Repulsion

Saw Repulsion, a Roman Polanski film in the vein of The Tenant, another film which mines apartment-dwelling for some dry horror. This one is about a woman who is terrified of men. The terror obsesses her. She lapses into fugue states when she so much as comes across a man's shoe in her sister's apartment. The film is fairly slow to start but builds steadily into a close, domestic sort of madness. The film is a thriller. It's well-constructed and full of nice, dense metaphor, such as the cloister across the street and its interminably tolling bell, suggesting both an escape and a harsh censure. It deals fairly directly with one woman's relationship to men, but I think it would be an error to try to draw parallels to modern feminism or gender relations. This woman is emphatically crazy after all.

I thought I spotted some of David Lynch's source material. There's a skinned rabbit that bears a striking resemblance to the baby in Eraserhead. There's also nightmarish dream sequences that have eerie, calm/intense moments that feel Lynchian, although I can't articulate quite why. I guess you'd have to see it.

This film is a fairly staid and slow horror, but it does climax in a satisfying way, provided you can sufficiently get into the protagonist's head.