All-American woodpost Oliver (Kent Smith) meets a mysterious European woman, Irena (Simone Simon) at the zoo. They fall in love and get married.
But something is not right
Irena refuses to sleep with or even kiss her husband, for fear that she will turn into a big black cat and kill him.
Oliver seeks help from his friend Alice (Jane Randolph) who is in love with him.
Jane is soon being terrorised by a mysterious creature - something in the shadows...
I watched Cat People a couple of years ago. Enough words have been written in praise of it. You can read my previous review at the link at the bottom of this post.
It is a bit simplistic in terms of characterisation but it works. It allows the subtext and suggested horror room to fester in the viewer’s minds.
Simone Simon is perfectly cast - some of her readings are a little awkward, but her overall effect is so otherworldly it works. A lot of her scenes are framed around her eyes - there is a natural intensity to her gaze that is arresting.
Kent Smith is not as wooden as I remembered - he is just incredibly dull. The character is not well-developed. The character exists purely to engage Irena’s desires.
As his best friend-turned-love interest, Jane Randolph comes across like more of a human being.
The power of suggestion is well-conveyed here - the walk through the park and the sequence in the pool are still evergreen - the shots, the use of chiaroscuro and sound design are so well-done: I jumped when the bus showed up.
Cat People is great.
Years later Oliver and Alice have moved to a small town and had a child of their own, Amy (Ann Carter).
Haunted by his memories, Oliver is concerned that Amy is not a normal child: she likes to play by herself and she has imaginary friends.
One of those imaginary friends is new - a mysterious young woman (Simone Simon) who calls herself Irena...
While Cat People is iconic the main focus of this review is the sequel. It was the main reason I went to the screening. I had never seen Curse before; another reason was that it was co-directed by Robert Wise (Sound of Music, The Haunting).
While I do not think it works as well as it could, Curse is a thoughtful and original follow-up. It is not some run of the mill cookie cutter sequel.
It is more of a character study than its predecessor, concerned with the inner lives of children and the inheritance of trauma - could Irena’s return have been triggered by Oliver’s paranoia about his daughter’s imaginary friends?
There is also the family’s mysterious neighbours, the Farrens - the elderly matriarch Julia (Julia Dean) believes that her daughter Barbara (Elizabeth Russell) died in childhood and has been replaced by an imposter.
Straight off the bat - this movie is not scary. But I found the movie weirdly watchable, largely because of the idiosyncratic central performance by child actress Ann Carter. Child actors are always a hairy proposition and I am particularly wary of child actors from this time period.
But there is something so off-kilter about her from the beginning that I could not get a handle on the performance - and it worked for the movie.
She comes off as precocious but not in a contrived way. She makes some unexpected choices and her response to questions feel like a weird kid. There is an uncanny quality to her that adds to the film’s atmosphere, and shores it up.
The rest of the acting is about at the level of the previous movie.
Kent Smith is so one note, he comes off as more villainous than the filmmakers intended - he is never punished for his behaviour, and his final turnaround comes off as condescending. He is fine as a plot device in the original film, but this movie is very different beast, and Smith is not equal to the task.
As the titular cat person, Simone Simon comes off as a completely different character. Her inclusion is odd - she ends up being far more benevolent than she initially appears.
It is a little bit of a bummer because I feel like the ideas the movie is playing with could have served with more ambiguity. Some weirdness comes through, particularly in Carter’s performance, but the climax comes off as too twee.
If you are looking for scares, this movie will probably not satisfy you. I think the themes, particularly the focus on child development and parental influence, could be unsettling, but the film does not push those buttons - Irena’s presence always comes off as an external presence, and not malign.
There is some tension in the final confrontation between Amy and the Farrens, but this movie is a very different beast to the film it is vaguely tied to.
On its own terms as an atmospheric drama, it is flawed but compelling - it almost feels more like an instalment of an anthology in the mould of Halloween III. It cannot hold a candle to its predecessor but it is just odd enough to recommend.
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