Repulsion (1965)

"This is the most terrifying film I’ve ever seen. It’s a story about a quiet young woman named Carol Ledoux who is a manicurist in London. As the story unfolds we see that she is more and more disturbed and strange. We learn that she is sexually obsessed and actually repulsed by sex at the same time. Her sister and her sister’s lover share an apartment with her, and she’s more and more disgusted by hearing their lovemaking every night. When they leave London to vacation in Italy, she barricades herself in the apartment, and as the days pass she becomes more and more insane. The story escalates, but I won’t tell you the ending. It would spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it. This film freaked me out so much that it was a long time before I could stay alone in my apartment—and I must admit, I’m still affected by it."

"One of the most horrifying films ever. A nightmare transposed into cinematic form. A rare thing. I hope to achieve making a film like this one day. The restoration that you all did is amazing. Bravo."

"Polanski was so inventive in this film. The black and white, the music mixed with the images of her walking through London. The rabbit. Hands coming through the walls. Polanski is a master of tension in unexpected details. Like when she's giving the manicure and cuts the woman’s cuticles . . . I'm pretty sure Aronofsky was huffing these fumes with Black Swan."

"I read about Repulsion in a book about horror movies when I was thirteen. I smuggled it out of my local Blockbuster when they wouldn’t rent it to me (I switched its box with Father of the Bride). Watching it late at night and feeling I was getting away with something while being scared shitless was an experience I’ll never forget."

"I return to Polanski’s early films to get excited about blocking and also adjusting the camera in relation to blocking. He’s the master of the camera adjustment. I’ve learned so much about directing from watching his films. Cul-de-sac is like his existential Beckett movie, and it draws a lot from absurd theater. Repulsion and Rosemary’s Baby play with genre so brilliantly, upending conventions while honoring them. Macbeth always struck me as one of his masterpieces, and it’s clearly haunted by the Manson murders in a very visceral way."

"The disturbing images in this Polanski film have stayed with me since I first saw it. Catherine Deneuve’s descent into darkness reminds me that powerful cinema can take you inside another person’s head and show you horror through their eyes."