MovieChat Forums > The Curse of the Cat People Discussion > The Film as a Sequel: A Defense

The Film as a Sequel: A Defense

posted 13 years ago by funnygurl
4 replies | jump to latest

Scanning through these boards I've noticed a lot of people claim that this is a good movie if you view it as completely seperate from the original. I understand that the filmmakers had intended this as a stand alone film and made it a sequel due to studio pressure. I agree that the film is a strong stand alone work. However I do think that it stands as a strong sequel to the original Cat People as well. As viewers we're so used to sequels that rehash whatever made the original sucessful, so when we see something that actually takes the ideas and situations that were presented in the original in a new direction we object.

This film picks up several years after the ending of the original Cat People. Ollie and Alice have married and moved to the suburbs with their daughter, Amy. However, they're still living under Irena's "curse". Ollie in particular is haunted by memories and feelings of guilt. He keeps photos of Irena around the house and her painting above the mantel. When he sees his daughter displaying behaviors that remind him of Irena (a compelling inner life, a sense of isolation and alienation, overactive imagination) he reacts with fear- in the same way he originally reacted when Irena displayed these characteristics. This makes Amy feel even more alone and afraid, and those feelings conjure up Irena's ghost, who offers Amy a sense of comfort and companionship. This is what Irena was denied in her own life. Amy's teacher manages to convince Ollie that what Amy is going through is normal and not an indication of mental instability. He gives credence to her fantasies and proclaims himself to be Amy's friend. Irena watches over, at peace now that Ollie has learned to accept the characteristics in his daughter that he couldn't accept in her. As Amy and Ollie go inside, she smiles, and then fades away.

Of course you can also make the valid argument that Irena is just a child's imaginary playmate. We only see Irena after Amy has seen her picture and thought her pretty, so it's possible that she saw the picture and incorporated Irena's face into her fantasy. When Ollie tells her he sees Irena, she begins to understand that her father is willing to trust her, and be her friend, and she no longer needs Irena, so Irena fades out of her memory.

Either way we see Ollie once again grappling with a female in his life who he can't understand, fearing those unknown aspects, and thereby making them worse. However in this film we see him overcome those fears and love someone even if he doesn't always understand them.

[–] Prichards12345 13 years ago

Of course you can also make the valid argument that Irena is just a child's imaginary playmate. We only see Irena after Amy has seen her picture and thought her pretty, so it's possible that she saw the picture and incorporated Irena's face into her fantasy.

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You certainly can. But I've always believed Irena to be real, as Amy hums the same song that Irena hums in Cat People BEFORE she has seen the photograph.

Personally I think it's a brilliant movie, very underated simply because it dares to do something different from the original. Its use of light and shadow is astonishing.

Don't cheese me off.I'm running out of places to hide the bodies.

[–] digitaldiva 13 years ago

Hi prichards12345,

I'm watching it now and noted that Amy met Irena before she saw her photograph though Simone Simone was off screen.

For all the problems that people have noted, Nicholas Musurca's use of light, shadows and composition is incredible. I think of the film as a tone-poem, not proper fare for those who want a linear story but a lovely film anyone.

[–] Gypsy_Violins 13 years ago

Subtle magnificence and all quite valid.

I did grab these film notes from TCM for those that are curious:

NOTES
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Although a Hollywood Reporter production chart lists Mark Robson as director, Robson's name does not appear in any other source. This picture marked the feature-length directing debut of former short subject director Gunther Fritsch. According to Hollywood Reporter news items, when Fritsch began to fall behind schedule, film editor Robert Wise (1914-2005) stepped in to direct, thus earning his first directoral credit. According to the RKO Production Files contained in the UCLA Arts Library-Special Collections, the picture was completed nine days behind schedule and was so over budget that the studio had to recalculate the entire budget upwards from $147,000 to $212,000.
RKO tried to exploit the popularity of Val Lewton's 1942 film Cat People by titling this film Curse of the Cat People and hiring Simone Simon, Kent Smith and Jane Randolph to reprise their roles from the earlier film. Although the characters were the same in both pictures, The Curse of the Cat People was more of a fantasy than horror film and did not include the transformation of humans into cats. In an interview printed in a modern source, screenwriter DeWitt Bodeen, who wrote both films, claimed that Lewton wanted to retitle this picture Amy and Her Friend, thus eliminating any reference to the earlier film, but was overruled by the studio. A Hollywood Reporter news item adds that scenes for the film were shot at Malibu Lake, CA.

[–] Skye_Reynolds 13 years ago

I thought the film was great myself. It continued the story with much the same tone and the same spirit of the original without retreading the same territory. I was also quite impressed with how Irena was included into the story and I found its resolution to be quite consolatory after the tragedy end of the first one.

The film had a different director, it took the story in a different direction, and it still stood up well alongside of the original. It's very rare that such a thing can be said of any sequel.