Notes on…

Repulsion(1965)

Dir. Directed by Roman Polanski

Like all good horror movies, Repulsion conveys the architecture and geography of the apartment before the darker horror begins. We know that this room adjoins this other one, and it is about such-and-such a distance between that and another. For some reason, it seems we need to comprehend the physicality of the space before its architectural and psychological certainties can be upended.

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Beautiful young manicurist Carole suffers from androphobia (the pathological fear of interaction with men). When her sister and roommate, Helen, leaves their London flat to go on an Italian holiday with her married boyfriend, Carole withdraws into her apartment. She begins to experience frightful hallucinations, her fear gradually mutating into madness.