While Universal Monsters had the money for elaborate make-up, Transylvanian sets, and cutting-edge effects, RKO put producer Val Lewton on a strict budgetary diet and told him to churn out competing movies based on provided titles alone. The first of these set the tone. Cat People is a psychological, atmospheric, supernatural thriller where the scares are provided by fleeting shadows, sound design, and the audience's own imagination. In short, it's more effective (and less likely to get outdated) horror at a fraction of the cost, with a definite Hitchcockian flavor. It's the story of a Serbian woman who feels out of place in America until she finds a man she loves. Only, not even then. Haunted by childhood folk stories of cat people, she fears she may be one of them on account of her strange effect on animals, and her deep ennui even in a loving marriage. Played as a romance/drama, the horror hits home in the third act, once we have a handle on every character's personal stakes. This is how you make a horror film on a shoestring budget - you make the budget not matter to the story as told.

Cinematographic masterpiece! Brilliant use of shadows, especially in the pool scene.

Absolutely loved it.

Such a shame the 'Lewton bus' ended up being the most horrifically over- and misused narrative mechanism in horror films.