Cat People is a 1982 American supernatural horror film directed by Paul Schrader and starring Nastassja Kinski, Malcolm McDowell, John Heard, and Annette O'Toole.
Paul, who spent his childhood in psych wards, is now involved in a church and lives with his Creole housekeeper Female (pronounced "Femolly").
That night, a prostitute named Ruthie walks into a fleabag motel to meet a john, but instead finds a black panther that mauls her foot.
Irena reveals she is a virgin in conversation with Alice, who shares a romantic history (and is still in love) with Oliver and sees her as a rival.
They figure Paul is a serial killer who fed corpses to a captive black panther, and call in Oliver and Alice to investigate.
On the run from Paul, Irena takes refuge in a frustrated romance with Oliver, fearing the consequences of physical intimacy.
He ties Irena naked to the bedposts by her arms and legs spreading wide apart in preparation for when she changes into the panther.
Schrader has said, in relation to the erotic and horror aspects of Cat People, that the film "contains more skin than blood".
[3] British-based American producer Milton Subotsky bought the rights to Cat People from RKO Pictures and began developing a remake.
Alan Ormsby, the screenwriter of the remake, stated that the film went through three earlier scripts, two of which were written by Bob Clark.
Bailey recalled that the two carefully studied the original scene, taking note of how the shadows reflected against the pool.
The Blu-ray features interviews with Kinski, McDowell, Heard and O'Toole as well as director Schrader and composer Moroder.
[12][13] In their review of the 4K UHD Blu-ray, Chuck Bowen and Jake Cole of Slant Magazine praised it as a significant upgrade from the prior release, writing that the 2014 Blu-ray "suffered from extensive digital noise reduction that left many images flattened and waxy, but their UHD comes from a new 4K scan that more accurately captures the film’s earthen tones.
The website's consensus reads: "Paul Schrader's kinky reimagining of Cat People may prove too grisly and lurid for some audiences, but its provocative style and Nastassja Kinski's hypnotic performance should please viewers who like a little gasoline with their fire.
"[15] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 61 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
[16] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times rated the film a three and a half out of four stars, stating: "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, contains elements of intrinsic fascination in its magnificent black leopards, and ends in one way just when we were afraid it was going to end in another".
[18] Leonard Maltin awarded the film a mixed two out of a possible four stars, calling it "sexy, bloody, technically well crafted, but uneven and ultimately unsatisfying".
The theme song, "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)", was performed by David Bowie, who wrote the lyrics to music composed by Giorgio Moroder.