Repulsion

Repulsion (1965)

Ranking: Yes

Feeling somewhat cheated after watching Wizard of Gore on Scream (well, I liked it...) Mr. White and I decided to watch this movie which came on afterwards. I'm glad we did.

The plot (for anyone unfamiliar with it) involves a disturbed young woman (Catherine Deneuve) who lives with her sister (Yvonne Furneaux) and manages to live her life. When her sister goes away on a trip with her boyfriend, things start to fall apart and she basically goes crazy. Thematically very similar to Rosemary's Baby and The Tenant.

And it scared the living shit out of me. In a subtle way (if such a thing is possible). It was just so intense and creepy. Whenever the commercials came on and violated the film I would jump and exclaim 'holy shit'. ("You keep doing that", Mr. White said.)

It was just a generally engaging film. I was quite concerned about Carole, particularly the fact that the only thing she seems to eat in the whole movie is a biscuit.

And that her descent into total craziness is so believable, almost rational. I could see that happening to me if I were left alone for long enough, and that worried me. Okay, I'm not quite that terrified of men, nor am I paranoid schizophrenic. That just means it might take a little longer...

And that thing about the crack in the wall! Frig, that was spooky. And the rabbit head. Weird. I dunno, the movie just freaked me out in a general sense (as did the other films in Polanski's little trilogy of creepiness). It was really well done.

Catherine Deneuve was really good in a cute/scary sort of way. I dug her, and sympathized with her character in a weird way. Felt bad for her boyfriend, though. He seemed like a nice enough guy.

Yeah, I spent a long time worrying about this movie afterwards, which is probably a good thing. Can't think of anything else to say about it (I only know how to trash movies...).

END

Directed by: Roman Polanski. Written by: Roman Polanski and Gérard Brach. Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Yvonne Furneaux, Ian Hendry, John Fraser, Patrick Wymark.