An Analysis of "Cat People"
by Aaron Davila
The first Cat People was not only received much better than its remake (7.4 stars vs 6.1 on IMDB), but it also was simply received well. Although its IMDB score doesn't seem so, it holds a 92% on Rotten Romatoes. This extends past critical reception to financial reception. It grossed $4,000,000 domestically off of a budget that is estimated to be only $134,000. The second film only grossed $7,000,000 stateside off of a $18,000,000 budget. In addition to that, it's Rotten Tomatoes score is only 64%. Although it was a flop, it did gross another seven million dollars internationally according to IMDB. Both films were about equal hits internationally as the first brought in four million dollars off of rentals worldwide. (IMDB;Rotten Tomatoes)
Money and online scores aside, its a little unclear as to how the movie affected the target audience. For the original film, I tried to find statistics for horror movie audiences in the 40s, but could not. I assume it would be adult couples between 18 and 30, especially with the conservative values at that time likely prohibiting younger viewers from being exposed to the film's sexual undertones. According to Wikipedia (not a great source, but it was hard) critics were split between a weird thrilling movie or an obvious reliance on shock value. It was selected for preservation by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", but it is unclear if the cultural connections it was trying to make were fully realized by critics then. The remakes initial reviews didn't have much cultural connection, which is weird at this time because of the feminist sentiments it contained.
Above are two of the posters used to promote the films. Obviously the first is for the original with the second being for the remake. They are both surprisingly similar, focused on a cat and a women whose sexuality is very obvious. The difference, aside from the move away from drawn or painted figures of early to mid-20th century promotional items, is that the second poster is a lot simpler. Where the first has a clock, Irena and Oliver, and a quote from the movie in addition to the woman, cat, and tagline, the second poster is just that. Another difference is the remakes promotion as "an erotic fantasy". While that may have been part of the idea behind the first, because of culturally conservative values in that decade it could not be promoted as such. The eighties were a time of pushing boundaries and censorship, so this marketing change fit within the times, and with the help of the innuendo might indicate that the desired audience for the second move was more male heavy. While that conclusion can be plausible, nothing from any promotional materials I have seen or from the movie has led me to think this movie was meant for any other particular group of people.