'CAT PEOPLE'.....IM-PURR-FECT ROMANCE.....BUT NO HARD FELINES WHEN IT'S OVER......

Cat People (1982)

      Well, what the hell. We're only a mere 6 weeks away from Halloween, so let the Spooky Season begin.....

           Here's a film appropriate as any for the kickoff point....writer-director Paul Schrader's update/remake/re-invention of producer Val Lewton's famously creepy 1942 original. 

      Coming 40 years after the first film, Schrader's version is a far more erotic and exotic take on the basic idea.....with naturally, amped up gruesome special effects and violence that Lewton's films never indulged in,  always leaving the worst horrors to the audience's imagination.

       But the primary Cat Girl casting is eerily similar in both movies. Lewton found his ethereal feline shapeshifter in diminutive, delicate French actress Simone Simon (also famously featured as the Satan's temptress in 'The Devil and Daniel Webster').

        Schrader's choice couldn't possibly be more on the money.....the otherwordly sex bombshell of the 1980's Nastassja Kinski, daughter of the notorious Madman of cinema Klaus Kinski.  

      With her enormous expressive eyes and compact curvy frame, Kinski virtually radiated the heat of a vaguely foreign, dangerous Manic Pixie Dream Girl. If you could believe any girl could transform herself into a slinking, snarling black panther, it was her. 

        But first we start off with the origins of cat people, set in a prehistoric, sand swept landscape and set to the moody warblings of David Bowie. It's where some unknown tribe serves up their virgins for some cat canoodlin' with the head panther who lounges about in an artistically constructed twisted branch tree. 

        Then we move on to modern day New Orleans (another great choice for a setting) where fresh off the boat, sweetly naive Irina (Kinski) arrives to reunite with her long lost brother Paul (Malcolm McDowell, still exuding the sexually charged feral threat he perfected in "A Clockwork Orange")

         Yes, they're cat-siblings sure enough and their conversions into dark furry predators wreak some bloody havoc on ordinary mortals......including zookeeper Oliver (John Heard) who's fallen hard for Irina....(in her luscious Kinski-form, that is)

        There is one genuinely ghastly death thrown into the mix here,  but Paul Schrader devotes much more of his attention to the sensual, carnal aspects of his script and in the seductive expressions and physicality of Kinski, he clearly found his muse. She's way more of a convincing half-human kitty than any of the Catwomen in any of the many Batman films. 

       (For those who still well remember the '42 'Cat People', the film does pay homage to it, with its own version of that film's unnerving swimming pool scene, only this time with a literally stripped down Annette 'O Toole as the terrified stalkee.....) 

       Moody, seductive  and coated with one of Giorgio Moroder's thrumming electronic scores, 'Cat People' may not quite satisfy today's hardcore horror viewers who demand over-the-top shocks every few minutes. But 44 years later, it still manages to cast its own weird unearthly spell.....

         And overall, steamy as hell, we might add. So there's that....

          3 stars (***). Not a bad way to jump start a Halloween festival of spookery. 

        

             

WEEKEND MADNESS WRAP-UP.....SPECIAL EDITION - "DON'T WORRY! I, YOUR PRESIDENT, WILL CONTROL A.I.!!"........

 

BQ visitors.....enjoy a terrific weekend and thanks always for stopping in to check our posts.

Trumpanzees:  So very sorry to break this news to you particular  "But I didn't vote for THIS!" MAGAmorons......Lobotomies you underwent before you voted for Trump in 2024 cannot be reversed......but it's possible for you to muster enough brain cells you have remaining to put the brakes on your Orange Jello Jolly Bad Fellow on November 3. Save the date......

R.I.P. THE KENNEDY CENTER......FOR NOW......UNTIL THE NIGHTMARE ENDS

ln the midst of all the non-stop insanity, let's take a moment for some positivity.......

Believe, if you can, that when the misery, madness and stench of the Trump era lay in the past, the Kennedy Center can rise again to its former glory......

And America's community of gifted performers will once again delight and amaze audiences as they return to the Kennedy Center's stage....

Call us a crazy optimist, but we don't believe it's outside the realm of possibility....

We can only live in hope the Center's restoration will be included among the many tasks that lay ahead to return this country to sanity, civility, decency, the rule of law and a national discourse free of distrust, anger and hatred of one another.....

     And we can all start on the long road to make that happen on November 3rd. 

 

THE 2026 EMMYS......JUST A FEW QUICK THOUGHTS......

The 2026 Emmy Awards 

          Truth be told, this is the one awards show we never minded skipping. 

      We dreaded its interminable length, and its beyond tedious structure of awarding the same shows and the same actors year after year after year. 

