Some film student saw Repulsion

This basically plays like a film school project by someone who saw Repulsion and lacks the creative tools to do it justice.

It looks nice in black and white, and the lead actress is fine. But it's obvious, ham-fisted, and a pretty blatant ripoff of Polanski, with dashes of Kubrick just to keep things fresh.

Is this the best we can hope for? Movies that imitate better movies from the past?

The principal character is far too self-aware, her 'madness' having a direct causal link to events past that she's fully aware of - just like insanity DOESN'T work. There's no subtlety. We see flashes of her enjoyment of her situation, which is counter-intuitive but lets her make Jack Nickolson faces.

Basically the film succeeds at referencing Repulsion, and to a lesser extent The Tenant and Rosemary's Baby, as well as The Shining. It fails at being at all scary or disturbing, or at offering any kind of original horror concept.

5/10