In the beginning when the hooker is going to meet with him, and later when he tries to force Irena? Doesn't that go against everything the movie has supposedly taught us about the cat people?
My only explanation is that they transform when they orgasm specifically, and he got a little over-excited those two times.
I guess if you can never have sex or get off, it doesn't take much to get you going.
I always thought that while they can't avoid transformation when having sex, they can transform at will to a cat (but not back unless they kill).
Polls... One of the Main Stream Media's Jedi Mind Tricks.
I think they made the case he transformed before the hooker arrived for two reasons:
1)He was already in a sexually tense state because of the arrival of his sister. He's expecting her to be his mate. When she arrives she is, of course, very hot and arousing, but he just can't come out and say "Hello! I'm your brother. Let's get it on!" He has to find a way to introduce her to the idea slowly. So after she goes off to bed he heads out to release some tension with a hooker.
2)The hooker can't find a babysitter and is late. The delay leaves him so frustrated (maybe he releives himself?) that he changes early and is already a cat when she gets there.
Just the way I see it...
In the original (1942), it was explained better. Irene can change once she's had sex with a "normal" being, when she gets jealous, and when she gets angry.
shareIrena never has sex in the Forties film. The psychiatrist tries to seduce then force her, and she shapeshifts. She can do it at any time obviously, mostly when she becomes angry through jealousy. She fears that sex will release the beast in her and that she will kill Oliver even though she doesn't intend to. Several times, there is the presence of the leopard because of her jealousy of Alice.
They actually wanted the audience to remain in doubt about whether she really can change, but the studio insisted on a real animal being shown, which occurs in Oliver's studio.
The remake seems to play by slightly different rules, saying that she might not make a full change until having sex. It's hinted that she might make a change in the rabbit-hunting scene though they don't show it.
The only safe coupling is with another catperson though this is made clear in the Eighties version, not the Forties. Her brother obviously has tried to find other partners, hoping he can change this and because, as has been noted, he's a tomcat. He tells the blonde girl that he likes her and seems so sad when she persists in trying to arouse him. Perhaps he couldn't have sex with her because he had met someone he didn't consider "disposable". Unfortunately, she thought she was helping and brought about her death.
I prefer the original in every way, realizing how poor this remake is as I watch it now after not viewing it since the early Eighties. I knew there was a reason I only bothered with it a couple of times.
*** The trouble with reality is there is no background music. ***
Just an aside. I agree that strong emotions like anger and jealousy would let Irena change into the beast. It's true that Irena was afraid of sex with Oliver - that she might transform and kill. Personally, he was such a jerk, I was hoping she would transform and shred him. Now that would have made for a good ending...
shareThey don't need to have sex. They need to be in a really tense state. But they only can turn back, if they kill someone.
shareHow did Irene turn into a cat, rip the crap out of Alice's sweats, and then turn back again with no sex involved then? I just thought about that. I assume she changed, otherwise she can do a hell of a lot of growling and ripping in her human form.
Yeah, that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me either.
I think that it was just to scare the audience into thinking that she might already be a cat at that point.
I dunno--Can she remain human and still have cat paws and growls in some form? Perhaps seeing Alice in the nude turned her on a little bit?
I'm not sure how it all works, but it was a damn-cool flick!
I think Shoo explained it best with the arousal, anger and jealousy bit. I, too, wondered how she was flipping back and forth without all the sex and killing. We know for a fact that she was a leopard while stalking Alice because you can see the black legs. Paul demonstrated when he attacked Oliver that anger is all that is needed to change. And he demonstrated the growling in human form several times during the movie.
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Dilbert: There's no kill switch on awesome.
Don't they have an inbetween state too? like when irena jumps way up into the tree at the zoo? or when she folds over the balcony landing on her feet. I assumed that when she chased the other woman and clawed up her gym shorts it was her human yet wildwoman state.
shareI think they always have the heightened agility of a cat: Irena leaping into the tree, leaning over the balcony, Paul hopping up lightly onto all the furniture. But, absent sex, I think it takes really powerful stimulus for their animal sides to come out, ie growling, transforming, claws etc.
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Dilbert: There's no kill switch on awesome.
I always thought it was a sort of perverted joke by Irina and she never changed but scared her thinking whe had been changed.
Juliet Parrish: You can't win a war if you're extinct!
Extreme arousal (i.e., horniness) is what makes them change, not actual sex.
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