CAT PEOPLE

In an undisclosed, primitive human settlement, a sacrificial maiden is tied to a tree. A black panther approaches and rests its paws on her. Another girl with feline features approaches a similar big cat in a cave, without incurring its attack.

In the present, Irena Gallier travels to New Orleans from Canada to reconnect with her brother Paul. Irena was raised in foster care after they were orphaned. Paul, who spent his childhood in psych wards, is now involved in a church and lives with his Creole housekeeper Female (pronounced "Fee-molly").

That night, a prostitute named Ruthie walks into a fleabag motel to meet a john, but instead finds a black panther that mauls her foot. The police and zoologists Oliver, Alice and Joe capture the panther. Meanwhile, Irena wakes to find Paul missing. Female deduces he went to the mission and urges Irena to enjoy New Orleans on her own.

Irena visits the zoo, is drawn to the newly captured panther and stays after closing hours. She is discovered by Oliver, the zoo's curator, who takes her to dinner and offers her a job at the zoo's gift shop. Irena reveals she is a virgin in conversation with Alice, who shares a romantic history (and is still in love) with Oliver and sees her as a rival. One day, the panther tears Joe's arm off during a routine cage cleaning. Joe bleeds to death and Oliver resolves to euthanize the cat, only to find it missing. In its cage lies a puddle of melted flesh like the one found by the prostitute.

Paul turns up and makes a sexual advance towards Irena. She flees, flags down a police car and has second thoughts about turning Paul in, but a police dog catches a strong scent from the house and a detective is called in. In Paul's basement, police find shackles, bones and remains of dozens of corpses. They figure Paul is a serial killer who fed corpses to a captive black panther, and call in Oliver and Alice to investigate. On the run from Paul, Irena takes refuge in a frustrated romance with Oliver, fearing the consequences of physical intimacy.

Paul visits Irena again and explains their shared werecat heritage, thus revealing himself as the escaped panther. Mating with a human transforms a werecat into a black panther, and only by killing a human can it regain human form. He tells her their parents were siblings because werecats are ancestrally incestuous and only mating between werecats prevents the transformation. Paul resumes his sexual advances, hoping Irena will accept their predicament, but she does not. Paul transforms, attacks Oliver, and is shot by Alice. Oliver conducts a necropsy on Paul. A green gas emanates from the surgical cut and a human arm and hand reach up from within the corpse. Before Oliver can document this, Paul's corpse melts into a pool of slime.

As Irena's feline instincts gradually emerge, she stalks and nearly attacks Alice twice. She later sleeps with Oliver and transforms into a panther, but she flees, sparing his life, and is later trapped on a bridge by police. Oliver arrives in time to see her jump off the bridge. Realizing where she is headed, he confronts Irena at a secluded lake house. She has regained human form by killing the house's caretaker. Irena tells Oliver she did not kill him because she loves him, and begs him to kill her. When he refuses, she begs him to have sex with her again so she can transform and "be with [her] own kind". Oliver reluctantly agrees. He ties Irena naked to the bedposts by her arms and legs in preparation for when she changes into the panther. They then have sex one last time, as Irena begins to transform.

Some time later, Oliver is again in a one-sided relationship with Alice. He stops at the cage holding the "recaptured panther" – Irena, now permanently trapped in her panther form. Reaching through the bars, Oliver hand-feeds and strokes the now-docile Irena's neck before she glances at him and roars.

Irena ultimately accepts her feline nature, transforming into a panther after sleeping with Oliver, and is later trapped and euthanized at the zoo. Oliver preserves her as a panther, visiting her cage regularly.

The ending sees Irena choosing to embrace her supernatural identity rather than deny her instincts or perpetuate the incestuous cycle. Her transformation and Oliver’s act of keeping her as a panther reflect both a tragic acceptance and a warped form of intimacy—love and loss intertwined, with the animal self finally at peace but forever caged.