Cat People

by Gary Brandner

A beautiful girl with a terrifying past.

A murderous wild leopard stalking the city.

Driven by bizarre desire, the girl begins to change...

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Supernatural

221 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Gary Phil Brandner (May 31, 1930 – September 22, 2013) was an American horror author best known for his werewolf themed trilogy of novels, The Howling. The first book in the series was loosely adapted as a motion picture in 1981. Brandner's second and third Howling novels, published in 1979 and 1985 respectively, have no connection to the film series, though he was involved in writing the screenplay for the second Howling film, Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf. The fourth film in the Howling series, Howling IV: The Original Nightmare, is actually the closest adaptation of Brandner's original novel, though this too varies to some degree.

Brandner's novel Walkers was adapted and filmed for television as From The Dead Of Night. He also wrote the screenplay for the 1988 horror film Cameron's Closet.

Born in the Midwest and much traveled during his formative years, Brandner published more than 30 novels, over 100 short stories, and also wrote a handful of screenplays. He attended college at the University of Washington where he was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity. After graduating in 1955, he worked as an amateur boxer, bartender, surveyor, loan company investigator, advertising copywriter, and technical writer before turning to fiction writing. Brandner lived with his wife, Martine Wood Brandner, and several cats in Reno, Nevada.

He died of esophageal cancer in 2013.

Reviews

[Luis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gary Brandner (author of The Howling, the book, not the movie loosely based on his book) has the thankless task of adapting into novel form the 1982 movie with Nastassja Kinski and Malcolm McDowell. Cat People itself is a remake of a highly regarded film from the 40s so hes making an adaptation of an adaptation - not an easy task. As such the book is only mildly interesting but it does give a little more insight into the story and characters who at times behave in a rather romance novel fashion. The story sticks pretty close to the movie except for a few extended scenes and one part in particular where Irena (the cat woman) visits a pet store and causes all the birds to panic, a scene from the original 1940s movie but not in the 1982 remake.

[Micky Neilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was fascinated to learn that the author of The Howling series had written the book adaptation of Cat People from the film. Mostly I wanted to see if the book delved farther into the mythology. There were differences, especially in the opening. Other interesting differences include a scene (spoiler) where Irena kills Oliver's pet bird. When she goes to replace it the rest of the birds in the store go nuts. I enjoyed the book but wanted much more of the Cat People lore. The story behind the film is also very interesting for those who are fans fo the genre, both in the inspiration from the original Cat People film of 1942 and the pulp story it was based on, the Bagheeta by Val Lewton.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

A far more coherent story than the movie, along with being shorter, this book lacks the visual impact or sheer joy that comes from watching a bad B-flick. Instead, it's just a bad book.

[Aaron the Pink Donut · Rating 3 out of 5]

tight workmen like narrative. fast fun read.

[Gerd · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few words on Cat People, the remake and its novelization.

A fair warning up front:
The book contains a graphic near rape scene which is not in the movie!

All in all the movie, while less comprehensible storywise, holds up better than Brandner's novelization. Still both fail the promise of being "an erotic fantasy", IMO, by being more concerned with sex and nudity, but the movie at least offers some fine aestethics.

Brandners novelization differs from the movie in several points, and rarely for the better.
It does offer more storybackground, which is a plus, and the scene in which Oliver has to sedate Paul in his leopard form holds more suspense. The book also contains a different scene taken from the original; in the remake we get the "My sister" scene not included in the novel, in the novel we get the scene in which Irena scares a bird to death with a subsequent visit to a pet store, not included in the movie (we do however get to see an empty birdcage in Oliver's house, why I assume that Brandner wrote his novelization from an early script version which later got changed and shortened down).

The opening differs slightly from the movie as well, starting with a different scarifice scene we do not get to see as such in the movie, only have it told by Paul to Irena in a dream sequence. In a ways the books opening scene is more interesting, but having the people in the scene refer to their "Dark Gods" feels disingenous, however the movie's dialogue free opening which hints at something more carnal going on has its own strength as it is a rare moment where it has a true sense of eroticism to it. From there the book goes to a sort of second prologue, detailing what happened between Irena's and Paul's parents, which is entirely missing from the movie and only hinted at via dialogue there. This probably got cut for both giving away too much too early on as well as to help with pacing.
The characters in the book are a lot less likeable than in the movie, especially Oliver suffers on top of wooden dialogue from giving such 'wisdoms' as "She's just behaving like a woman" (said to Irena in regard to his sometimes lover Alice). Then there's how Brandner handles Irena herself, painting her as a childlike naïve and having Oliver treat her that way as well, which makes the scene when they finally have sex appear extra creepy (in addition to the fact that Brandner was a bad choice to begin with as he's not been good at writing sex, or women). Here the movie is again clearly stronger as movie Irena is more in control of her life and relationship with Oliver.

[Court Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book barely has any reviews. I read this book when I was gone for 3 days. Found it laying around. Read it in 2 days. Omg. Crazy. Keeps you hooked. Weird. Kinda insest at one point which is BLEHK but still, good book I need to find it so I can have it forever.

[Joseph · Rating 2 out of 5]

About as clumsy as you might guess.

[Ranjana · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really enjoyable read that is better than the film itself. The theme of animal transformation is repulsive and compelling at the same time.