Ghost Story Archives - Screen Wolf

Cynical cash in sequels were not an invention of more recent years. They were part of Hollywood since the golden age. Curse Of The Cat People is the sequel to “Cat People” from 1942. Both films were written by DeWitt Bodeen. To Bodeen and producer Val Lewton, this was a lot more than just a cash in. They took a radical direction with the story, much to the chagrin of the studio. This was Robert Wise’s directorial debut, however the original director on the film was Gunther von Fritsch. Gunther was fired for falling too far behind in shooting but approximately half of the movie is his work. Simone Simon, Kent Smith and Jane Randolph return to their roles from the previous film and they are joined by the movies young star Ann Carter.

After the events of “Cat People” Oliver Reed (Smith) has married his former co-worker Alice (Randolph) and moved to Tarrytown, New York. They have a 6 year old daughter called Amy, who is awkward and struggles to make friends. Oliver is concerned that she lets her imagination run away with her instead of socializing. Part of his concern is because he saw what happened to his former wife Irena when she lost her grip on reality. In a strange twist Amy befriends an invisible figure that appears to be the ghost of Irena. She also makes friend with a senile old lady, a former movie star that now thinks her own daughter is an impostor. Oliver tries to bring her daughter to reality but may end up only driving her away from him.

Are Cat People Without Cats, Still People?

Curse of the Cat People is a unique movie (Not bad for something 80 years old). The expectations for this sequel would be for it to be a monster like it’s predecessor. But while the original involved curses and cat people, this has neither. Instead it’s sort of a ghost story. Maybe not even that, since the ambiguity of the story leaves it just as likely the ghost was only ever a figment of a young lonely girls imagination. It is a story that has a bit of sentimental sweetness to it, but is actually quite sad. Not just in the lead girl but also the senile old woman that befriends her while rejecting her own daughter. It is a story about the border between fantasy and reality and how that impacts people. It’s really not a horror film. Yet, it is a direct sequel with three returning characters.

These days people talk like audience expectation as if this is not something that has ever been subverted before and yet here we are. A sequel to a monster movie turned into an emotional character drama with a hint at ghostly activity. It’s no surprise reactions to the film were decidedly mixed with fans of the first film often very disappointed while those that had no particular affection for the first simply enjoyed the film for what it was. Indeed that it wasn’t a horror was probably a bonus for those people. The movie even seems to retcon the events of the previous film, placing it all firmly inside Irena’s head, despite that movie showing the audience her in panther form. The only cat in this sequel at all is the street cat in the opening scene that was awkwardly edited in to the movie at the last minute.

Child Psychology

It seems the only way to really judge this movie is as a stand alone. That said, it was marketed and is still listed as a horror, so I’m not going to give it a complete pass for not having anyone mauled by a big cat. As a character drama Amy is a very compelling character. Eight year old Ann Carter did a great job with her performance. Her career was derailed by polio before she broke through as an adult, but she definitely had talent. You certainly feel her innocence and loneliness. Even as she is accidentally driving a wedge between another daughter and her mother, she is never anything but well meaning. Speaking of which, that story between Barbara and Julia Farren is quite heart breaking in it’s own right. It’s a strange secondary story to Amy’s that shares more with it thematically than anything else.

The themes are the interesting thing here. Because we are talking about psychology, senility, madness and the imagination of children. Ollie Reed has his own journey, perhaps one of forgiveness for his former wife Irena’s madness or to see that kindness and love is a better antidote to a delusion than anger. We reference the madness of Irena as an adult, the senile madness of Julia Farren believe her own daughter is an imposter and the childhood madness of Amy’s imaginary friend. These are all depicted with a supernatural overtone to it, yet none of it really does seem to be. It’s actually quite a clever bit of story telling.

But Is It Even A Horror?

Here we get to the problem. As a horror, this is not good. The only person that dies is an old woman of a heart attack. The only threat to anyone is from their own madness. The ghost is most likely just an imaginary friend and the vast majority of the movie isn’t even trying to present the viewer with any other conclusion. Ambiguity is always a benefit in movies that walk the line like this, but they barely attempted any. Madness can be a strong horror theme, but not in the way it is used here. The only character even portrayed as at all menacing is Barbara. Yet the story doesn’t do anything to make us think she is anything other than a poor abused daughter burden by her mothers senility. She is more sad than scary.

