Cat People (1982 film)

Cat People is a 1982 American supernatural horror film directed

Cat People
by Paul Schrader and starring Nastassja Kinski, Malcolm
McDowell, John Heard, and Annette O'Toole. It is a remake of the
1942 RKO Radio Pictures film of the same name. Giorgio
Moroder composed the film's score (the second Schrader film to be
scored by Moroder, after American Gigolo), including the theme
song, which features lyrics and vocals by David Bowie. Wilbur
Stark and Jerry Bruckheimer served as executive producers.

Contents
Plot
Cast
Themes
Production
Release
Home video Theatrical release poster
Reception Directed by Paul Schrader
Awards and nominations Screenplay by Alan Ormsby
Soundtrack Paul Schrader
Track listing Based on Cat People
Personnel by DeWitt
Charts Bodeen
Weekly charts
Produced by Charles W.
Year-end charts
Fries
References Starring Nastassja
Bibliography
Kinski
External links Malcolm
McDowell

Plot John Heard

Annette
A prologue set in an undisclosed, primitive human settlement O'Toole
shows a sacrificial maiden being tied to a tree. A black panther Cinematography John Bailey
approaches and rests its paws on her, and the scene fades to black.
Another girl with feline features approaches a similar big cat in a Edited by Jacqueline
cave, without incurring its attack. Cambas
Music by Giorgio
A close-up of her face segues to that of similarly featured Irena
Moroder
Gallier, who travels to present-day New Orleans from Canada to
reconnect with her brother Paul. Irena was raised in foster care
after they were orphaned. Paul, who spent his childhood in psych Production RKO Pictures
wards, is now involved in a church and lives with his Creole company
housekeeper Female. Distributed by Universal
Pictures
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. Release date April 2, 1982
The police and zoologists Oliver, Alice and Joe capture the black
Running time 118 minutes[1]
panther. Meanwhile, Irena wakes to find Paul missing. Female
guesses he went to the mission and urges Irena to enjoy New Country United States
Orleans on her own. Language English
[2]
Irena visits the zoo, is drawn to the newly captured black panther Budget $12.5 million
and stays after closing hours. She is discovered by Oliver, the zoo's Box office $21 million[2]
curator, who takes her to dinner and offers her a job in the gift
shop. 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. One day the black panther tears Joe's arm off during a routine cage
cleaning. Joe bleeds to death and Oliver resolves to euthanize the cat, only to find it missing. In its cage lies
a puddle of melted flesh like the one found by the motel prostitute.

Paul turns up and makes a sexual advance towards Irena. She flees, flags down a police car and has second
thoughts about turning Paul in, but a police dog catches a strong scent from the house and a detective is
called in. In Paul's basement, police find shackles, bones, and remains of dozens of corpses. They figure
Paul is a serial killer who fed corpses to a captive black panther, and call in Oliver and Alice to inspect.

On the run from Paul, Irena takes refuge in a frustrated romance with Oliver, fearing the consequences of
physical intimacy. Paul visits Irena again and explains their shared werecat heritage, thus revealing himself
as the escaped murderous leopard. Mating with a human transforms a werecat into a black panther, and
only by killing a human can it regain human form. He tells her their parents were siblings because werecats
are ancestrally incestuous and only mates between werecats prevents the transformation. He resumes his
sexual advances, hoping Irena will accept their predicament, but she does not. Paul then transforms, attacks
Oliver and is shot by Alice. Oliver starts a necropsy on Paul. A green gas emanates from the surgical cut
and a human arm and hand reach up from within Paul's corpse. Before he can document this, Paul's corpse
melts into a pool of green slime.

Irena's feline instincts start to emerge, and she stalks and nearly attacks Alice twice. She later mates with
Oliver and transforms into a black panther but she flees, sparing his life, and is later trapped on a bridge by
police. Oliver arrives in time to see her jump off the bridge. Realizing where she is headed, he confronts
Irena at a secluded lake house. She has regained human form by killing the house's caretaker. Irena tells
Oliver she did not kill him because she loves him, and begs him to kill her. When he refuses, she begs him,
then, to make love to her again so she can transform and "be with [her] own kind". Oliver ties Irena naked
to the bedposts by her arms and legs to restrain her, and mates with her.

