By the time the forties rolled around, Universal Studios was king of the horror movie, with big budgets and outlandish stories showcasing all of their classic monsters.
By the time the forties rolled around, Universal Studios was king of the horror movie, with big budgets and outlandish stories showcasing all of their classic monsters.
But while Universal’s films slowly became more action-adventure and science fiction orientated, RKO Pictures was producing its own chilling movies on a shoe string budget, and one of its best, was psychological-thriller Cat People (1942)
Cat People tells the story of fashion designer Irena Dubrovna Reed (Simone Simon) who believes that she is descended from a race of people who transform into big cats when sexually aroused. Irena is torn between her beliefs and her love for her husband Oliver (Kent Smith), yet when she fears that he is having an affair, her paranoia and true nature begin to surface.
With such a small budget compared to Universal, RKO had to film of disused sets from their older films and throw together movies on an extremely tight schedule. With this in mind, first time producer Val Lewton managed to hit upon something that became invaluable to the horror genre: what you don’t see is often just as scary as what you do see.
Whereas the majority of the Universal films were all about lavish castle sets, mad-scientists’ laboratories and snarling monsters in pounds of expensive make-up, RKO had to work with what they had.
Cat People relies on suspense to get its scares, constantly trying to get you in the edge of your seat through its sound design and careful use of shadows.
One particular scene that has been frequently dissected by critics and film scholars is when the character Alice (Jane Randolph) feels she has been stalked. We have a long period of silence as Alice anxiously moves through Central Park. With tension building and building, it is finally snapped by a bus pulling up with a loud, almost cat-like, hiss.
This technique of breaking a long period of suspense through use of a loud noise, or ‘boo!’, resulting in a false-jump scare has since been used countless times and has been done to death in modern horror films, but it is Cat People that innovated it. The trope is even known as the Lewton Bus in tribute to the scene and Val Lewton.
Cat People was a truly revolutionary film and one that deserves admiration for pushing the envelope, giving audiences a refreshing and genuinely freighting thriller from an age of increasingly silly monster-mash flicks.
Make sure to check in tomorrow as we dive into the fifties, the atomic age.
