Oliver and Alice Reed are married and determined to put the past (especially Oliver’s first wife, Irena) behind them. Their daughter Amy is a sweet girl who has problems making friends her own age. They are like any wholesome 40’s family complete with a manservant o’color. When Amy begins talking about an invisible friend named Irena, it’s a sign of trouble to come.
The movie posters are a lie. Yes, this movie is a sequel to Cat People (1942) but it’s not a horror movie. It picks up at least 5 or 6 years after the end of Cat People and follows the same characters. There’s no cat person in this movie. There’s barely a cat in this movie. This is a family drama that demonstrates how NOT to raise children.
Though he loves Alice, Oliver can’t shake the memory of Irena and her condition. Though Amy is Alice’s daughter, he is afraid that the girl’s behavior means that she is following in Irena’s delusional footsteps. The women in the movie recognize that Amy is acting like a normal child, but Oliver is obsessed with fixing her.
Amy befriends an elderly recluse who lives a few blocks over and showers her with grandmotherly affection. Turns out that the bitter nurse who takes care of the old lady is her daughter. Not only does the recluse refuse to recognize her (claims her “real” daughter died as a child), it’s clear that her doting on Amy is just another way to be cruel to her own flesh and blood.
You have two bad parents and two children longing for love and acceptance. Add anger, resentment and loneliness to the mix and you have the potential for danger.
If you are looking for someone to transform into a black panther**, you’re not going to find it here. In fact, it’s easy to imagine this was a totally unrelated script that had characters from Cat People grafted on to it.
Tips:
*Perhaps consider seeing things from your child’s pov before the spanking?
*Don’t tell your kids fairy tales and then get pissed when they believe them.
**Wakanda Forever!
Tawanna Sullivan 