Some time later, Oliver is again in a one-sided relationship with Alice. He stops at the cage holding the
"recaptured panther" - Irena, now permanently trapped in her black panther form. Oliver reaches through
the bars, casually hand-feeds and strokes the now-docile Irena's neck.

Cast
Nastassja Kinski as Irena Gallier
Malcolm McDowell as Paul Gallier
John Heard as Oliver Yates
Annette O'Toole as Alice Perrin
 Ruby Dee as Female
Ed Begley Jr. as Joe Creigh
Scott Paulin as Bill Searle
Frankie Faison as Detective Brandt (dubbed by Albert Hall)
Lynn Lowry as Ruthie
John Larroquette as Bronte Judson
Tessa Richarde as Billie
Meshach Taylor as Powell
Berry Berenson as Sandra
Pui Fan Lee as Olga
Ray Wise as Soap Opera Man
Stocker Fontelieu as Priest

Themes
Director Schrader has said, in relation to the erotic and horror aspects of Cat People, that the film "contains
more skin than blood". He has described the film as being more about the mythical than the realistic. He
has likened the relation between Oliver and Irena to Dante and Beatrice, putting the female on a pedestal.[3]

Production
British based American producer Milton Subotsky bought the rights to Cat People from RKO and began
developing a remake.[4] Subotsky eventually passed the property to Universal.[4][5] Initially, Roger Vadim
was set to be the director of the 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. According to Ormsby, Vadim
was very concerned that the film would appear sexist, as the woman who was sexually intense had to be
destroyed. Ormsby changed this in the remake to have a male character who has the same problem.[6]

In the early 1980s, Universal Pictures hired director Paul Schrader to direct the remake.[4][5] The remake
was announced and began shooting in 1981.[5] According to cinematographer John Bailey, Schrader paid
homage to the stalking scene in the original with a scene featuring Annette O'Toole's character jogging
through a park as she appears to be stalked.[7] Bailey and Schrader also remade the swimming pool scene.
Bailey recalled that the two carefully studied the original scene, taking note of how the shadows reflected
against the pool.[8] Bailey stated that the pool sequence was the most similar of the homages, remarking
that the primary reason for this was that "we didn't think we could do it any better".

The Blu-ray features interviews with Kinski, McDowell, Heard and O'Toole as well as director Schrader
and composer Moroder. McDowell indicated that he was somewhat reluctant to make the film at first
because he recalled the original film as "not being very good" but was convinced by Schrader's take on the
material with its focus on the erotic horror elements. McDowell also revealed that the scene where he leaps
on the bed in a cat-like fashion was shot with him jumping off the bed. They then ran the film backward.
Heard discussed how he almost turned down the role because he believed it was a porno movie. He also
recalled that he felt very awkward, particularly during the nude scenes. O'Toole discussed the fact that they
used cougars that were dyed black because leopards are impossible to train.

Release
The film was released theatrically in the United States by Universal Studios on April 2, 1982. It grossed
approximately $7 million at the U.S. box office.[9]

Home video

The film has been released twice on DVD in the United States; once by Image Entertainment in 1997[10]
and again by Universal in 2002 on the film's 20th Anniversary.[11]

Shout! Factory's division Scream Factory released the film in January 2014 on Blu-ray, when they
announced on their Facebook page that they were releasing films from the 1980s in early 2014.

Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 63% based on reviews from 56 critics, with a
weighted average of 6.1/10. Its 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".[12] On Metacritic, the film has
a score of 62% based on reviews from 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[13]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a three and a half out of four star rating: "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".[14]

Variety also gave the film a positive rating by praising Nastassja Kinski's performance: "Kinski was
essential to the film as conceived, and she's endlessly watchable".[15] 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".[16] However, Nastassja Kinski stated, when being interviewed by her friend and
actress Jodie Foster, in Film Comment that she disliked the film, describing it as "slick" and "manipulative".
This surprised Foster, who asserted she thoroughly enjoyed the film.[17]

Christopher John reviewed Cat People in Ares Magazine #13 and commented that "Cat People is
distinguished as one of the year's top science fantasies for several reasons: aside from its superior camera
work, tight story line and the rest, the movie told a story that mainstream filmmakers shy away from – a
sexual story".[18]

