Cat People is the prime example of the power of suggestion. In terms of on-screen Violence this film is safe for All Ages. However, the mood is so perfected, with exquisite lighting and sound, that the film builds to extremely tense and scary moments. It’s in the Top 50 with good reason, with the earliest examples of what became known as “jump scares”, and the ones here still hold as some of the finest jump scares in Cinema history.
Not only is the Horror suggestive, the film gets away with all sorts of transgressive content: bestiality, lesbianism and a connection between sex and violence that filmmakers would explore in more graphic detail over and over again. There’s even a 1982 remake that makes this content very explicit, and that movie is good too. (Look for me to get to it in about a year.)
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