This disturbing horror film was such a critical and public success that it quickly established itself as a classic in its field. The chilling feeling of incipient madness has seldom been realised with such skill and imagination, although many of its more famous hallucinatory scenes have been imitated since. Roman Polanski's direction is slow but deliberate, never missing a chance of jolting the audience with a sudden shock. As Carol, the girl whose revulsion for men leads her along the corridors of lunacy to the flashpoint of violence that is the light at the end of her nightmare visions, Catherine Deneuve shows all the agony of a tormented mind in her eyes. Also very good are Ian Hendry, and Helen Fraser as Carol's chatty friend at the beauty salon where they work, who occasionally brings her into a reality that doesn't frighten her. A compelling film that's a must for connoisseurs of the cinema's darker corners.

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