"Cat People" (1942)

Cat People is all about those untamed, repressed passions people have lingering deep down inside of themselves. Cat People's id comes in the form of Erena's (Simone Simon) black panther, her outward representation of her inner jealousy and raucous sexual appetite -- the kind well-to-do gentlemen, especially in the 1940's, fear to find their wives have. When her husband (Kent Smith) starts drifting away from her as Erena grows jealous and distrustful, she snaps and is lured in by that primal -- and supernatural -- desire to exact vengeance on those who've wronged her. Unlike that untamed feline rage though, Cat People is very collected in terms of its storytelling; it's not until late in its run time that we actually get any real action but in that time it builds a creeping sense of paranoia. The cat is playing with that ball of yarn and slowly unspooling the thread. The horror is almost entirely suggestion and director Jacques Tourneur turns those moments of  horror into scenes palpable with tension; in the tradition of the best horror, it's all shadowy lighting, eerie sound design and the implied presence of dark things just outside the frame. The lesson of classic horror such as Cat People is that fear of the unknown is the most powerful and potent fear of all. The film's own brand of mysterious sexual danger only makes it that much more unnerving.

Grade: A-