Movie Review: REPULSION (1965)

REPULSION is a film in which psychological horror is dominant, although things eventually spill completely out of control. Many regard this 1965 film as Roman Polanski's greatest film, and I can understand why.

Polanski himself, it must be said, is a fugitive from justice within the US, having plead guilty to the drugging and rape of a 13 year-old girl in 1978, and promptly fleeing the country while awaiting sentencing. He's an absolute bastard of a human being, despite his film-making prowess, and it shouldn't be overlooked.

REPULSION itself tells the story of a young Belgian woman named Carol (played with detached perfection by the luminous Catherine Deneuve), who literally can. not. EVEN. Carol drifts through life, going through the motions out of what may be sheer, psychological inertia. She lives with her older sister Helen in London, who essentially takes care of her younger sister while Carol herself works as a manicurist, and doesn't truly ponder Carol's otherworldly detachment.

To Helen, Carol has always been this way, and an old family photo seems to confirm that very fact. In this old photo, the whole family is gathered outside, sitting and smiling, save for young Carol in the background, who stares off-frame at something, or perhaps absolutely nothing, a look on her face that suggests not only detachment but also anger. Why is she this way? Was she abused, or was she born this way? The film itself gives what could be hints, but we never get an answer.

Helen has a boyfriend named Michael whom Carol cannot stand, and she also has a suitor named Colin, that Carol cannot fully engage with. Colin is obviously attracted to the young woman's radiant beauty, but like everyone else in and around Carol's life, he cannot or will not see her detachment, her maladjustment, her pain.

It becomes clear that Carol is terrified and repulsed by sexuality, by male affection, increasingly by food, and perhaps repulsed by life itself. When Helen and Michael take a trip to Italy, Carol is left to her own devices, and the young woman spirals completely. Without her older sister's presence, she becomes unmoored, her world increasingly distorted and hallucinatory, and her life essentially disintegrates into horror.

This film is a little rough around the edges at times, but that only adds to it in my opinion, and it resembles an art-house film at times. We can see how off-kilter Carol's perceptions are, with the use of odd camera-angles, lens-distortions, and disturbing imagery. If you enjoy psychological horror, can get past the assholery of Polanski, and have never seen REPULSION, I would strongly advise you do so. It's an incredibly influential film that deserves its status as one of the greatest psychological-horror films of all time, and definitely earns its 98% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. 

Five fucking stars! *****