Cat People was producer Val Lewton's first film and was made in only eighteen days, beginning July 28, 1942 at RKO's "Gower Gulch" studios in Hollywood. RKO allowed Lewton to make the film as long as he stuck to a $150,000 budget, which was extremely low because RKO Studios was in financial trouble. Lewton hired French director Jacques Tourneur and cameraman Nicholas Musuraca, whose dark and shadowy style gave the film its signature look. After four days of shooting studio executive Lou Ostrow looked at what had been shot and didn't like the look of the film. He wanted to fire director Tourneur, but Val Lewton got the head of the studio, Charles Koerner to put Tourneur back on the film. Had he not, Cat People might not have been the success it was.

Because of wartime restrictions on building materials, Lewton took the advice of fellow producer Herman Schlom and had art directors Albert S. D'Agostino and Walter E. Keller redecorate sets that had been built for Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), a park set from one of the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musicals, and an office set from The Devil and Miss Jones (1941) to save money. The coffee shop, restaurant, and pet shop were all the same set, just dressed differently to fool the audience. The Hollywood Reporter mentioned on August 3rd that Lewton and Tourneur were using two separate crews to shoot "round-the-clock" with the animals shot at night and the stars filmed during the day. The film wrapped ahead of schedule on August 21, 1942, with the final costs under budget at $134,959.

Curse of the Cat People: Val Lewton wanted to call this film Amy and Her Friend, but the studio wanted to capitalize on the success of Cat People. They paid the George Gallup Audience Research Institute to ask audiences what title they liked. Curse of the Cat People was the most popular, so the studio made Lewton change the name. Lewton did not like the idea of a sequel and so he wrote a story loosely connected to the original.

The film went into production on August 26, 1943 with a $147,000 budget and only eighteen days allowed for shooting, which would include exteriors at Malibu Lake. By mid-September, director Gunther von Fritsch was clearly behind schedule, having only shot half of the film. Jacques Tourneur was now directing important "A" pictures and wasn't available to make this less important "B" picture. Editor Robert Wise was called on a Saturday and asked to direct the film, which left him with mixed emotions. Wise had long wanted to direct, but he was working with Fritsch and didn't want to take away his job. Studio executive Al Rogell told him that there would be a new director on Monday morning. If he didn't want the job, they'd give it to someone else. To spare Fritsch embarrassment, the studio put out a false story that he had been drafted. Robert Wise started work on September 20, 1943 and Curse of the Cat People would be the first film in a long and successful directorial career. Wise wrapped the film on October 4th, only nine days behind schedule, but also over budget.