Repulsion (1965)

1965
Directed by Roman Polanski
Starring Catherine Deneuve, Yvonne Furneaux, Ian Hendry and John Fraser

This is it.  The final and slightly late-ish film in the 2017 Black (and White) Christmas Spectacular.  Released in 1965 well after color feature films had already become the norm, Repulsion is another one of those rarities that no doubt disqualifies me from writing for anything other than my own blog, because I wasn't into this one at all.  That 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes can suck eggs.

Well, alright, I didn't think this flick was THAT bad.  It's definitely a Roman Polanski film, that's for sure.  I have now seen all three movies in his "Apartment Trilogy," a non-connected series of horror flicks based around an apartment complex as its main setting comprising this, Rosemary's Baby and The Tenant.  All of them are slow burns, and that might be the understatement of the century.  For those not in the know, Polanski is a pretty legendary director noted in film circles for his ability to create paranoia on celluloid.  However, you don't come to the Lick Ness Monster blog for details like that.  He's also a pretty legendary perv.  Now that's the kind of detail you come here for!  But if you want some analysis, paranoia as a theme often leads to lots and lots and lots of padding.  While all of that padding eventually does lead up to some kickass stuff, I can't say that it was an enjoyable experience.  Then again, it might just be that pesky glandular condition rearing its ugly head once more.  Introductory paragraphs completed.  Commence plot description.

Waxing about plots in a movie like this is a very challenging experience.  Advance warning - prepare for lots of padding in this review, just like there is lots of padding in this film's 105-minute running time.  I can't help but notice that my enjoyment of a lot of these older horror films has dipped as time has passed and directors have felt the need to expand the movies past the 75-minute mark.  To this day, I believe that horror is a genre best-suited to being right around 90 minutes, and this outlook will never change.  See the above rant?  That's one paragraph of my four-paragraph "plot" section of this review already killed, baby!

Your star character is Carol Ledoux, played by the impossibly hot Catherine Deneuve in a performance that deserves most of the praise it gets.  I say most because she definitely has a very thick French accent and it's a bit hard to make out what she's saying through some of the dialogue scenes.  But this is a fairly long film, and almost every shot focuses on her in some capacity, so it was no small feat that this character comes off as fairly three-dimensional.  She works as a manicurist, listening to the rantings of this one really bitchy customer in repeated scenes that has a pretty grisly payoff (and I'm not going to spoil that one).  If memory serves correct, the character doesn't have a WHOLE lot of dialogue, so it's more of a minor annoyance than anything.  Presence-wise, Deneuve has this nailed.

A good portion of the movie is spent simply living with the daily grind of Carol's life.  She lives with her older sister Helen (Yvonne Furneaux), but the real story here is watching her awkward interactions with men.  In particular, one man, Colin (John Fraser), who she has dinner with early in the film and promtply rebukes for the next five minutes.  And let me tell you something (brother), watching this guy try to beta-male his way into a second date during all of that time is one of the most pathetic things you've ever seen in your life, prompting an honest-to-goodness "oh, come on, give up, bro."  Knowing what is to come for Colin, my advice was rock solid.  Spoiler alert.

See, Carol has a real aversion to relationships and sexuality.  We watch her lie in bed listening to Helen and her boyfriend mackin' it in the adjacent room in addition to all of the ducking she does from creepy Colin.  Eventually, Helen and boyfriend guy head out of town on holiday, leaving Carol all by her lonesome in the apartment.  And then a whole bunch of stuff starts happening something like an hour into the movie, including one genuinely unexpected murder scene and this one really effective nightmare shot involving Carol walking down a hallway with hands stretching out trying to touch her.  The theme of this movie isn't hard to discern.

There are definitely movies of this type that I enjoy.  One of my favorite horror films of all time is Ringu, and that flick is the very definition of the slow burn and a big payoff.  That film had the benefit of a pair of truly awesome characters to ride along with, though, and this one doesn't.  Deneuve is definitely worth watching, both for her acting ability and ridiculous attractiveness.  Unfortunately, we also have to suffer through some bits of Colin whining to one of his friends about his inability to score with her, and those scenes...I'm not gonna lie, they almost made me bail on this movie.  But I don't dive into a movie these days without the intention of reviewing for this here blog, so I soldiered on like the pro I am.  Yeah.  A pro.  Some people might see details like this as enriching to the experience and falling into the mood of paranoia that Polanski was trying to replicate here, but I mostly just found it dull.

Which brings me to this movie's saving grace.  Namely, the third act.  Once everything becomes clear about the hallucinations that Carol dreams up throughout the humdrum existence of her weekend without her sister in the house, we actually get to see some pretty scary stuff.  The score by Chico Hamilton does a fantastic job adding to that mood in addition to the cinematography by Gilbert Taylor.  Everything builds up not to a murder scene or the police capturing Carol, but a reveal shown in a photograph that was no doubt a major inspiration on Stanley Kubrick in the finale of The Shining.  This whole thing was indeed chilling and left me a little disturbed walking away from the television.  Not quite enough to recommend this one, however, because there are just too many slow burn films that I deem as more worthy of your time.

Thus, I award this movie that currently ranks at #14 on Rotten Tomatoes' G.O.A.T. list ** out of ****.  Unless you're REALLY into movies that are big on theming and atmosphere over a satisfying story, I don't know if you'll want to watch this one a bunch.  And with that, I will be back next year with a series of exceedingly negative reviews.  Get ready.