Repulsion

(1965) ****½

Carole is a sexually repressed woman who has disturbing visions of being raped. She lives with her sister Helen who has a boyfriend, Colin who sleeps over frequently. She can hear their sexual activity and it repulses her. She is disgusted with Colin's toothbrush and razor left in the bathroom and is scolded by Helen for throwing them into the trash. Helen & Colin decide to go away for a few days and leave Carole alone in the apartment.

In her solitude Carole begins to become unhinged. She stares at a crack in the wall and imagines it cracking larger and shaking the entire apartment.


She takes a half eaten rabbit carcass out of the refrigerator and leaves it there to rot. The flies can be seen and heard buzzing around it.

When she receives a threatening phone call intended for her sister from Colin's wife, it sends her completely over the edge. Her madness leads her into dizzying visions of violent rape and the wall cracking becomes so intense she fears the room is caving in on her. In the throws of her insanity she commits a very real murder. One has to stop and wonder what horror Helen will find when she returns home.

A slow moving decent into complete madness. It is clearly one of Roman Polanski's most intense films. The slow panning of the room, the ever present disturbing platter with the rotting rabbit carcass on it and the cracking of the walls mimicking the cracking of Carole's mind. In one scene she is going to meet a gentleman for dinner but gets distracted when she sees a crack in the sidewalk. Her date finds her sitting on the side of the road, what appears to be hours later still staring at the crack. It is a very vivid depiction of a person going insane. Although well acted, I would have to give most of my kudos to the director. Polanski couldn't have gotten his vision across any clearer.