"Repulsion" (1965)

Repulsion, directed by the brilliant (yet seemingly morally-lacking) Roman Polanski, is not your typical horror film.  There are no monsters, demonic possessions, or haunted houses.  Instead, Repulsion focuses on the slow mental demise of Carole, a gorgeous manicurist living in London with her sister.  Although Carole is quite beautiful (a very young Catherine Deneuve portrayed her, after all), it is obvious something traumatic happened to her that put her on the brink of sanity.  In the psychology world, poor Carole would probably be thought of as having a thought disorder characterized by psychotic breaks-- yikes!  When Carole's sister leaves for the weekend, Carole is left alone in the apartment and slowly unravels.  She begins having hallucinations of hands grabbing at her from her walls and delusions regarding being sexually assaulted.  Oh yes-- she also leaves a raw, skinned rabbit out on the kitchen counter where it rots.  Yuck.

(Photo Credit)

While you can rent Repulsion from Netflix, you can go ahead and buy it from Amazon.  Trust me, this is one horror flick that is worthy of a place in your horror collection-- why haven't I purchased it yet?  In the meantime, check out the trailer below:



P.S. Repulsion is actually Roman Polanski's first English language film.  It is also considered to be part of his "apartment trilogy" along with Rosemary's Baby (1968) and The Tenant (1976).  Right, Polanski-- how many times do directors try to pass things off as part of a "trilogy" to raise some cash?  If it's not Star Wars, it's not a trilogy in my humble opinion.

P.S.S. Many films are rumored to be based off of this classic thriller, including Black Swan, Pi, Scissors, and May.