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)

The movie is eccentrically brilliant in the sense that it explores the other side of human sexuality, not usually spoken or written about and hidden inside the invisible shutters in broad daylight. Polanski treats the complexities of human psychology through a dexterous storytelling and camera direction that meanders sinisterly through the anxious gaze of Carol ( the protagonist in the story). The film explores the disturbing manifestations of childhood trauma, much later in the life of the shy protagonist, Carol. It is with this narrative fidelity that the film exposes through a fortuitous unfolding of events the transformation of Carol from a shy girl whose generic repulsion towards men transmogrifies into heinous murders. Her inability to confront the past precipitates into a complex web of phobias and absent-minded behavior. She shuts herself at her home severing all connections with the world that she knows is exclusively dominated by men. And yet the specter of man manifests her nightmares as a phantom figure who comes every night to rape and molest her. The ticking of bells, a transitory silence of voices at the moment of rape, cracking of walls, hands coming out of walls to grope her suggest the atrociousness of the event which cannot be expressed in any narrative medium. Polanski takes a creative swerve in representing the trauma time through these tropes, since no verbal medium is sufficient in reconstructing the event. Unlike other modern Hollywood production which solely relies on jump scares in producing the feeling of horror; this movie takes an ingenious take, not only in its storytelling of an irreparable traumatic event, but also promises an exceptionally spine chilling experience.

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 a psychological horror film about a young woman who is going through her own fears in her dark apartment, rejects her sexuality and gradually loses all contact with reality. This is a film about loneliness and anxiety between two extremes, in which the human tragedy is an inevitable fact.Carol, a Belgian manicurist, lives with her older sister Helen in their apartment in London. She, in contrast to Helen, interacts awkwardly with men. She is sleepy on her job and she continuously refuses her pretty-suitor. Carol hides her head in her pillow against her sister's sighs during sexual pleasure with her lover. It seems that Carol does not like men, moreover, she is trying to run from them. When Helen leaves on a holiday to Italy with her lover, otherwise a married man, Carol stays in their apartment and begins to hallucinate...Mr. Polanski reveals to us a deranged mind, or rather the dark side of the human subconscious, in this film. A young beauty behaves hostile toward men. It is intriguing enough without an eerie background and crumbling of her mind while she is staying in the apartment alone. Of course, we will look for the reasons for her behavior. Mr. Polanski has made a trap, precisely in that part. The reason is, probably, a trauma from her childhood, which is artfully displayed through the eyes of a little girl at a family photo, or is it a case of a "disturbed" sexuality, because the younger Carol is possessively attached to her older sister Helen.The atmosphere, in which objects symbolize the horror, is almost perfect. The characterization is excellent. An eerie sound is very striking.Catherine Deneuve (Carol Ledoux) has offered a phenomenal performance as an infatuated, depressed and eventually obsessed young woman. Yvonne Furneaux (Helen Ledoux) is quite convincing as a free and attractive woman, who knows how to enjoy sexual ecstasy. Ian Hendry (Michael) is provocative as Helen's lover and John Fraser (Colin) is a very tenacious and a bit rude as a suitor.A schizophrenic descent into madness. For me this is a little masterpiece.