My Top Ten Sexiest Catgirls

As much as I hate doing these top ten lists (since this is Blogger not Tumblr) and it's ridiculously difficult to find any good quality pictures online, it's almost Caturday again, the weather is still ridiculously hot, and this is the best I could come up with.

I creeped you all out last week with my top ten catladies and, so, because I know how you all love looking at pictures rather than reading my movie reviews, here's a list of my favourite and sexiest catgirls.

1. Suzanne (Bobbi Sue Luther) from "Night of the Demons" (2009)

Does this choice really need any explanation? Bobbi Sue Luther exuded sexiness as a catgirl in the "Night of the Demons" remake, and I'm a big fan of her work. She was also great in "Laid to Rest", but she's never going to surpass this moment for me unless she dresses up as a catgirl again.

2. The Catwoman (Lee Meriwether) from "Batman: The Movie" (1966)

Everybody has their favourite "Catwoman" (some people even like the Marvel version called "Black Cat") but, for me, the pick of the litter was Lee Meriwether in the "Batman" movie which used most of the cast from the TV series. Lee Meriwether was the first version of Catwoman I ever saw (since I watched the movie before the TV episodes) and she was perfect.

3. Lily (Diora Baird) from "Night of the Demons" (2009)

Back to "Night of the Demons" again, I was spoiled by having two catgirls in it. I really liked Diora Baird, I also liked her in "30 Days of Night: Dark Days" and "Stan Helsing" (yes, I watched it and enjoyed it!). If it wasn't for Bobbi Sue Luther, I'd probably have a little catgirl crush on Diora. Her costume needed slightly bigger ears though. Yes, I do mean ears.

4. Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) from "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012)

I haven't even seen this movie yet, but I already know that I like Anne Hathaway so it was easy to add her to the list. The outfit looks pretty sexy to me although I'm not entirely convinced by the ears. I think they may be sound amplifiers or radios of some kind.

5. Catwoman (Julie Newmar) from "Batman" (1966)

She was the longest running Catwoman in the TV series and appeared in 13 episodes between 1966-67. I hadn't even been born when she was famous, and it was at least 14 years later before I eventually saw the reruns. I know Julie Newmar is still the most popular Catwoman for "Batman" fans, but she was a little bit too camp for me to place her any higher in the list.

6. Eenie (Sharyn Wynters) from "Batman" (1966)

Also from the "Batman" TV series, Sharyn Winters played one of Catwoman's evil henchmen (or henchwomen? Henchgirls? Maybe "henchcats"?). She didn't do a lot in "The Cat's Meow" except look all sexy in leopardskin print, but it was enough for me. She was also briefly in "Westworld", but not, alas, in any feline capacity.

7. Irena Gallier (Nastassja Kinski) from "Cat People" (1982)

Back to the horror movies, no list of catgirls would be complete without Nastassja Kinski's version of Irena from the 1982 remake of "Cat People". She's a little bit androgynous, but she scores higher than Simon Simone from the original for not only getting nudie in the movie but also for daring to pose in a publicity shot with a real big cat.

8. Irena Dubrovna (Simone Simon) from "Cat People" (1942)

Having appeared in both of the "Cat People" movies (although as a ghost in "The Curse of the Cat People"), Simone Simon has to be on the list even though she wasn't really as sexy as her co-stars. In fact, the original Irena character alternated between being a bit of a tease or quite frigid due to her curse. I also found a picture of her with a panther mural behind her, but I chose this one because she looks as if she's scratching at the door to be let out.

9. Abbie (Patricia Rodriguez) from "Night of the Demons III" (1997)

Yes, I know she seems a lot plainer in this picture than the others do in theirs, but Abbie really blossomed over the course of the film. She was supposed to be nerdy to begin with and this is a still from just after she removed her horrible glasses. Trust me, she got a lot sexier before eventually being transformed into a cat-demon.

10. Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer) from "Batman Returns" (1992)

This will cause some trouble, but Michelle Pfeiffer is my least favourite Catwoman apart from Halle Berry and Eartha Kitt. I've liked her in other films but her version of Catwoman was just a little bit too psycho for me, and I thought she was much sexier as Selina Kyle. I also didn't really like the black leather sofa all cobbled together with big ugly stitches as a costume. I blame Tim Burton's artistic vision for this as everything has to be a fairytale for him. I'm really not keen on any of his movies.

Bonus: Liana (Katie Saylor) from "The Fantastic Journey" (1977)

I couldn't find a way of including the telepathic Liana in the top ten because, in spite of a false memory I had, she never actually turned into a cat or dressed as one. Although the late Katie Saylor was very feline in appearance, her character had a pet cat who she communicated with which really made her into more of a a futuristic witch than a genuine catgirl.

Can you think of any catgirls who I've left out?

Night of the Demons (2009)

"A group of kids go to a Halloween party, only to have to face down a group of demons."

Okay, I've reached the end of my "Night of the Demons" week and I've saved the best until last. Ironically, since I'm not the biggest fan of remakes, this 2009 update was well worth enduring the torture of the original movies for.

The remake takes all the best elements from the trilogy (and the worst) but recreates them so slickly that it's actually rather brilliant in its accuracy. Of course, a lot of that is due to director Adam Gierasch and writer Jace Anderson, who both know their stuff and have an impressive list of credits behind them. Some of it is accidental or lucky too, but that's always the way with movies. There will never be a perfect movie, horror or otherwise.

Although Hull House is abandoned in favour of the Broussard Family Mansion in New Orleans, complete with an opening scene in the style of a silent movie (which gives a better backstory than any characters could with their own exposition), everything important from the previous movies is here.

