Now Showing: Cat People

Cat People
Genre: Supernatural/Horror
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Writer: Lon Charles
Based on the 1982 and 1942 films of the same name
Cast: Barbara Palvin, Luke Evans, Aaron Taylor-Johnson

Plot: Carolina Szabo (Barbara Palvin) travels to London from Hungary to try to track down her brother Erik (Luke Evans), who has been missing for years but sent her a blank postcard from London. That night, while Carolina sleeps at a hostal, she wakes up when she gets the feeling that someone or something is watching her. She only sees shadows and lights coming in through the window, so she goes back to sleep.

Carolina visits the local zoo and is drawn to the panthers, staying long after closing, undetected for hours. She is finally discovered by one of the zoologists, Oliver Reed (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). She tries to flee, but Oliver catches up to her in an empty animal habitat. He tells her she's not in trouble and offers to buy her dinner. Over dinner they discuss what brought her to London. Oliver offers to help her get a job at the zoo. The next day she is hired to work in the gift shop. On her first day of work, one of the zoo workers is mauled to death by a panther during a routine cage cleaning.  Oliver is pressured by his bosses to euthanize the panther, only to find that it has escaped.

Carolina is sleeping at the hostal when she is awoken by her brother Erik, who is sweaty, dirty and bloody. She helps him clean up. In the process, Erik tells his sister of a Hungarian folk tale about a werecat. If the werecat mates with a human, they transform into a panther, and can only regain human form by killing a human. Carolina falls asleep. When she wakes up, the window is open and Erik is gone.

Police discover a bloody mess in anbandoned warehouse: shackles, bones, and the remains of nearly a dozen corpses. They suspect a wild animal was kept there and call Oliver in for his expert opinion. That night, Carolina and Oliver have sex. She transforms into a panther and flees. Police and animal control later corner her on a bridge, suspecting her of being the panther that killed the zoo worker. Just as they are about to shoot her, another panther emerges and begins killing the cops. Carolina, as a panther, kills one of the animal control officers before they can shoot her with a tranquilizer gun. Both panthers then jump off the bridge, and swim away down the river.

When they get out of the water, the panthers transform back into Carolina and Erik. She tells him he wants nothing to do with him and runs away. She shows up at Oliver's house where she explains to him the tale her brother told her. She tells him that she did not want to kill him because she loves him.

Erik, in panther form, crashes through the window and attacks Oliver. Carolina shoots her brother with a gun she found in Oliver's nightstand. The dead panther reverts back to human form when it dies. Carolina reveals to Oliver that she wants to be with her kind. Oliver ties Carolina to the bed and has sex with her, turning her back into a panther. Oliver brings her to the zoo as the supposedly re-captured panther. He tells her that he will always take care of her as he hand-feeds her a steak and strokes the panther's neck, lovingly.