Cat People and the Fantastic

Jacques Tourneour’s 1942 classic, Cat People, marked a turning point in horror cinema. Assigned to Tourneur and producer Val Lewton as a ‘creature feature’, the film skillfully explored mature themes of repression, shame, and anxiety while at the same time fulfilling its promise of horror. Tourneur and Lewton’s time working together produced horror films which accentuated the ‘fantastic’ aspect of horror. Namely, the doubt of supernatural involvement in the course of events, and the possibility of a naturalistic explanation until proven otherwise. Carroll summarizes Todorov’s theory of the fantastic by arguing that it “supplies us with the positive essence of the genre [fantastic]: that the events in the story be susceptible of two interpretations- one naturalistic and one supernatural- and that neither of these interpretations decisively outweighs the other” (Carroll 146).
The ‘fantastic’ horror tale can take one of two forms, the ‘fantastic uncanny’ and the ‘fantastic marvelous’, these stories are “ones which start in the fantastic vein but which opt for a naturalistic explanation of the anomalous events recounted [uncanny], and those which start in a fantastic vein and ultimately go with the supernatural explanation [marvelous]” (Carroll 150). Cat People is a fine example of the fantastic marvelous tradition.
Cat People begins by showing our protagonist/antagonist/monster (?) Irena, a young Serbian woman, at the zoo, drawing strange sketches of the panther on display. Her sketches reveal an image of a panther being impaled by a sword, foreshadowing her own demise. It is at the zoo where Irena meets her husband-to-be Oliver, a nautical engineer, and they quickly connect. At Irena’s apartment, it is revealed that Irena has a near obsession with the legend of King John of Serbia and the Cat People. According to legend, the Cat People were devil worshipping witches who were driven out, for the most part, by King John. Their curse, however, would continue through the present day, and Irena is afraid that she possesses this heritage. Oliver, a skeptic, seems upset (perhaps even disgusted) at this story, and urges Irena to move on. Over the course of the courtship, Oliver attempts to buy Irena a cat, but it recoils in fear of her. She mentions that animals have never liked her, once again reinforcing her fear of being one of the Cat People. Irena and Oliver fall deeply in love with each other and marry. Irena, upset with herself, tells Oliver that she ‘never wanted to love’. The ultimate fear in Irena is that she will transform into a cat person and brutally murder her husband if they were to embrace. Internal guilt and shame are the primary emotions that Irena experiences throughout the film, but quickly jealousy and anger enter the picture.
Frustrated by his wife’s distance emotionally and physically, Oliver turns to his co-worker Alice (who previously professed her love for Oliver). Alice advises Oliver to try a last ditch effort at psychiatric help for Irena. Irena’s troubled soul finds no solace in these sessions, and she begins to despair. Suspecting Oliver of an extramarital affair, Irena becomes enraged and jealous of Alice, and begins to stalk her. One final attempt is made by the psychiatrist, Dr. Judd, to convince Irena that her stories were just stories, and she was deceiving herself all along. The turning point of the film is when Irena informs Oliver that she ‘isn’t afraid anymore’ and is willing to move on in the marriage, but it is too late for Oliver, who professes his love for Alice.

This drives Irena over the edge of anger into murderous intent. Irena, in the form of a panther, attacks Alice and Oliver when they are at work, but is driven off by a symbol of the cross. Dr. Judd, who stayed back at Irena’s apartment, is warned to stay away, but remains. Dr. Judd, believing the legends to be a lie, makes advances on Irena and kisses her, leading her to transform into a panther and kill him, but sustaining a fatal wound in the process. The film ends by showing Alice and Oliver at the zoo over the dead body of Irena, saying that ‘she never lied to us’.
Cat People is an example of the fantastic-marvelous horror tradition, leaving the reality of supernatural forces at work ambiguous until the final scenes. One could easily adopt a naturalistic explanation for everything in the film up to the point where Irena attacks Dr. Judd, but the alternative hypothesis is equally supportable. The plot structure supports two alternative interpretations of the events, until the final scenes, where Irena is revealed to be a true shape-shifting Cat Person, an art-horror monster.
All of the evidence supporting the supernatural explanation is (strongly) inferred by various editing techniques and the general structure of the film. When Irena confronts Alice on the street and at the indoor pool, we never actually see a metamorphosis, or even see the actual panther itself, but it is strongly inferred. Tourneur clearly steers the plot toward a supernatural direction (in the fantastic-marvelous tradition), but leaves just enough doubt to support the naturalistic explanation. Irena’s psychosis also is a strong piece of evidence that would support the naturalistic conclusion. The lingering question of ‘Is she just imagining it all?’ is never truly answered until the climax of the film. Many things in her life: her shame, guilt, and uneasiness about intimacy, her loneliness, and the constant exposure to the Panther ‘s howls at night would all contribute to her descent into madness.
Cat People generates in its audience a feeling of Fantastic hesitation, caught in between competing explanations for the events of the fiction. The end of the film seemingly answers any questions about the supernatural forces at work, showing Irena die from wounds sustained in her fight with Dr. Judd (while a Panther), but the camera never explicitly shows a dead panther-Irena. Also, at the end of the film Irena releases the panther from the zoo, leading the audience to believe that the police and authorities in the world of Cat People would uphold a naturalistic explanation, saying that Dr. Judd was killed by the wild panther.
Tourneur achieves the fantastic-marvelous conditions by his masterful use of lighting and editing. We are constantly thrust into shadowy environments (the pool, Alice’s walk home), raising further doubt about the potential of the supernatural at work, also adding to the suspense of the film. There are several point of view camera angles in Cat People which thrust the viewer into the position of the character in danger, and test the viewer’s faith in the naturalistic explanation (is that just a shadow on the wall, or is it a panther?) .

In conclusion, Cat People is a fine example of the Fantastic Marvelous type of horror story. Forcing viewers to decide on a naturalistic or supernatural interpretation throughout the film, only to secure the supernatural interpretation in the end.