Awards and nominations

The film was nominated for three prestigious awards:[19]

Saturn Awards

Best Actress (Nastassja Kinski)

Golden Globe Awards

Best Original Motion Picture Score (Giorgio Moroder)

 Best Original Motion Picture Song (David Bowie)

Soundtrack
The soundtrack album was released by MCA Records the same Cat People
week as the film. The theme song, "Cat People (Putting Out Soundtrack album by Giorgio
Fire)", was performed by David Bowie, who wrote the lyrics to
Moroder
music composed by Giorgio Moroder. The song was released as a
single in 1982.[20][21] Released 2 April 1982
Recorded 1981

Track listing Studio Carla Ridge, Beverley

Hills, California
All compositions by Moroder, lyrics by David Bowie on "Cat Mountain, Montreux,
People (Putting Out Fire)". Switzerland

Side one Genre Synth-pop · electronic

Length 35:00
1. "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)" – 6:41
2. "The Autopsy" – 1:30 Label MCA

3. "Irena's Theme" – 4:18 Producer Giorgio Moroder

4. "Night Rabbit" – 1:57 Singles from Cat People
5. "Leopard Tree Dream" – 4:01
1. "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)"
Side two Released: April 1982

1. "Paul's Theme (Jogging Chase)" – 3:52

2. "The Myth" – 5:09
3. "To the Bridge" – 2:49
4. "Transformation Seduction" – 2:43
5. "Bring the Prod" – 1:58

Personnel
Bob Badami – music editor
Brian Banks – additional keyboards, Synclavier II programming
Steve Bates – assistant engineer, mixing assistant
David Bowie – vocals on "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)" & humming vocal on "The Myth"
Alexandra Brown – backing vocals
Keith Forsey – drums, percussion
Brian Gardner – mastering
Craig Huxley – blaster beam
Charles Judge – Prophet 5 and Jupiter 8 programming
Laurie Kanner – production coordinator
Michael Landau – guitar
Sylvester Levai – keyboards, arranged by
Paulette MacWilliams – backing vocals
Tim May – guitar
 Giorgio Moroder – producer, guitar, bass, mixing
Brian Reeves – engineer, mixing
Lee Sklar – bass
Stephanie Spruill – backing vocals
Trevor Veitch – musical contractor
Allen Zentz – mastering (Bowie's vocals)

