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Synth Soundtracks

Cat People

1h 58m

Directed by Paul Schrader • 1982 • United States
Starring Nastassja Kinski, Malcolm McDowell, John Heard

Paul Schrader’s kinky-stylish reworking of the 1942 Val Lewton classic transfers the action to a voodoo-spooky New Orleans, adds an incestuous undercurrent, and ups the sex and gore. Nastassja Kinski is stunning as a young woman with a unique problem: she’s the descendant of a race of people whose erotic desires turn them into man-eating leopards. John Bailey’s vivid cinematography and a synthy Giorgio Moroder score (with David Bowie on vocals) heighten the air of psychosexual unease.

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