Popular reviews

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  Review by Ian West ★★★★ 3

  “The poetry and danger of childhood"

  What a beautiful little psychological fairytale ripe with gorgeous sets, wonderful atmosphere, and thoughtful/complex subject matter that wasn’t as common during its time. The usual shadowy Lewton terror gives way to a more psychological hell... filtered through the eyes of a child who lives in a house where conformity is king and escapism lies within spirits, bugs, the hired help, and over the hill well journeyed humans heading towards their last stop on the train of life. Feels like the same formula Argento, Del Toro, and more recently Mike Flanagan would experiment with years later and it’s just as beautiful, a touching little yarn with chameleon moods while feeling more modern than most of…

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  Review by Carlos Valladares ★★★★½

  Elaborates on the deep alienation at the core of Cat People with one of the most disturbing depictions of overcoming trauma in American cinema. You can't escape who you are. The past must be confronted, head on, if we are to live with ourselves, if we will live another day, without genuine fear. The curse is not on the cat woman's child (Ann Carter, in a most piercingly effective child performance); rather, the curse is on the father (Kent Smith), who refuses to acknowledge the life of his panther-wife Irena (Simone Simon). The child has special access to a world that the father doesn't.

  Val Lewton's job is providing the unforgettable images that point to this otherworld, this inexplicable under-under-world,…

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  Review by Sally Jane Black 2

  It's like Lewton and his crew decided to sneak a beautiful drama under the radar of horror fans. Typical of one of Lewton's films, it's deceptively complicated, a rich exploration of family and loss and loneliness. It's about the father's grief over his lost wife (and his denial of her loss, in a way). It's about the daughter's yearning for a mother (and the psychological effect of being parentless, how that affects her [lack of] friendships). It's about the damage of being motherless (see the old lady and her daughter in the mansion as a contrast/compare to the little girl's situation). Some values dissonance mars the film, and the father is... unlikable. But there's enough going on that it doesn't matter.

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  Review by pd187 ★★★★

  the greatest burden a child must bear is the unlived life of the parent

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  Review by Joe ★★★★★

  "I like stories."

  Has to be one of the very best movies ever made about childhood, aching with the loneliness and imagination that will ring true to anybody who had a penchant for daydreaming as a kid (and maybe still has one as a grown-up). Unlike the other Lewton horror joints this isn't so much about creeping dread as it is about unintentional cruelty, a theme in the other movies for sure but the main source of conflict here thanks to World's Worst Dad Oliver Reed (!).

  I also think it functions nicely as a sequel to Cat People despite the fact that on paper it has seemingly fuck-all to do with the earlier film, the young urban creatives of CP have moved out to the suburbs to get away from their sex nightmares and ended up in the land of hot chocolate and rigidly enforced conformity. Take me back to that darkened swimming pool please, it's not as scary!

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  Review by Liz ★★★½

  That's no panther, that's my guilt over the death of my wife and my daughter's lack of a mother figure and her inability to conform!

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  Review by Owen ★★★★½ 3

  The male lead from cat people has moved on with his life, remarried and has a young daughter who, isolated from her family and other kids, starts seeing visions of her father's dead wife and spending time with a batty old lady in her big house.

  Some of the reviews on here seem to be from people let down that it wasn't a 'proper' horror film or feeling it's links to Cat People were quite vague but I really liked the mood it created and the shifting connections and and communication breakdowns between the girl and the adults in her community. It's a film that manages to feel convincingly like a fairy tale rather than just pedestrianly filming an existing…

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  Review by Ethan Lyon ★★★★½ 6

  3rd Robert Wise (after Star Trek: The Motion Picture, The Sound of Music, before Mademoiselle Fifi, The Haunting, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Body Snatcher, A Game of Death, The Andromeda Strain, West Side Story and Rooftops), 1st Gunther von Fritsch

  A horror film shaded in the sad hues of a bleak Christmas, a deep blue known by those alone. If there's any terror here, it's the crushing threat of the normal world and its unspoken rules, the great gulf of existence that divides the different from the regular. But in that howling gale of loneliness, small glimmers of light and love sparkle like precious gems; the thoughtful gift of a ring, a French carol weaving its way…

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  Review by theironcupcake ★★★★½ 14

  "Children love to dream things up."

  Spooky Season #3

  Could there be anything more beautiful than the story of a lonely child (Ann Carter) voicing her most profound hope to an antique ring - "I wish for a friend" - and magically receiving the companionship of ethereal ghost Simone Simon in return?

  As worthy as a standalone film as it is as a kind-of-sequel, Gunther von Fritsch and Robert Wise's The Curse of the Cat People - one of the many horror/thriller/melodrama-related features produced by Val Lewton for RKO in the 1940s - is all shadowy atmosphere and tender emotion, combining its supernatural element with two poignant parallel narratives regarding daughters in search of parental love and understanding. Nicholas Musuraca's…

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  Review by sakana1 ★★★★ 7

  What's perhaps most remarkable about Curse of the Cat People is the seriousness with which it treats the ideas and feelings of a child. We share Amy's (the extraordinary Ann Carter) pain at being rejected by her peers, her elation at finding a friend, and her confusion at being told by her truth-demanding father (Oliver, played by Kent Smith), to lie about Irena (Simone Simon). In addition to sharing her emotions, we also often share Amy's perspective, not only on Irena, but also the Callahans, Edward (Sir Lancelot in a rare full, supporting role), and her parents, particularly her father.

  Oliver is an odd figure, and not just when seen through his daughter's eyes. Throughout the story, he's the one…

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  Review by sarah ★★★★

  This reads better when examined as a standalone rather than a follow-up to a classic horror film. It’s more fairytale than anything else, and there’s a certain magic contained in these seventy minutes, as ephemeral as the changing seasons. I was transfixed.

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  Review by Mike Thorn 1

  This is one of the most beautiful films about imagination, not only how and why we cultivate it, or the cruelty of adults trying to snuff it out, but also a serious inquiry into its power. There's a very muted Gothic angle in the film, but mostly it's a delicately arranged drama between childhood and adulthood, past and present. Quietly immaculate visual design.