Charts

Weekly charts

Peak
Chart (1982)
position

Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[22] 18

Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[23] 16

New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[24] 4

Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[25] 2

Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[26] 6

US Billboard 200[27] 47

Year-end charts

Chart (1982) Position

New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[28] 33

References
1. "CAT PEOPLE (X)" (https://bbfc.co.uk/releases/cat-people-1970-2). British Board of Film
Classification. 1982-04-20. Retrieved 2013-07-05.
2. "Cat People Box Office Data" (https://the-numbers.com/movies/1982/0CP82.php). Retrieved
2008-01-29.
3. DVD Verdict Review (https://dvdverdict.com/reviews/catpeoplehddvd.php) Archived (https://
web.archive.org/web/20100902011309/https://dvdverdict.com/reviews/catpeoplehddvd.php)
2010-09-02 at the Wayback Machine, Cat People (HD DVD).
4. Newman 2009, p. 70.
5. "Cat People (1982)" (https://catalog.afi.com/Film/68109-CAT-PEOPLE?sid=14df3907-14d5-
4efb-afad-96913e3b1000&sr=10.170605&cp=1&pos=1). American Film Institute. Retrieved
April 30, 2020.
6. Warren 1982, pp. 32–33.
7. Bailey 2016, 00:12:43.
8. Bailey 2016, 00:14:10.
9. "Cat People" (https://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=catpeople.htm). boxofficemojo.com.
Retrieved 2011-04-19.
10. "Cat People (DVD)" (http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_item.asp?item_id=486).
dvdempire.com. Retrieved 2011-04-18.
11. "Cat People (DVD)" (http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_item.asp?item_id=215655).
dvdempire.com. Retrieved 2011-04-18.
12. "Cat People" (https://rottentomatoes.com/m/1003758-cat_people/). Rotten Tomatoes.
Fandango Media. Retrieved 7 November 2022.
13. "Cat People 1982" (https://www.metacritic.com/movie/cat-people). Metacritic. CBS
Interactive. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
14. Ebert, Roger. - Review: "Cat People" (http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AI
D=/19820101/REVIEWS/201010309). - Chicago Sun-Times. - January 1, 1982. - Retrieved
August 5, 2010
15. Variety Staff. - Review: "Cat People" (https://variety.com/review/VE1117789786.html?catego
ryid=31&cs=1). - Variety. - January 1, 1982. - Retrieved August 5, 2010
16. Maltin, Leonard (2013). Leonard Maltin's 2014 Movie Guide (https://archive.org/details/isbn_
9780451418104/page/226). Penguin Press. p. 226 (https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780451
418104/page/226). ISBN 9780451418104.
17. Interview, by Foster, with Nastassia Kinski, in Film Comment (New York),
September/October 1982.
18. John, Christopher (Winter 1983). "Film & Television". Ares Magazine. TSR, Inc. (13): 40.
19. NYTimes.com (https://archive.today/20130411135322/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/859
7/Cat-People/awards), Cat People - Awards.
20. Pegg, Nicholas (2016). The Complete David Bowie (https://books.google.com/books?id=Lq
FkDQAAQBAJ) (Revised and Updated ed.). London: Titan Books. p. 57. ISBN 978-1-78565-
365-0.
21. Trynka, Paul (2011). David Bowie – Starman: The Definitive Biography. New York City:
Little, Brown and Company. p. 366. ISBN 978-0-316-03225-4.
22. "Top RPM Albums: Issue 6482" (https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/films-videos-sound-
recordings/rpm/Pages/image.aspx?Image=nlc008388.6482&URLjpg=http%3a%2f%2fwww.
collectionscanada.gc.ca%2fobj%2f028020%2ff4%2fnlc008388.6482.gif&Ecopy=nlc008388.
6482). RPM. Library and Archives Canada.
23. Timo (13 August 2015). "Sisältää hitin: Levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta
1960: Soundtrack, eri esittäjiä" (http://suomenlistalevyt.blogspot.com/2015/08/soundtrack-eri
-esittajia_12.html). Sisältää hitin. Retrieved 2021-10-26.
24. "Charts.nz – Soundtrack / Giorgio Moroder – Cat People" (https://charts.nz/showitem.asp?int
erpret=Soundtrack+/+Giorgio+Moroder&titel=Cat+People&cat=a). Hung Medien.
25. "Norwegiancharts.com – Soundtrack / Giorgio Moroder – Cat People" (https://norwegianchar
ts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Soundtrack+/+Giorgio+Moroder&titel=Cat+People&cat=a).
Hung Medien.
26. "Swedishcharts.com – Soundtrack / Giorgio Moroder – Cat People" (https://swedishcharts.co
m/showitem.asp?interpret=Soundtrack+/+Giorgio+Moroder&titel=Cat+People&cat=a). Hung
Medien.
27. "Billboard 200 Chart" (https://www.billboard.com/charts/billboard-200/1982-06-05).
Billboard. Retrieved 2021-10-26.
28. "Top Selling Albums of 1982 — The Official New Zealand Music Chart" (https://nztop40.co.n
z/chart/albums?chart=3871). Recorded Music New Zealand. Retrieved 1 February 2022.

Bibliography
 Bailey, John (2016). "John Bailey on Cat People". Cat People (Blu-ray). The Criterion
Collection. ISBN 978-1-68143-201-4. CC2674BD.
Newman, Kim (2009) [1st pub. 1999]. Cat People. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-85170-
741-9.
Warren, Bill (July 1982). "Alan Ormsby on the Cat People". Starburst. Vol. 4, no. 11. Marvel
UK.

External links
Cat People (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083722/) at IMDb
Cat People (https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/19402/enwp) at the TCM Movie Database
Cat People (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1003758-cat_people) at Rotten Tomatoes
Cat People (https://www.allmusic.com/album/r107861) at AllMusic
Cat People (https://www.allmovie.com/movie/v8596) at AllMovie
Cat People (https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=Catpeople.htm) at Box Office Mojo

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