Repulsion

A powerfully engrossing film that owes much to the realistic, nearly silent performance of Catherine Deneuve, Repulsion is Polanski's first English-language feature and one of the most frightening pictures ever made. Deneuve plays Carol Ledoux, Belgian manicurist working in London and living in an apartment with her sister, Helen. She slowly becomes unhinged from reality due to her feelings in relation to sex, which simultaneously repulses and attracts her. When her sister leaves on holiday, Carol is left to fend for herself and becomes more and more detached from the outside world. She takes little interest in her surroundings or appearance, wandering around in a zombielike trance. (CineBooks' Motion Picture Guide)