The use of nightmarish visual imagery for effect, and the reliance on the setting to illustrate Carol's mental state made me think that Repulsion is a film adaptation of one of Alfred Tennyson's poems directed by David Lynch! I'm not a fan of movies that rely so much on allegory. However, I loved Eraserhead and Mulholland Drive. But to be honest, I wasn't invested in these movies as much as I should. Nevertheless, I found Repulsion very engrossing, and I was deeply invested in the character of Carol.Polanski managed to evoke an atmosphere filled with dread and fear. but to make it more disturbing, he used another atmosphere that's quiet different and contradictory to the main one he used to depict Carol's paranoia. This contradictory atmosphere is actually very similar to the one that's used in french new wave films. Yes, it's already seems very weird and creepy! Almost every hallucination scene leaves you with a chill in the spine.Catherine Deneuve gave a very accurate, precise, and unsettling performance. Carol Ledoux could have been monotonous, and tedious due to her tepid nature. Instead, and thanks to Deneuve's captivating performance, Carol turned out to be so sympathetic and relatable that I felt for her. As for issues, I think the first act was longer than it should be, and the movie took a long time to reach the climax of its plot, but it was never boring, and built up tension very well. From the tracking shots to the use of the unsettling sounds, you can see that Repulsion has a big influence on Aronofsky, especially his most recent, and most controversial work, mother! Also, the closing shot of this movie must be up there with the closing shots of The 400 Blows, Fight Club, Inception, Seven Samurai, Stalker,..... As a matter of fact, Repulsion's final shot isn't just beautiful, profound, or thought-provoking, but it's very important and absolutely necessary to complete Carol's character arc.(9/10)

A very fine, original film from Polanski, who apparently didn't even speak English when he came over to make this. I suppose having two French girls in the leading roles must have helped and very well they do, too. Deneuve, especially in a very difficult role, clearly worked closely with the director to get such a convincing portrayal of madness. Time is taken to establish the situation that largely takes place in a small London flat, with the exteriors around and about South Kensington station. I feel some of the rather static first twenty minutes or so might have been used to establish just why Colin feels he has a relationship with Deneuve's character, but apart from that this is one most assured creation of one young girl's living nightmare. Ours too, as the film progresses, because this becomes very frightening indeed. Utilising just the very thing of nightmares, rotting flesh, cracking walls, dripping taps and home invasion, we share Deneuve's utter horror as she withdraws even further within herself with devastating consequences to those around her. Truly frightening.

Years ago ( '70s) I saw this movie with some friends at the cinema. I was strongly impressed with a sense of awe (== terror). But there was no VHS or DVD so I put it in a drawer of my memory. Now I am retired and sometimes go back in time. Happily this movie was on DVD so I bought it. When you see it again after so many years "the penny finally dropped".I don't know much about Polanski (except from Wikipedia), but I think that he is a "gifted by nature".When you try to circumscribe (no! not geometrical, but Aristotelian) the main character, a woman, you soon find yourself immersed in what Wittgenstein called "the witchery of language". She appears not to be sensitive (a hot item these days) but sensuous (today this word is undefined!) so I use sensible in the original sense. This is not erotic but emotional (does this still exist??). And as she is very sensible she is apt to here environment. And I think that is just what Polanski does, addressing you (the audience)??? I think many people identify with here environment and expel here as "mad". But I think that if Polanski should have had "bad manners" he should have called this movie "Mirror".Enjoy,J.P. (Jan) Clifford

REPULSION is one of Roman Polanski's most well-regarded films, the movie that really brought him to the world's attention and stands today as one of the most compelling studies of psychological disintegration and madness. And I hate to say it, but I think it's overrated. The problem for me is the hype surrounding this movie, so beloved by film critics around the world; I heard about it a full ten years before I finally saw it, and it would have taken something special to live up to my expectations. This film didn't.I find that it's dated pretty badly in terms of pacing. I love a lot of Hammer's psychological thrillers from this decade and something like A TASTE OF FEAR appeals much more to my tastes than this. For the first hour, nothing much really happens. Deneuve's character doesn't undergo any type of arc, she's clearly losing it from the very beginning. The script isn't very effective and Polanski seems to realise this, focusing more on his camera-work instead, but I found the 'shock' scenes didn't have a great deal of impact. On paper, they sound fine: the rabbit's head in the handbag, the crack on the wall. Twenty years earlier, similar stuff had been done in the excellent alcoholism film, THE LOST WEEKEND. Maybe I found what happened here slightly predictable, or the style wasn't to my liking.By the time we hit the end-game and people start dying, the film improves; there's content, and Polanski handles it well. I didn't warm at all to Catherine Deneuve's character, but I found her acting pretty effective. The supporting cast of British faces is good, too: Patrick Wymark as a sleazy landlord, Ian Hendry as an ice-cold boyfriend, Yvonne Furneaux as the sister, James Villiers as a camp cad. It's just not a film I'd really want to watch again, knowing what happens. My money's still on MACBETH as Polanski's best movie, and the madness portrayed in that film completely overwhelms that found here.