So with that all in mind, I have the dilemma of how to rate the movie. It was certainly a misleading film on the surface, but there is a solid, intelligently made movie underneath. As a horror though, which is ultimately what it was marketed as, it doesn’t work. This is more of a family movie than a horror. My instinct here is to give this a 6/10 and a mild recommendation with the caveat that you need to go in expecting a psychological character drama and not anything even mildly horror related.

So for my final review of the Halloween season (and Happy Halloween to anyone reading this on it’s publishing date) I decided to watch the Japanese ghost story “Pulse” from 2001. I have already seen the Americanised version from 2006, which despite a screenplay from Wes Craven, wasn’t especially good. It did however present interesting ideas and after seeing the original I realise where the film went wrong, but I’ll get to that. My hope was my final review would be an easy one, but I was never going to be let off so easily by a Japanese ghost story. Anyway this one was written and directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Who even did his own novelisation). The film features two protagonists with parallel stories, who finally meet in the final act. Michi Kudo (played by Kumiko Asō) and Ryosuke Kawashima (played by Haruhiko Katô).

October Review Challenge – Day 31

Michi works in a plant shop. One of her co-workers has been missing for several days while he works on a computer disk to track the shops sales. Michi goes to the man’s apartment to check on him only for him to be aloof during the conversation and casually walk into another room and hang himself. Michi and her friends inspect the disk he left behind and discover it contains an image of Taguchi staring into his own computer monitor, which has an image of him staring into his monitor in an infinite loop. On the other monitor on his desk however they discover another ghostly image staring out.

Meanwhile Ryosuke, a university economics student has just signed up to an internet service provider and is getting on line for the first time. His computer accesses a website by itself showing him disturbing images of people alone in dark rooms. The next day he goes to the university computer lab looking for answers and meets Harue (played by Koyuki Kato). She suggests saving the bookmark or taking a screenshot so she can examine it. That night he attempts to but the computer won’t cooperate and instead shows a video of a man with his head in a plastic bag and the words “Help Me” written all over his walls.

Vanishing People

Over time (I’m skipping a lot of details here) Ryosuke learns a theory that the dead are invading the physical world as their world is over crowded, and they are coming through as a signal that can be picked up by computer equipment. Harue confides in her feelings of isolation to Ryosuke and begins acting strangely. She has concluded that ghosts wouldn’t want to create more ghosts by killing people and would rather trap the living in their own isolation.

Meanwhile Michi has begun to learn about a trend for people to seal off rooms with red tape and that inside those rooms is a ghost and that seeing the ghosts face causes the victim to eventually disappear. All her friends at the plant shop eventually go this way. More and more people begin to disappear around them with a list of apparently endless names being broadcast on an abandoned television set.

Eventually Michi and Ryosuke meet and may be the only two people remaining (In the city at least). They decide to leave the city. Can they make it out and what will it cost them? You’ll have to watch to find out as I’m not spoiling the ending.

Pacing and Atmosphere

Before I get onto the heavy theme of the film I want to touch on the main negative and that is the pacing and length. As a two hour movie it’s moments of tension are spaced out and a lot of events are effectively repeated to help drive home the themes. I can’t help but feel the choice to follow two characters mixed with the need to drive the theme meant the film would always end up dragging in places. A more minor issue is that there is also a degree of character stupidity in how often they go into forbidden rooms, but that at least could be explained by them already being affected by the ghosts. The only one that was truly grating was the last character to do such a thing.

The film has a very minimal soundtrack, but this is for good reason. The silence between discordant noises and ghostly strings give a feeling of melancholy and emptiness to the events on screen. It is a technique that fits the theme perfectly. The soundtrack itself when it plays doesn’t stand out as especially good but it is how it is used that makes it work. Time to talk about that theme though.

