How An Iconic Scene In ‘Cat People’ Created The Cinematic Jump Scare As We Know It Today
By Meagan Navarro/Nov. 18, 2020 10:00 am EST
(Welcome to Scariest Scene Ever, a column dedicated to the most pulse-pounding moments in horror. In this edition: Cat People delivered the first significant jump scare of the sound era and created one of cinema’s most enduring scare techniques; the Lewton Bus.)The jump scare gets a bad rap. It’s understandable; when used liberally for cheap thrills, the jump scare comes across as an easy crutch to create unearned horror. Overuse of them renders them ineffective and impotent. There’s an artform to the jump scare, though. If you’re a regular reader of this column, then you know the most chilling and memorable moments of fright take a lot of time, planning, and forethought to prepare. It requires technique.Among the early pioneers and masters of scare crafting is legendary producer Val Lewton, whose first mission once hired by RKO Pictures was to run a new unit dedicated to horror B-pictures with A-picture quality. He was inspired by Universal Studios’ monster movies’ massive success but felt he could achieve similar success with a fraction of Universal’s budget by building fear of the unseen or suggestive horror. Lewton’s first assignment under RKO Pictures was 1942’s Cat People. Operating with a minuscule budget, Cat People is constructed entirely out of fear and implied dread. Lewton’s brand of building tension out of nothing is perfectly encapsulated in Cat People’s most famous scene, featuring a scare so potent that it birthed a new jump scare technique lovingly dubbed “the Lewton Bus.”
The Setup
Serbian-born fashion illustrated Irena Dubrovna (Simone Simon) is recently transplanted to New York City, where she knows no one. She meets marine engineer Oliver Reed (Kent Smith), and the pair quickly fall in love. Irena and Oliver get married soon after, but their wedded bliss gets interrupted by Irena’s budding fear that she will transform into the predatory cat person of her homeland’s fables if they are intimate together. When Oliver confides his marital concerns to his extroverted assistant Alice Moore (Jane Randolph), it triggers Irena’s curse.Lewton assembled a team of filmmakers he’d worked with in the past for his first RKO Pictures project. That included director Jacques Tourneur, editor Mark Robson, and screenwriter DeWitt Bodeen, though Lewton always prepared the final shooting script himself.
The Story So Far
While sketching a panther at the Central Park Zoo, Irena catches Oliver’s eye. He walks her home, and she invites him inside for tea, where she regales him with stories of her village in Serbia. Namely, of the belief that some villagers turned to Satanism and their evil gave them the ability to transform into cats. Irena believes herself to be descended from this evil line. Oliver chalks it up to silly superstition, and he proposes marriage soon after they fall in love.Irena refuses to consummate their marriage, though, fearful that the physical intimacy will trigger her curse and transform her into a panther. At first, Oliver is patient with his new bride but eventually persuades her to seek professional help from psychiatrist Dr. Louis Judd (Tom Conway). Dr. Judd attempts to convince Irena that her fears are unfounded and stem from childhood trauma, while Oliver divulges his marital woes to his confident and beautiful assistant Alice. When Irena learns of this, she takes it as a betrayal. Alice then confesses to Oliver that she’s in love with him while out to dinner. Irena sees the pair at the restaurant and, with jealousy, decides to follow them.
How An Iconic Scene In ‘Cat People’ Created The Cinematic Jump Scare As We Know It Today
By Meagan Navarro/Nov. 18, 2020 10:00 am EST
(Welcome to Scariest Scene Ever, a column dedicated to the most pulse-pounding moments in horror. In this edition: Cat People delivered the first significant jump scare of the sound era and created one of cinema’s most enduring scare techniques; the Lewton Bus.)The jump scare gets a bad rap. It’s understandable; when used liberally for cheap thrills, the jump scare comes across as an easy crutch to create unearned horror. Overuse of them renders them ineffective and impotent. There’s an artform to the jump scare, though. If you’re a regular reader of this column, then you know the most chilling and memorable moments of fright take a lot of time, planning, and forethought to prepare. It requires technique.Among the early pioneers and masters of scare crafting is legendary producer Val Lewton, whose first mission once hired by RKO Pictures was to run a new unit dedicated to horror B-pictures with A-picture quality. He was inspired by Universal Studios’ monster movies’ massive success but felt he could achieve similar success with a fraction of Universal’s budget by building fear of the unseen or suggestive horror. Lewton’s first assignment under RKO Pictures was 1942’s Cat People. Operating with a minuscule budget, Cat People is constructed entirely out of fear and implied dread. Lewton’s brand of building tension out of nothing is perfectly encapsulated in Cat People’s most famous scene, featuring a scare so potent that it birthed a new jump scare technique lovingly dubbed “the Lewton Bus.”
The Setup
Serbian-born fashion illustrated Irena Dubrovna (Simone Simon) is recently transplanted to New York City, where she knows no one. She meets marine engineer Oliver Reed (Kent Smith), and the pair quickly fall in love. Irena and Oliver get married soon after, but their wedded bliss gets interrupted by Irena’s budding fear that she will transform into the predatory cat person of her homeland’s fables if they are intimate together. When Oliver confides his marital concerns to his extroverted assistant Alice Moore (Jane Randolph), it triggers Irena’s curse.Lewton assembled a team of filmmakers he’d worked with in the past for his first RKO Pictures project. That included director Jacques Tourneur, editor Mark Robson, and screenwriter DeWitt Bodeen, though Lewton always prepared the final shooting script himself.
The Story So Far
While sketching a panther at the Central Park Zoo, Irena catches Oliver’s eye. He walks her home, and she invites him inside for tea, where she regales him with stories of her village in Serbia. Namely, of the belief that some villagers turned to Satanism and their evil gave them the ability to transform into cats. Irena believes herself to be descended from this evil line. Oliver chalks it up to silly superstition, and he proposes marriage soon after they fall in love.Irena refuses to consummate their marriage, though, fearful that the physical intimacy will trigger her curse and transform her into a panther. At first, Oliver is patient with his new bride but eventually persuades her to seek professional help from psychiatrist Dr. Louis Judd (Tom Conway). Dr. Judd attempts to convince Irena that her fears are unfounded and stem from childhood trauma, while Oliver divulges his marital woes to his confident and beautiful assistant Alice. When Irena learns of this, she takes it as a betrayal. Alice then confesses to Oliver that she’s in love with him while out to dinner. Irena sees the pair at the restaurant and, with jealousy, decides to follow them.