In many ways, "Night of the Demons" isn't so much a remake as another sequel. Maybe it should be called a "semake" or "requel" even though neither of those is as catchy as the "premake" term which we all used for "The Thing".

Call me shallow, but what I enjoyed most was having all the "hot chicks" from the other films replaced with truly hot ones rather than the "girl next door" types who the nostalgic fanboys all rave over. The most beautiful modern horror actresses are all here including Monica Keena, Shannon Elizabeth, Bobbie Sue Luther and Diora Baird. I don't include the cameos by Linnea Quigley or Tiffany Shepis because neither of them does anything for me, but I'm sure they suit the tastes of others.

There's no cameo by the original Angela which is surprising but not really necessary anyway given that the new "Angela Feld" is a completely different character to "Angela Franklin". For those who like trivia, according to the IMDb, Amelia Kinkade is now some kind of literary "Doctor Doolittle" and loves cats. I can't fault her for either of those things, but as I've never found her very attractive or scary as Angela, I was pleased with the upgrade.

Having mentioned cats, seeing both Diora Bird and "Boobie" Sue Luther dressed as catgirls for Hallowe'en, really ups the eyecandy quotient for me. As much as I love Monica Keena, their costumes really upstage her. Their roles may be a bit two-dimensional, but at least they are played by real actresses with some current popularity rather than a bunch of wannabes or has-beens who were dragged in off the street only to disappear into obscurity again.

I'd also never realised just how beautiful Shannon Elizabeth really was until she was all Gothed-up and, should I ever do a top ten list of hot Goth girls in horror movies, she'll definitely be number one.

But enough about all that sexiness, what you really want to know about is why I thought this was such a good remake. As much as I would like to tell you everything, such a list would create so many spoilers that it would ruin the film for you. Instead, I'm just going to briefly describe some of the most outstanding points.

Just like the original and the second sequel, the story begins with a "home scene" of girls getting ready for a party. This also sort of ties in with part of the first sequel, but the setting there is obviously different.

I've already mentioned the cat costumes, That idea came, of course, from "Night of the Demons III". Angela in the remake also has a pet black cat which was reminiscent of the one from "Night of the Demons 2". Cats are very important to me, as you know, and I look out for such details.

Even more pleasing to me is that much more was made of the stupid lipstick trick from the original "Night of the Demons". I always thought it was completely random and out of place, but in the hands (and breast) of Diora Baird's character, it's reworked into something extremely gruesome, and as weird as her demonic sex scenes in the movie.

The faux-lesbian kissing scenes and other seductions are all done as expected, although a wine bottle replaced the pistol of the second sequel in a much hotter way. There's a lot more nudity and sex overall, but, hey, it's the 21st century now and that's exactly what we want! The gore, the scares, and the horror (especially the horror) take second place to the sleaziness, but on the plus side, at least this movie has a plot. In spite of some borderline "gratuitous fillers", it never appears to be making things up as it goes along.

I also noticed that the sets really looked the part. They hint at the disused funeral parlour of the first two movies, but it isn't the same place, and it feels like a real building this time. It's all much darker and creepier, and, as far as Hallowe'en parties go, it's the perfect setting.

Although the characters in the other movies are teenagers played by older actors, there isn't even any attempt to make the thirty-somethings in this appear any younger. They don't have to act all nasty and rebellious for the sake of their dialogue. What comes out of their mouths is often quite witty and endearing. I wasn't alienated by any of the main characters, and that's a very good thing. I even liked Edward Furlong's role!

Even though it keeps the uneven quality of the trilogy and goes for the light-hearted approach more often than outright horror, there are some great effects. Some of the goriest, weirdest and bloodiest effects that I've ever seen are made up of both practical effects and such nicely done CGI that it's hard to tell which is which. I expect, if really looked into, a lot of what I thought was CGI was actually practical (and vice-versa) except in some extremely obvious cases. I've been fooled before, and I'm not a "practical effects Nazi" anyway. As long as it looks good on screen, it's good enough for me.

I enjoyed "Night of the Demons" so much that it's going into "The Vault". If there's one movie which is typical of everything (and everyone) in the American horror movie industry from the first decade of the 21st century, this is the one.

Teenage Catgirls in Heat (1997)

"An Egyptian cat goddess in the form of a statuette commands all local felines to surrender one of their nine lives so they can transform into beautiful women to mate with (and terminate) human males, then prepare the way for The Great Litter. A professional cat-tracker and a hitchhiker set out to stop them."

I've really got to stop choosing films to watch based entirely on their somewhat amusing titles. If you couldn't already guess, "Teenage Catgirls in Heat" is a Troma film and, despite being labelled as a horror-comedy, is neither one nor the other.

With terrible overacting and so many puerile cat puns that the initial joke becomes mentally draining, it's not a complete catastrophe but isn't far off. There aren't many films where it rains fake cats but if that's the most memorable part for me then you can imagine how bad the rest is.

Basically, if you fast-forward through the boring scenes with the cat hunters, some of the catgirls are entertaining to watch especially Carrie Vanston as Cleo. Although it's a bit embarrassing to watch young adult women pretending to be cats, occasionally they do it quite well and their mannerisms are very feline. Some thought went into this, apparently, but just not very much or enough.

Of course nobody would ever watch a film with a title like "Teenage Catgirls in Heat" if they expected it to be anything other than trashy sexploitation. The nudity and lamer-than-softcore sex scenes are used far too sparingly though so that makes it even more disappointing.

There aren't even all that many real cats in it although a Bengal tiger's appearance at the end explains where most of the budget went.

As much as "Teenage Catgirls in Heat" tries to be a cult film, it fails to be one so miserably that I just can't recommend it to anyone. Even the most dedicated Troma fans would probably have a hard time getting any enjoyment out of this.