Diagonaldi Very well executed

Ensofter Overrated and overhyped

GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Dr00gle One of Roman Polanski's finer works, this film is an almost perfect blend between Rosemary's Baby and Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Polanski uses this horror element in order to convey a messages of both sexuality and childhood trauma (which is a bit ironic since he raped a child himself) and although it isn't exactly subtle the fluidity of which these messages are conveyed, aided by some truly haunting visuals makes for nothing but a good time.

jpclifford 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

quridley A technically impressive but problematic and shallow character study about sexual abuse. Repulsion is hugely influential on everything from giallos to Suspiria to the early American slashers (Halloween, Elm Street) to Twin Peaks to Black Swan to It Follows. Its a favorite art-horror film and hailed as an early "masterpiece" from Roman Polanski.You can't separate Polanski's statutory rape of a female child from whatever statement he made in Repulsion. Polanski delves deep into the Daddy Issues of a sexually damaged young girl and critics praised him for this early examination of "rape culture", but there's a clear criminal fetishization of his female protagonist's emotional weakness and sexual unavailability that is highly disturbing. Its disgusting that she is made sympathetic by surviving a highly unrealistic/convenient sexual attack and must be rescued by a father figure. This film is less about women and their victimhood by men than Polanski's romantic dream of sexually tortured young girls.I can't call it a masterpiece for its troubling psychology and that its derivative of the even better horror films "Marnie" and "Carnival of Souls". Polanski was a post-modernist who reinterpreted films for an art-house crowd and often got too much credit for simply making the films more cynical and violent (As if the influence of De Palma and Tarantino wasn't clear enough).The film inspired 100 great films made by well-meaning male "feminists" of damsels acting out man-fearing fantasies, but how many are actually helpful to women? Are they anti-rape or do they simply exploit rape to set up violence in a faux-intellectual/faux-moralist style? I mean the purpose of Repulsion was to show a man's view of man's abuse of women. Gradually we ended up with complex and liberated heroines fighting off male oppression and maybe we owe films like Repulsion with starting the topic in film. But that doesn't mean these film aren't offensive or dated or reprehensible.With Repulsion, Polanski laid the template for a new style of oppressive, paranoid, psycho-sexual horror and influenced everything that came later. Its still pretty effective although its had its ideas perfected by Polanski and others. But Repulsion is probably more tasteful, restrained, personal and ultimately creepy given the revelations about Polanski. The film remains a twisted yet important piece of cinema history like its creator.

Irishchatter Catherine Deneuve is such a pretty actress like she played her character really good! Its so sad to see that her character Carol wasn't well at all when it comes to men coming at her like a doll and her sister leaving to Italy along with her boyfriend. Whats even sadder, it seemed like she was sexually abused by her father and like, it has taken her life. Just think back in those days, there were sexual abuse cases weren't talked about as if the victims were wrong. This movie has a good reflection of that and how it was dealt with!It was shocking when she killed the landlord and the boyfriend. I know this is dark but seriously, the landlord was sexaully assaulting her so she was gonna defend herself somewhat. With the boyfriend, I think she should've just said no and leave her alone instead of killing him.No doubt this movie is a dangerous movie, its very very dark and very upsetting to watch especially what Carol is going through!