Roman Polanski’s first English-language film, this is part of his “Apartment Trilogy”, followed by Rosemary’s Baby and The Tenant. Strange for the time, it casts a female as a killer — there’s that spoiler — as Carol Ledoux (Catherine Deneuve) starts to melt down as she stays all alone in the small living quarters of her sister Helen (Yvonne Furneaux).

Polanski and co-writer Gerard Brach based this on a friend they knew and someone who they later learned had schizophrenia. Carol’s big issue is dealing with the rudeness of her sister’s married lover, Michael (Ian Hendry), and their lovemaking (this is the first movie with the sound of a female orgasm to play in England). Or maybe it’s every man who crosses her path. Or perhaps it’s every single person and thing she encounters that has sent her over the edge.

Is this even a real story? Seeing as how the camera zooms away from Carol’s eye and back into it at the end, are we instead seeing how she sees the world? How are we to take the photo at the end with the child looking so troubled? Has the father of the two sisters doomed Carol to be repulsed by all men?

Gorgeous black and white, overwhelming darkness and a skinned rabbit — that was supposed to be a real one before the crew talked Polanski out of it. A nightmare, but one worth seeking.