       And most of these show appear on premium streaming sites that we don't subscribe to, so pardon us if we don't give a flying **** as to who wins what.

       As a long time fan of Mariska Hargitay and her Law and Order: SVU show, we did want to see how she'd make out as the show's host. 

      So here's our roundup of quick random thoughts.......

       Professional TV Pundits hated the show and poorly reviewed Hargitay.

        Screw 'em. They're dead wrong. She threw herself into the task, unafraid to look silly or awkward and did just fine. 

         Even when faced with lame comedy material, Hargitay soldiered through it all with the same commitment and determination of her Capt. Olivia Benson carting off scummy pedophiles to Rikers Island. 

        Sure, her devotion to her second job as one of Taylor Swift's Official Best Friends led her and the SVU gang into that goofy filmed skit with Swift, but we've seen way worse attempts at comedy at the Emmys.  (Don't even get us started on Nick Offerman's monumentally unfunny bit describing his job as a nude house painter.....)

         On the other hand, Hargitay and Nicole Kidman's sparring over Kidman's AMC multiplex ads tickled us no end.  Also Hargitay's sharp observation that half the assembled Emmys audience played SVU perps at one time or another.

       And let us bow three times in Sally Field's direction.....the diminutive national treasure, famous for her unfiltered fearless acceptance speeches, took a deft swipe at Trump's lunatic war with Canada. We're all with you, Sally......we dislike him, we really really dislike him.

        Another surprising plus about this show.....how many awards shows do you know that have ever, ever run short of their allotted time?  Quite amazing.

Another plus.....for a change, we detected few acceptance speeches that lurched into that sanctimonious 'never stop reaching for your dreams' crapola......which has the same effect on us as a root canal without pain killers. 

       As for the awards....."Widow's Bay"? "The Pitt", "Hacks"?  Don't get 'em at home, can't watch 'em.....so who cares. 

        The show? Not bad. Coulda been a lot worse.....and wasn't.  2 & 1/2 stars (**1/2)

'FALLOW'....A CORPORATE BABYMAKER'S LIFE GONE AWRY.....PROVOCATIVE AND SUPERB.....UNTIL A WRONG LEFT TURN......

  Fallow by Sarah Anderson (2026)

     Through two thirds of this book, I felt fully prepared to give it 4.5 stars. It boasts a provocative premise bound to stir up plenty of spirited book club discussions. it's engagingly written with dry deadpan humor that doesn't shy away from taking an acidic eye at its lead character and her rather incredible decade long journey. .And yet there's also a sense of genuine empathy and heart in its depiction of what she considers her triumphs and reversals of fortune.

     But then a sudden twist of the plot sends the book spiraling into an altogether different story and literally all new territory. And last third of the book was nowhere near as immediate and compelling as what came before it. To make matters worse, its resolution seemed abrupt and unsatisfying enough to make me wonder if reading it was worth the effort.

     We follow the fortunes of 20-something slacker Natalie, who dearly loves her creature comforts but lacks the drive and ambition to work hard enough to ever pay for them. But her dreams of a work-free comfortable life come true courtesy of a groundbreaking program offered by 'The Company'. Seeking to free their top women execs from profit-draining maternity leave, they recruit Natalie to serve as a corporate surrogate mother. This involves seven IVF pregnancies spread out over 10 years, with huge cash payouts for Natalie on each baby signed sealed and delivered.......not to mention full medical, dental and obstetric care. Natalie, lured by the money, benefits and company perks, dutifully complies as a corporate babymaker..........until her own emotional attachments (or detachments) and a startling turn of events send her birthing career into a wild tailspin.

     And here's where 'Fallow' transforms itself into another kind of book with bizarre circumstances and a whole new set of characters to deal with. The book continues to raise its political, social and hot button gender oriented issues, but it somehow reads like the story's lost its power, its edge and much of the cutting, understated wit that made it such a pleasure to read in the first place. .

     I don't regret getting into it, because at least 60 percent of "Fallow" fires on all cylinders but that problematic 3rd act knocked it down to 3 stars for me. (***).

      (But I wouldn't mind being a fly on the wall for the book club meetings on this one.....)

'I AM THE MONSTER UNDER THE BED'....A WHOLE MESS 'O MONSTERS IN ONE KOOKY, OOKY, SPOOKY TOWN.....

  I Am the Monster Under the Bed by Emily Zinnikas (2026)

     Can't get enough ghosts, monsters and assorted Things That Go Thunk! in the night? Can't get enough stories of luckless teens who went into the eerie woods and never came out again? Can't get enough dark, dark whatevers who lived under your bed when you were a child?

