Novelist and critic Kim Newman assesses the horror noir Cat People (1943), produced by Val Lewton and directed by Jacques Tourneur. This important and influential film is considered in the light of its place in film history and as a work of ambitious horror. The new edition includes a postscript about the sequel, The Curse of the Cat People.

Kim Newman is a novelist, film critic, broadcaster and journalist. He is editor of The BFI Companion to Horror (1997), Science Fiction/Horror: A Sight and Sound Reader (2002) and author of the BFI TV Classic on Doctor Who (2005).