I love cats. Anyone that knows me knows this. So naturally I’m drawn to horror films that are cat-centric. I typically don’t care to see them portrayed as the villains, and let’s be honest most of the time they are, but still I’m willing to deal with cats being seen as evil if it means watching a horror movie in which they play a large part. The Val Lewton produced, Jacques Tourneur directed Cat People most definitely has a plot with a heavy focus on cats. Whether or not they’re the bad guys sort of depends on how you view the movie.

Simone Simon stars as Irena Dubrovna, a Serbian immigrant working as a fashion designer in New York City. While at the Central Park Zoo one day she meets an American engineer named Oliver Reed (Kent Smith). The two quickly hit it off and go back to Irena’s place for coffee. As the two begin to get to know one another Irena tells Oliver a little bit about the village where she grew up. There’s a legend that people from the village turned into human-cat hybrids as the result of witchcraft. Irena believes she is one of these hybrids.

Oliver basically laughs the story off thinking it’s nothing more than a myth that was told as a bed time story to young kids that grew up in Irena’s village. He believes Irena to be nothing more than a beautiful young lady and their relationship quickly blossoms and before you know it the two are getting married. That’s when their relationship hits a bit of snag. Things progress so quickly for the two that they get married before they even kiss. Oliver points this out but Irena says they can’t. She’s fearful that if they are intimate in anyway she’ll turn into a cat. Oliver thinks the stories that she heard as a kid had a great deal of effect on her and that her best bet is to see a psychiatrist to sort everything out.

Cat People is superb filmmaking and works on a variety of levels. On the surface it is a horror movie about a woman who turns into a cat, a panther to be specific. And as a horror movie it works incredibly well. There is one scene in which a would-be victim is being stalked on her way home. You never see what is after this person but it is incredibly tense and does a tremendous job playing with shadows and sound. You’re on edge waiting for something terrible to happen. And that’s just a precursor for a pool scene that comes later. It’s basically a monster movie that in many ways is handled the same way as something like Jaws. For most of the movie you don’t see the monster but you see the impact it has on the various characters forced to deal with it.

Going beyond the monster element the film deals a lot with relationships. There is something to be said for how quickly the relationship between Irena and Oliver develops. They get married before they really know one another on any level. And as one would imagine the results are disastrous.

While every performance is good, and Tourneur’s directing is Hitchcockian in the way he builds suspense, the true star of Cat People is Simone Simon. There is a sincerity and almost an innocence to her performance. She’s truly captivating and you buy every word she says no matter how silly it may sound. And that’s vital to the film’s success because the premise is pretty absurd.

Cat People recently received a Blu-ray release from Criterion and it’s absolutely stunning. The 2K transfer is beautiful and easily the best the film has ever looked. The blacks look especially nice which is important when dealing with a film that is in many ways a noir, making heavy use of shadows and lighting. The release is also loaded with special features. There is a featurette with cinematographer John Bailey in which he discusses the look of Cat People and he gets into the wonderful lighting and use of shadows. There is an episode of the French TV show Cine Regards all about the career and life of Jacques Tourneur. Best of all though is a great feature-length documentary entitled Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows. This is obviously about the life of the famous producer and is honesty good enough that Criterion could sell this on its own. The film also comes with a trailer, audio commentary with historian Gregory Mank and a booklet with an essay by Geoffrey O’Brien.

Cat People is an all-time classic and a masterclass in suspense. This is essential viewing for anyone that loves film and the Criterion release is the way to go.

Cat People is now available on Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection.