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The nightmare world of a virgin's dreams becomes the screen's
shocking reality!
Carol (Catherine
Deneuve) is a young Belgian manicurist who lives in Kensington, London, with her sister Helen (Yvonne Furneaux). She
suffers from androphobia (the
fear of men), and finds the interaction with, or the mention of,
males repulsive. Throughout the film, innuendos derived from her neurotic,
fragile mind hint that the underlying reason for this asocial behaviour lies in
childhood trauma, although this is never confirmed, and a group photograph in
her flat merely depicts a solemn, disturbed young girl who is uninterested in
the taking of a family photo.
When Helen, with whom Carol shares a strained relationship, leaves on a
holiday to Italy with her married
boyfriend (Ian Hendry), Carol
is left to withdraw deeper into her own paranoia. What was phobic neurosis now
unveils as full-fledged psychosis. She withdraws from work, refuses to leave her
apartment, food rots around her and the flat falls to shambles. Furthermore
Carol starts to experience spiralling hallucinations, including the walls of the
flat cracking and turning into clay, hands appearing out of the walls to attack
her and even an imaginary intruder breaking in and raping her.
When Colin (John Fraser), a would-be suitor whom she
has rejected, breaks into the flat, she bludgeons him to death with a
candlestick and dumps the body into the overflowing bath. Later, the landlord
(Patrick Wymark)
arrives for the late rent. Carol pays him and at first just sits on the sofa,
staring into space, as he remarks on the state of the apartment and gives her
water to drink. But when he tries to force himself on her, she slashes him to
death with a straight
razor.
When Helen returns, she discovers the dead men's bodies and finds Carol
hidden under her bed. Carol appears catatonic, only a shell of her former self. As
neighbours arrive and call for help, the focus returns to the family photograph,
zooming in on Carol's face as a child. As the focus gets tighter, one realizes
that this is not a typical family photo.....
 Copyright(C) 2007
- 2020. All rights reserved.
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