Critic Reviews

Repulsion (1965) Rank 3 Reviews

Expert Review Summary

Movie critics combined give Repulsion (1965) a score of 3.2304 out of 4

based on (25) reviews

Click on the numbers to the right of the graph to see reviews of that rating

Excellent

(9)

Very Good

(12)

Good

(4)

Fair

(0)

Poor

(0)

Reviews by Score:

not coming to a theater near you (Ian Johnston)

Repulsion was the first film Roman Polanski made in the West, after his brilliant beginnings in his native Poland. There, he had directed a series of striking shorts (most notably, Two Men and a Wardrobe) and an exceptional first feature, Knife in the ...read the complete Repulsion movie review at not coming to a theater near you (Ian Johnston)

eye WEEKLY (Jason Anderson)

Polanski displayed a much more troubling kind of thinking, forever banishing the possibility of safety for his characters. ...read the complete Repulsion movie review at eye WEEKLY (Jason Anderson)

Austin Chronicle (Marjorie Baumgarten)

A film that seems as fresh as the day it was released. ...read the complete Repulsion movie review at Austin Chronicle (Marjorie Baumgarten)

Time Out (--)

Still perhaps Polanski's most perfectly realised film, a stunning portrait of the disintegration, mental and emotional, of a shy young Belgian girl (Deneuve) living in London. When she's left alone by her sister in their Kensington flat, she becomes ...read the complete Repulsion movie review at Time Out (--)

Senses of Cinema (Didier Truffot)

Confinement stands as a recurring theme in Polanski's Repulsion. Beyond operating as a means of distributing space, it can be said to act as an aesthetic and narrative structure, feeding the film as a whole. If such a principle already appears in the ...read the complete Repulsion movie review at Senses of Cinema (Didier Truffot)

Georgia Straight (Ken Eisner)

When was the moment that Catherine Deneuve became an icon of inaccessible sexuality? Although Luis BuÃ�Â±uel's Belle de Jour, from 1967, has remained the more famous film, Roman Polanski's Repulsion was made a full two years earlier, when the French ...read the complete Repulsion movie review at Georgia Straight (Ken Eisner)

Joe Bob's Ultimate B Movie Guide (Joe Bob Briggs)

It's fair to call Roman Polanski's "Replusion" a somewhat-dated classic. Its views on sex may strike modern viewers as outmoded 1960s non-conformity, or maybe an extremist side of the sexual revolution. ...read the complete Repulsion movie review at Joe Bob's Ultimate B Movie Guide (Joe Bob Briggs)

San Francisco Examiner (Barbara Shulgasser)

Deneuve gives a scary and believable performance as a young woman who has never been completely integrated and who loses all sanity while we watch. ...read the complete Repulsion movie review at San Francisco Examiner (Barbara Shulgasser)

Compuserve (Harvey S. Karten)

A contemporary audience might find the horror in Repulsion occurring too little, too late, but the fun of the movie is in the details, the careful etching of the mind of a woman cracking under the strain of her alienation. ...read the complete Repulsion movie review at Compuserve (Harvey S. Karten)

Village Voice (Michael Atkinson)

The ordeal we and Polanski craved for Deneuve turned out to be just a sport, and we were the ball -- just as we'd hoped. ...read the complete Repulsion movie review at Village Voice (Michael Atkinson)

Classic Horror (--)

...read the complete Repulsion movie review at Classic Horror (--)

filmsgraded.com (Brian Koller)

This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot After the critical success of his film Knife in the Water (1962), talented Polish director Roman Polanski emigrated to the West. His first English-language film was Repulsion. It was a horror ...read the complete Repulsion movie review at filmsgraded.com (Brian Koller)