked all the time and battling with her family… more
matt lynch (3.5★) · 650 likes
Leave it to an uptight guilt-ridden perv like Schrader to concoct this, not merely preoccupied with sex but designed as a warning of female desire, an irresistible urge to fuck or die. Packed with grubby urban gothica and catalyzed by Moroder's score, though, it becomes less a sex panic nightmare than something almost oracular, some kind of horny doomsday prophecy.
Patrick Walsh (3★) · 593 likes
I watched this extremely horny movie about cats with my cat on my lap and now we can’t look at each other.
Karsten (3.5★) · 549 likes
Everybody involved needs to get laid! I’d also like to say, the room temperature is never something I considered when watching a movie until I saw this. the ac was blasting and I was freezing for a good portion of it, and for a movie as humid as this I feel like I didn’t get to fully embrace the atmosphere it was going for. Is that weird to say?
Framesofnick (4★) · 454 likes
SEX. PUSSY. SEX. BLOOD. TITS. PUSSY. CATS. INCEST???? SEX. DEATH. Ed Begley Jr. TITS. CATS.
Great movie