     Your search is over and your nightmares have all come true. Because author Emily Zinnikas has populated her book with a veritable rush hour traffic jam of supernatural entities........so many that you'd need a 4-way Stop Sign to keep them from crashing into each other.

     Even better news......the story behind this creepy paranormal zoo is a grabber, too. Prolific, gifted and reclusive artist Willa hides away from her adolescent notoriety as the lone survivor of that horrific teens-in-the-woods massacre in her small town of Rapture. (Ironically named, since you can bet that nobody's headed for heaven in this disturbing burg....)

     Even though that entire town reviles her as the true killer who escaped justice, Willa feels compelled to return to Rapture. She's gone back to mourn and to attend the funeral of her high school art teacher, always a beloved mentor and friend to her.. Back living in her old home, Willa's still a loathed pariah in town and she's also besieged and threatened by an unseen stalker, whose identity she thinks she well knows....... and whom she plans to turn the tables on.

     But there's more than just bad memories and simmering hatreds coming to a boil in Rapture. There's Willa's so-called imaginary under-the-bed friend who might make a comeback......not to mention the horrifying unknowable things in the basement and whatever's lurking in those woods that needs to be fed on a regular basis.. And this spooky showdown promises more scary craziness than an up-all-night horror movie festival.....

     My only quibble here comes from the book's last third, which drags out the story's Grand Finale through what feels like chapter after endless chapter. It runs the risk of becoming such an exhaustive marathon to endure that it borders on the ridiculous.. But then again, with all the monsters and who-knows-what coming out to play, there's plenty of undeniable tension, twists, suspense and the stuff of many future bad dreams.

     You can snuggle up with this one, keep just the reading light on and have yourself one chilling private Halloween party.....or do that any dark stormy night of the year.......happy hauntings.....

     4 stars (****).

'DEADLY LITTLE LESSONS'.....AT THIS SCHOOL, THEY EITHER GRADUATE YOU.....OR TERMINATE YOU....

 Deadly Little Lessons by Danielle Valentine (2026)

     I would think by now that we all know what lies in store for a wayward, delinquent teen girl when she enters a top-of-the-line, handsomely appointed Prep school featuring the highest of academic standards and a lush campus that looks like a slightly scaled down Ivy League university.

     Those ominous three soundtrack notes should pound in our ears.....Dum Dum DUMMMMM!!! Or to put it mildly....This. Does. Not. Bode. Well.

     Lia MIchaels, skilled lock-picker, computer hacker, and veteran of many foster homes and juvie lockups, is as stunned as anyone when she's accepted, along with her beloved foster sis Scarlett to Luminary Prep. An all new experiment in secondary education, Luminary has thrown away standard classroom procedures and now accentuates actual hands-on practical experiences and events for every subject taught. Their students are forced to either learn by doing.......or done in. Possibly so permanent, they'll miss prom.

     It doesn't take long for Lia and her incoming class to gape in alarm at what this means for their high school careers. At Luminary, you either graduate.......or you evaporate. In the course of their courses, the student body (or bodies) start severely shrinking. Sometimes their 'lessons' leave them maimed, or presumably dead......or erased altogether from the school role call. This place makes The Hunger Games look like Sesame Street. And only one lucky, plucky student gets to move on to college......the last one left alive in time for the graduation ceremony. (We can only assume they'd also have to serve as their one and only Valedictorian. And certainly cuts down on the number of parents in attendance..)

     Amid all these catastrophic classroom disasters, the school's instructors merely repeat a pre-written blather that always ends with..."work the curriculum"........which really doesn't sit well with the students still breathing when the the end-of-class bell rings.

     But toughened streetwise Lia isn't one to go down without a fight and she and a small band of remaining survivors try to uncover the secrets and motives of Luminary as they prepare to execute a daring escape from the place....... before the school starts executing......well, them.

     Similar to dystopian YA, "Deadly Little Lessons" once again proves that no depths exist that adults won't sink to in their efforts to control, dominate and abuse teenagers, thinking they know what's best for them. And to swallow the premise here, you'll really need to park all sense of reality and disbelief deep in the closet somewhere.

     Having said that, though, "Deadly Little Lessons" does in fact make for a fun, fast and enormously entertaining entry in that ever popular genre of 'Shady-Prep-School-Is-Even-Shadier-Than-We-Thought'...with even a little bit 'o budding romance thrown in.

      At least the poor kids didn't have to put up with witches, vampires or slobbering zombies... .....although those ' work the curriculum' jerks really need a stern talking to.....or a stake through their hearts. 

     4 stars (****).