This '80s film is more of a love story than a horror although it does have a few fairly horrific scenes in, in particular a rather graphic scene where a zoo worker has his arm ripped off by a black panther.

The film opens in the prehistoric past with a girl being tied to a tree and left for a big cat... the action then moves the the present day where a beautiful young woman called Irena arrives in New Orleans and is met by her brother Paul who she hasn't seen since their parents died when she was a child. The next night her brother disappears around the same time a panther mauls a prostitute in a seedy hotel, this creature is captured and taken to the local zoo.

Irena goes looking for her brother but can't find him so decides to do some sightseeing and ends up at the zoo where she seems drawn the the recently captured panther which she starts to sketch, in fact she is so engrossed that she is still there an hour after the zoo closes. When Oliver, the zoo's curator, finds her there they end up going out for a meal of oysters together and she is offered a job in the zoo's gift shop. Her first day at work doesn't end well though as she witnesses one of the zoo workers being killed by the panther, and when Oliver arrives to put it down the panther has escaped. Once home she finds that her brother has returned, he explains their families strange heritage; that they are part panther and whenever they have sex with a person they become a panther and can't be human again until they have killed a person. He also tells her that the only exception to this is if they do it with another of their kind and as they are the last too that means incest. Irena is horrified at this and flees, bumping in to the police outside, they search the house's basement and find human remains they assume that Paul has been feeding people to a big cat rather than being the cat himself.

Oliver takes Irena to his house out of town which can only be reached by boat, here she starts to feel more in touch with nature and goes out at night, removes her nightdress and prowls around naked till she finds and kills a rabbit. On their return to the city her brother kills again, this time however he is trapped as a panther and killed, when Oliver performs a post mortem on the creature something rather strange occurs.

When Oliver's colleague Alice is out running she has a feeling she is being followed. Later when she goes for a swim she hears a strange growling and is scared when Irena enters as if she somehow knows she is dangerous. Later Irena sleeps with Oliver and as predicted becomes a panther in an impressive transformation scene. She does not however kill him, instead she leaves him but she is cornered by the police on a bridge, when Oliver arrives she jumps from the bridge into the river. Oliver heads back to his river side home and finds a friend dead in a tree and Irena at the house. I won't spoil the actual ending although.

The film is pretty good and the effects have aged well, it is good to see such scenes as the transformation done with makeup and prosthetics that than CGI. There is a fair amount of nudity in the film, some scenes like Irena walking around naked can be justified as it shows she is behaving in an animal rather than a human way others such as Alice swimming topless seem to be there just to show off Annette O'Toole's admittedly nice breasts.

The acting was good, especially Nastassja Kinski's portrayal of Irena which was positivity feline and switched from an innocent to a predator believably through the course of the film. While this film is by no means perfect I'd certainly recommend it to fans of "creature features" or Nastassja Kinski.

Alan Ormsby scripted and Paul Schrader directed this 80s remake of the well-regarded 1942 Val Lewton production. Nastassja Kinski stars as Irena Gallier, who hooks up with her long-unseen brother Paul (Malcolm McDowell),who ends up making insane demands of her. You see, he's been kept aware of their heritage while she, still an innocent, has been in the dark on the subject. Meanwhile, a black panther rampages through the community, and Irena falls in love with Oliver Yates (a bland, but likeable John Heard),a zoo curator.

There are quite noticeable differences between the 1940s and 1980s renditions. Schrader is much more *explicit*, and takes the implications of the schlocky title literally, while the Lewton film was all about *suggestion*. The 1942 film ran a trim hour and 13 minutes, while this takes its time and runs close to two hours. This version is much more sexy and much more violent, with Schrader taking advantage of the big leaps in special effects technology.

It was a clever move to reset the story in New Orleans, with its incredible atmosphere and European feel. It lends a definite presence to "Cat People" '82, as does the haunting electronic score by Giorgio Moroder. And that theme song (music by Moroder, lyrics by David Bowie, and performed by Bowie) really kicks ass! One nice touch is the "cat person" p.o.v. devised by Robert Blalack, but we only see this for one sequence. Visually, the film is stunning, with "visual consultant" Ferdinando Scarfiotti and cinematographer John Bailey giving "Cat People" '82 a great look. Legendary matte artist Albert Whitlock also lends his expertise.

Schrader is at least wise enough to pay tribute to the suspense / shock sequence which any fan of the 1942 version remembers well. And it leads to a genuinely creepy confrontation between Kinski (who's since come to terms with her reality) and a vulnerable Annette O'Toole. Speaking of these two fine ladies, the film certainly does not lack for attractive women, as cult actress Lynn Lowry and the bubbly Tessa Richarde also turn up. The cast, overall, is good, with the stars given strong support by familiar faces (Ruby Dee, Ed Begley, Jr., John Larroquette) and top character actors (Scott Paulin, Frankie Faison (who's curiously dubbed by Albert Hall),Ray Wise, and Marco St. John all make appearances.) Berry Berenson, widow of Anthony Perkins, appears as the pool attendant.

Pretty enjoyable overall, but this viewer would advise against spending too much time fretting over the differences in the two versions. They're clearly playing to different audiences. Lovers of creature features will likely derive some entertainment from this.

Seven out of 10.

As a major fan of the Val Lewton produced eerie horror films at RKO made between 1940 and 1946, I wasn't expecting much from the remake than a sexualized erotic thriller and was glad that it ended up being so much more. Nastassja Kinski is understated in the key role of the mysterious woman who turns into a black panther when she makes live, falling in love with the handsome John Heard while pursued by her creepy brother Malcolm McDowall who knows a secret about their parentage. Kinski, quietly alluring, has the quiet stalking aura of a wildcat, one who can be kittenish but then attack with carnivorous lust. McDowall adds another creepy characterization to the memories of "A Clockwork Orange" and "Caligula", while Annette O'Toole plays the woman whom Heard ends up with that upsets the fragile Kinski when she realizes that the curse has caused her to lose the man she truly loves.

Fascinating and erotic, this remake of the 1942 cult classic is not just horror, but a sexual thriller along the lines of "Body Heat" , "Fatal Attraction" and "Basic Instinct". I'm not always in favor of the classics being remade unless they are done with new ideas and different themes, and this is truly powerful in the way it is done. The great Ruby Dee has a pivotal supporting role as Kinski's mentor, her accent quite believable, and being as cat like herself as if she was a combination of Eartha Kitt and Shirley Bassey. Beautifully filmed, just has a few slow moments but for the most part is stunning from start to finish with some great location footage and a nice musical score. Kinski, especially in her quiet moments, is totally alluring. This is definitely a remake that I can call the cat's meow.