WERECAT FILMOGRAPHY

This is a brief guide to some of the feline therianthrophic movies (and fake-outs) that I know of.  I'm not big on the anime films, but I suspect there are more out there that I haven't listed.

The Cat and The Canary - (1929/1939) This one is a fake-out.  The Cat man is trying to scare an heiress away from a family fortune.

Island of the Lost Souls (1933, Paramount) - Dr. Moreau (Charles Laughton) forcibly evolves animals into quasi-human form.  His most successful creation is Lota the Panther Woman (Kathleen Burke).   A must-see classic film, far better than any of the other Dr. Moreau movies.

Cat People (1942) and Curse of the Cat People (1944) - starred Simone Simon as Irena Dubrovna.  Irena came from a Serbian village of werecats and turns into a black panther when aroused or threatened.  In the second film, Irena is a ghost.  Cat People (and its remake in 1982 starring Natassia Kinski) is the classic werecat film.

The Leopard Man (1943) - Nightclub performer Kiki (Jean Brooks) loses her panther and people in town get mauled.  However, Kiki and her manager soon suspect that something else is responsible for the attacks.  The panther, Dynamite, was the same cat Val Lewton used for Cat People.

Catman of Paris (1945) - Robert Wilke gets an illness that makes him believe he is turning into a cat.  Nice whiskers, Robert.

Beauty and The Beast (1945, French)  Jean Cocteau's haunting fairytale has an arrogant Prince transformed into a lion-like beast by Diana, goddess of the hunt.  This has to be one of my favorite fantasy movies and you should see it subtitled, so you don't miss out on the voice intonation of the original French actors.  Jean Marais makes a very handsome cat man.

Cat Girl (1957) - don't make the heiress of the family curse angry because she turns into a murderous cat!

Vampire Circus (1972, Hammer) - One of the vampires (with fangs like a sabertooth or walrus) can change into a black panther.  The Tiger Lady in the same film is actually human.  Hard to find, but worth seeing!

The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977) - I waited through this entire movie for Michael York to find out that Maria (Barbara Carrera) was really a panther woman or something, but no luck.  There is a tiger man on the island, however.  Interesting makeup fx, but not a very good movie.

Sinbad and The Eye of the Tiger (1977, Ray Harryhausen) - evil sorceress Zenobia (Margaret Whiting) transfers her essense into a frozen sabertooth cat in one last ditch effort to kill Sinbad.  During the rest of the movie she is part seagull.

Cat People (1982) stars Natassia Kinski and Malcolm McDowell as were-panther siblings.  It was a very startling film in its day for both its violent special fx and incestuous sex theme.  Love the David Bowie song Putting Out the Fire (With Gasoline).

Lady Tiger (1983, Thailand) - described as a remake of the 1982 Cat People with a were-tiger instead of a panther or leopard.

KO Century Beast (Japanese Anime, 1992) - one of the jinn, Wann of the Beast World, can transform into a tiger.

Sleepwalkers (1993) - vampiric mother and son werecats come to town looking for a virgin to feed upon.  Real cats don't like them.  Really poor movie based on a poor Stephen King novel.

Night of the Cat (1993) - a mostly naked woman transforms into a ravenous feline several times a month.  I didn't see this one, but it was described as a "sexy romp."

The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) - Dr. Moreau (Marlon Brando) plays with DNA to create animal people.  Fairuza Balk stars as Aissa, a cat woman, who has tiny fangs and pointed ears.  Other cat-men also appear on the island, although the hyena-swine is the biggest threat.  So bad it's funny!

Teenage Cat Girls In Heat (Troma 1997) - very funny low budget film!  Cats commit suicide like lemmings so they can be reborn as human women.  They need to have the Great Litter for their goddess, so they need to seduce men.  I love the scenes with the naked women batting around balls of yarn and them learning English from geriatric empowerment tapes. "My mind is sharp..."

Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (Warner Bros. 2000) - the gang finally meet real supernatural entities including ghosts, zombies, and were-cats.  The latter took on the form to enact vengeance on pirates only to find they were cursed with being cat people and needing to sacrifice humans for eternity.  The island's real cats keep out of their way.  Good animation and story.

Half Caste (2004) This Blair Witch style film actually shot on location in Africa and uses actual witch doctor footage.  The were-leopard is lightning fast and startles the audience.  The dialog is intentionally funny.

Catwoman (2004) Fans hated this Warner Brothers incarnation of Catwoman because it wasn't Selina Kyle vs. Batman.  However, the film creates a legend of catwomen throughout history with Patience (Halle Berry) just being the latest in a long line.  Patience doesn't shift, but she gets agility, strength, speed, and other cat-like abilities.  The novelization of the movie goes into the catwoman legend more.

OTHER FILMS I'VE HEARD ABOUT:  Las Muertas Panteras (Mexican, 1966); The Haunted Castle (Japanese, 1969); Seven Dead in the Cat's Eyes (European, 1972); Evil Cat (1986, Hong Kong); The Cat Living Ten Times (1992, Hong Kong); Night Warriors: Darkstalker's Revenge (Japanese anime, 1998)

Are you ready for the close-up?

 Attack of the Sabretooth

review by Muninn

     Okay, so now we have two really bad movies featuring our favorite prehistoric cat.  Remember Sabretooth starring John Rhys-Davies?  Attack of The Sabretooth is a Sci-Fi Channel original movie which is now available on DVD.  That's right, you can buy it for your own viewing pleasure!  Here's the way I enjoyed it:

1.  Drink two peach margaritas with your dinner while watching the movie.  It will make a lot more sense that way and some of the special effects may actually look good.

2.  Woof on it mercilessly.  Make up inane dialog.  Yell at the actors for being so stupid.  Pretend it's Jurassic Park crossed with The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

3.  Appreciate that even the bad special effects are probably better that what you can do at home with a cheap camcorder. 

4.  Have another drink to honor Ray Harryhausen.

     Anyway, there are a few interesting effects shots and a lot of gore.  I especially liked one of the heroes telling the brain-dead college students to be careful not to slip in their eviscerated friend's blood because they could get hurt!  One of the students obligingly wears an "Eat Me" hat. 

     Another big bwah-ha-ha is the explanation that the cats are uncontrollably bulimic, hence the slaughter-happy kitties.  They're always starving and they like to kill... and puke up their victims immediately afterwards.

     Robert Carradine (Revenge of the Nerds)stars as a hostile rival to the Park's owner.  And, yep, you guessed it!  Monster fodder.

     The saddest creature in the movie is the genetically deformed smilodon fatalis that has to pull itself along (at a fast clip though!) by its front legs since its lower limbs never developed properly.  Still, this ton of gigantic mutated kitty manages to kill Primal Park owner Nigel (Nicholas Bell) by shaking the building so much that the badly CGI Sabretooth statue on the roof loses a sabre and impales him.  The effect is probably the worst one you'll see anywhere.  Anyway, the basic premise of re-creating prehistoric life continues on.  Ineptly, in this case. 

Did I enjoy the movie?  Well, yeah.  I did have those margaritas...