Cat People: Carroll Evaluation

The film "Cat People," was an interesting case in the Horror Genre. It opened the doors to discussing the subtle differences in sub-genres such as the "pure fantastic," "fantastic marvelous," and "fantastic uncanny." Interestingly, the application of any of these genres depends upon the final conclusion reached in the particular work. Fantasitc marvelous ending in a supernatural conclusion, fantastic uncanny a naturalistic one, and the pure fantastic being unresolved.
In relation to "Cat People," it is somewhat unclear which category of Art Horror it should be confined to. Because we never actually see the transformation of Irena, one could say that there is no conclusive evidence that what happened was truly supernatural. My own interpretation, however, was that the occurance was supernatural, but due to technological limitations at the time the film was made, the transformation scene was not obtainable.
The fact that Irena also stole the key to the panther's cage raises questions. The naturalistic viewer would want to believe that Irena never actually transformed, rather she used the panther to do her bidding. The problem with this theory, however, is that there were never any signs throughout the film that Irena had any bad intentions whatsoever. To the contrary, she refused to even kiss her husband in fear she would devour him after.
Because neither one of these views (naturalistic and supernatural) are conclusive at the end of the film, I am inclined to deem this film a work of "pure fantastic." However, using Carroll's own evaluation methods of determining whether a work is a work of Art Horror, I'm not completely sure this is a work of horror.
The first thing one must ask is if there is a monster. I'm not sure how to answer that in terms of "Cat People." If it isn't Irena transforming into a cat, then the obvious answer is no since panthers exist according to science and they aren't disgusting. At the same time, however, even if Irena is transforming into a cat, that isn't necessarily disgusting. I suppose disgusting in that case could be thought of as a disturbance in social norms, seeing as how there aren't many people transforming into cats (not that I've ever noticed, anyway). Also, there must be a complex discovery plot. The onset (when monsters make their appearance) never actually happens. At no point in the movie does the viewer or the characters themselves come in contact with a "cat person." Because of this, I don't believe that one can classify the film "Cat People" as a true work of horror.
However, I have problems with Carroll's technique to determining works a work of fiction. I don't believe a specific plot structure is needed to form a genre. In fact, I believe that it is the openness in a plot structure that allows for the continued development and interest in a particular genre. If every story were completely the same in structure, I believe that a genre would never be able to grasp the amount of attention from viewers to even become and sustain itself as a literary/artistic genre.