You Feel So Lonely You Could Die

Loneliness is the theme here and in a very strong way and watching this now rather than when it first came out the first thing that came to mind is “Hikikomori”. This is a term first coined in 1998 by Japanese psychiatrist Professor Tamaki Saito. Saito chose the term to describe the many young people he saw who didn’t fit criteria for mental health diagnosis, but were nonetheless in a state of extreme, distressing withdrawal. Over the years since this has been found to apply to older generations too and become a recognised terms for the many Japanese people (Mostly, but not exclusively young males) that now live their lives almost entirely in their own bedroom.

When the film came out, though the phenomenon had been noted in Japan it was largely unknown outside and so reviewers at the time likely wouldn’t have seen the link but to me it is pretty clear. The question is, was this referring to something Kurosawa knew about or was he predicting the future based on what he had noted from the loneliness in his own society. Maybe he never intended it to be a social commentary and was just speaking on his own feelings, but now with the Hikikomori estimated to be 1.2% of the Japanese population (around a million people) it certainly feels like social commentary.

Logging On….

In the early 2000’s a lot of people went online seeking to find a connection with other human being via the internet. In doing so that left many of them chasing a connection with people that don’t even know are real at the expense of those around them that are. As a character in the story is manipulated by the ghosts they withdrawal more from their real life friends, their family and their occupation. Harue Karasawa speaks somewhat directly about this, saying all the people in their isolated rooms on their computers are no different to ghosts. It’s worth noting the ghosts even make modem noises as they approach people.

Most of the characters in the film do not start off physically isolated though most are isolated internally. Aloof from society to some degree and as the ghosts start to mess with them they feel more isolated. One of the minor characters makes a remark to Michi Kudo wondering if friendship is really worth it since you both end up hurting each other eventually, Many interactions between characters have this kind of tone to it. People deciding they are alone even when they are not. Harue takes this negativity a stage further by suggesting that even death may be eternal isolation.

Finding The Will To Go On.

Harue also suggests that if the ghosts are here because their realm is overflowing they wouldn’t kill people, they would seek to trap them in their own loneliness. There is an odd mismatch here though, if the ghosts are lonely, wouldn’t they want more ghosts even if their domain was overflowing? Also half the victims of the ghosts kill themselves and then leave a black smudge while the other half that doesn’t kill themself just fade into a black smudge anyway. Their fate appears the same either way. Perhaps that is a deliberate point, isolation is the same as death.

The two protagonists seem to have the most resistance to the curse of Loneliness. Ryosuke is himself a loner, but it doesn’t seem to bother him that much. He mentions that he wants to live forever at some point, so despite his isolation he has a resolve to keep going. Michi by comparison is very social and seems to care deeply about all her friends. Her desire to keep going seems at it’s lowest at the start of the final act but once she meets Ryosuke her resolve for survival returns. It is interesting then to consider the pairs final fate. Worse for one that the other but sad for both of them.

Conclusion

Before I give my score for this, I want to talk briefly about the American version. The reason that version fell flat was because it switched the focus from loneliness to the internet/signal side of things and with that switch tried to turn it into a fairly generic horror film. The idea of ghosts coming through the internet isn’t a bad one to explore (Indeed for a more fun version of that check out “Nekrotronic” from 2018), but it missed the point of this particular story. That the US wasn’t at the time having the same issues as Japan did with it’s Hikikomori and that the phenomenon wasn’t really known outside Japan at that time likely factored into missing the point. But enough about the remake.

Overall, while the film drags a little the way it digs deep into everyone’s fear of loneliness makes for a great psychological horror and the ghosts themselves present in forms that manage to to be disturbing while not requiring them to really do much. The talking black smudges and the people on the computer screens also manage to be very creepy. Basically the horror aspects are strong here despite a near complete lack of gore or violence (Suicides aside). Of all the films I’ve seen over this October this one actually came closest to disturbing me. This is a strong 7/10 and I think the front runner of the season. That is what you call finishing strong.

I’m going to have at least a week off reviews now after doing 31 in a row. But November is “Noirvember” so expect at a few Film Noir reviews out later in the month. Till then, Happy Halloween!

Tag: Ghost Story

Curse Of The Cat People (1944)