Roman Polanski: Master of direction, psychoanalysis, significance, horror, surrealism, score-choice, and sequencing.
Alastair McIntyre: Master of knowing just when to properly slip these constituents in for MASS effect!
Repulsion: a cinematic account of a mentally ill woman driven to the brink of insanity due to the pursuit of men—or a nihilistic overview of asexuality before the term asexuality was even coined? Either way, it’s a damn fine horror picture indeed and keenly ahead of its time too!
I had issues with the conversational acting, although, as most of it appeared as if it was stripped out of a theatre play to the point where it didn’t soundly mesh with the psychologically inventive tone of the movie. Good thing Catherine Deneuve’s solo moments in Repulsion genuinely saved it from having an exclusively bothersome dilemma in the acting department.
Even so, “beta Rosemary’s Baby” is still “beta Rosemary’s Baby.” Meaning, the warm-up movie for the masterpiece that would come is noticeably below its inheritor yet still worthy of the name “beta Rosemary’s Baby.” Umm, in other words, because it’s still f***ing great stuff; it’s a Polanski film!
Verdict: B
“Repulsion” is now available to stream on Vudu, Amazon Prime, YouTube, iTunes, and Google Play.
Burning the Celluloid 
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