History Film / CatPeople

* ForYourOwnGood -- Oliver believes he is helping Amy when he demands she give up her dream orld.

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}} -- How Oliver and the other characters see Irina.

* ForYourOwnGood -- Oliver believes he is helping Amy when he demands she give up her dreamworld.

** He's also hilariously [[AllPsychologyIsFreudian Freudian]], absolutely convinced that her belief comes ''entirely'' from her own mind, despite it being established as a folktale from her Serbia.

* LackOfEmpathy -- Oliver is guilty of this both with Irina in the first movie and his daughter Amy in the second where he scolds and punishes her for not giving up her fantasy world. He is clearly remorseful by the end of "The Curse of the Cat People."

* WomenAreWiser -- Alice and Amy's teacher Miss Callahan are far more understanding of Amy's imagination than her father.

* LackOfEmpathy -- Oliver is guilty of this both with Irina in the first movie and his daughter Amy in the second, scolding and even spanking her for not giving up her fantasy world. He is clearly remorseful by the end of "The Curse of the Cat People."

* InvisibleToAdults -- Irina (or her ghost) can only be seen by Amy in "Curse of the Cat People."

* Cloudcuckoolander -- How Oliver and the other characters see Irina.

* TheCloudcuckoolander -- How Oliver and the other characters see Irina.

* TheCloudcuckooLander -- How Oliver and the other characters see Irina.

* TheCloudCuckooLander -- How Oliver and the other characters see Irina.

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* Ruritania -- How all-American Oliver regards Irena's homeland Serbia with its crazy folktales and superstitions.

* OurWerebeastsAreDifferent -- Humans turning into panthers in sexual situations

* BettyandVeronica -- Alice and Irena in the 1942 version.

* AnimalsHateHim: In the 1942 film, the kitten Oliver buys for Irena hisses when she approaches it; when they go to the pet store to exchange it for a bird all the animals become agitated. Later, the bird dies of fright when Irena picks it up. Lampshaded by the pet store worker who says that animals can sense things about people.
BettyandVeronica -- Alice and Irena in the 1942 version.

Spawned a sequel ([[InNameOnly kind of]]), ''The Curse of the Cat People'', which follows two of the characters from the first film and (apparently) a third one who had seemed to be dead at its end; it didn't really deal with the "cat people" angle at all, and dropped the "dangerous sexuality" theme in favour of exploring the importance of childhood imagination. It's not even in the same genre as the original, being more of a drama about family life than a horror film. That said, it's well made and worth seeing in its own right.

* DidNotDoTheResearch -- The original makes much of the story that "King John" of Serbia "drove out the Mamelukes". Serbia has never had a king called John, and there were never any Mamelukes in Serbia.

There was also a 1982 remake starring Malcom [=McDowell=] and Natassja Kinski; it was a great deal bloodier and more salacious than the original, expanded the original's sketchy backstory into a proper origin story for the cat people, and generally preferred to show what the original merely suggested. It's also very... very... ''slooooow''.

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