Is this the earliest little girl “horror” movie? It’s certainly the earliest I’ve seen anyway, and the earliest I’ve seen of any genre where someone so young features so prominently. I seriously can’t believe it’s taken me this long to see it, especially considering it’s hardly an investment at 70 minutes.

I was surprised by the connection to the original – I’d heard it was mostly unrelated and it is, but there is still a strong connection you have to fill in the gaps of if you haven’t seen Cat People; or if, like me, you just haven’t seen Cat People in a long time. You kind of gather that Reed’s wife has died in circumstances they don’t speak of and Amy is suddenly seeing her etc, and you don’t really need to know any more than that.

But the story isn’t what the movie’s worth watching for. It is just one of the most beautiful looking older movies I’ve seen since Les Yeux Sans Visage, and easily one of the most interesting and watchable pre-60s movies too. It’s about loneliness and childhood fantasy etc and all of this is conveyed in beautiful images that completely transport you somewhere forgotten.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 at 4:38 pm in 4 hearts, Movie Reviews and tagged as b/w, cuties, fantasy, horror. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.