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Welcome to The Insert Shot, where I analyze and dissect sex, sexuality, and sexual politics in modern films, classics, and cult classics. From explicit sex scenes to implied indiscretions, from characters who embrace their sexuality to those who deny it, and even the ones who buy and sell sex, I want to understand what makes them tick, and what the film itself is saying about them, and about us. There will be a lot of frank discussion in this series about some of the most controversial films ever made, so prepare yourself, and make sure to use protection.

Fear in almost all horror films is driven by two ideas: what we don't know and what we can't control. Whether it is a masked serial killer, a piece of technology that gains sentience, or any number of ghosts, ghouls, and goblins that do not need to obey the laws of physics, it is the things we do not understand, that we cannot predict, that have more power over us than we have over them, that terrify us the most. And when it is our own body that fits that description, that behaves in ways we do not understand and cannot control, it is even scarier.

Many horror directors have understood how scary our own sexuality can be, how little control we can have over our own bodies and our own brains, and the effect that this lack of control can have on our psyches. And because horror films are overwhelmingly made by men and for a male audience, female sexuality is particularly terrifying. There is nothing scarier to a teenage boy than the female body, which stirs in him a combination of desire and embarrassment that is completely unlike anything else. From the paean to rape that is Alien to the more direct threat of a fanged vagina in Teeth, women and their strange lady parts bring out goosebumps in teenage boys who do not understand either.

One of the earliest films to diagnose and exploit this fear was Cat People, the debut film of producer Val Lewton, the pioneer of the “B” horror movie. Lewton produced low-budget horror films that made enormous amounts of money, a strategy that is still in use today. He also made some of the most definitive horror films of the '40s, including The Ghost Ship, The Body Snatcher, and Isle of the Dead. But his first film, Cat People, includes some of his most iconic moments, and is one of the first films that clearly understands just how scary female sexuality can be.

The film's protagonist is Oliver (Kent Smith), a good American man who works as an architect and admits that he's always been happy. While spending a day at the zoo Oliver meets Irena (Simone Simon), a beautiful Serbian immigrant who is drawing a portrait of a large black panther. Oliver chats up Irena, and while he never gets to see the picture, he does get himself invited over for tea. Irena crumbles up her work, but we get to see that she has drawn the panther being stabbed through the stomach by a large sword.

At Irena's apartment she reveals to Oliver some of her backstory, most notably the diabolical history of her people. Irena has a statue of King John, who came to Serbia to find that the formerly Christian villagers had fallen into sin, begun worshipping false idols, and had even engaged in witchcraft. King John was able to convert or destroy many of the sinners, but some of the witches disappeared into the mountains and were never caught. King John also killed the panthers that were in the village, since according to Irena, the panther “represents the evil ways into which my people had fallen.”

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