Cat People (1982) on Netflix
After years apart, Irena Gallier joins her brother Paul in New Orleans. At the zoo a captured black panther fascinates her, and curator Oliver Yates offers her work.
- Netflix3.0/5
- IMDb6.2/1026,932 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes61%
Trailer
Plot summary
Separated as children and raised in foster care, Irena Gallier travels to New Orleans to reunite with her brother Paul. Paul was raised in psychiatric wards, is now part of a church, and shares his house with a Creole housekeeper, Female. In the same city, a prostitute named Ruthie is attacked in a motel by a black panther, and police and zoologists Oliver Yates, Alice Perrin, and Joe Creigh capture the animal. Irena visits the zoo, feels drawn to the captured panther, and lingers after closing time, where Oliver, the zoo's curator, finds her. He takes her to dinner and offers her work in the gift shop. Alice, who has a romantic history with Oliver, regards Irena as a rival.
Cast
- Ron Diamondas Detective Ron Diamond
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Cat People (1982)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- John Heard almost turned down the role of zoologist Oliver because he believed Cat People was a pornographic film, and he felt awkward during the nude scenes.
- Annette O'Toole said the production used cougars that were dyed black in place of leopards, because leopards are impossible to train.
- Malcolm McDowell said the shot of his character Paul leaping onto a bed in cat-like fashion was achieved by McDowell jumping off the bed, with the film then run backward.
- Malcolm McDowell was at first reluctant to make the film because he remembered the 1942 original as "not being very good", but Paul Schrader's take on the material and its erotic horror elements convinced him.
- Screenwriter Alan Ormsby said the remake went through three earlier scripts, two by Bob Clark, after initially set director Roger Vadim worried the film would appear sexist because the sexually intense woman had to be destroyed; Ormsby gave a male character the same problem.
