Directed by Jacques Tourneur. Produced by Val Lewton. Starring Simone Simon.
Even as the fog continues to lie in the valleys, so does ancient sin cling to the low places, the depressions in the world consciousness.
Wow, the lighting is so incredible in this film. Most notably for me in the scene that is lit by the table light boxes so that the actor’s faces are illuminated while the panther prowls in the darkness under the tables. Also, the shifting light from the reflections in the pool scene that underscore the idea of the shapeshifting of Irina from human to panther. The pool scene immediately made me think of It Follows, the wonderful 2014 horror flick from David Robert Mitchell, which also effectively uses what you can’t see to scare the bejeezus out of you.
Tourneur directed one of my favorite noir films, Out of the Past. The cinematographer on both of these films was Nicholas Musuraca (who also worked on Blood on the Moon that noir western I watched a few weeks back). Cat People is the first of a series of classic war-time horror produced by Val Lewton.