Don't believe the hype

WildestDreams

To say that this review contains spoilers would imply that there is anything good about "Repulsion" to spoil. There isn't. There is no development of plot or characters. There are no twists; there is no climax or resolution. "Repulsion" is just a remarkably impotent "descent into madness" film that garners no intrigue whatsoever. I haven't felt this burned by an acclaimed classic horror film since I watched "Don't Look Now".

Neither the main character nor her insanity is ever explained. There aren't any provocative implications towards any such explanations, either. It's as if they just decided to make a fraction of a movie. A short story or even a Youtube skit could have properly handled the intended subject matter. "Losing one's mind" is a concept that has been explored in many films, new and old, and done right.

"Repulsion" is as bleak as oblivion itself. Not Hitchcock bleak, not mind-warping "Carnival of Souls" bleak, bleak as in unfinished. Fractional. We get no back-story on anybody. We see a woman's crazy sister, Carol, having repetitive hallucinations and blacking out. Over and over. And she does inexplicable things in her house, like leaving meat sitting out for days to rot and killing a harmless man who was hopelessly in love with her. We do see a kill scene involving a men's shaving razor, but it is laughable. The guy just stands there and takes it while a skinny blonde manically gives him death by a thousand razor blades. Yeah, not stabbed. Just slit repeatedly. That is as exciting as it gets in "Repulsion".

So, who is she and why is she crazy? We simply never know enough about Carol to feel anything. Was there a traumatic event during Carol's childhood? Something her sister could attest to? Was there a recent incident that caused her to come unhinged? Was she just always insane?

Assuming she was always insane is actually the most plausible conclusion to be drawn, since her "descent into madness" is anything but delicate. She starts off as an introverted bitch that can at least hold down a job, but in a matter of a couple days she devolves into a lunatic who can't take care of herself or control urges to kill. But assuming that, we must then wonder: how did she make it this far in life if she was a homicidal freak with no grip on reality by default? As unbalanced as Polanski decided to make this woman, a lifetime of warning signs would have been impossible to miss.

There is no place for "Repulsion" in cinema. I'm not sure if one could make a more ungrounded film if they tried. I can offer no insight into how or why it has gotten the nod of the head from so many critics and audiences for 50 years running now. Do yourself a service and skip it. No matter how eccentric your taste in movies is, no matter how patient of a viewer you are, do not watch it. There is no redeeming aspect of "Repulsion". All historical relevance considered, it is simply a miserable piece.

score 2/10

WildestDreams 9 March 2014

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2976629/