Atmospheric Thriller

Rating: 8/10 (8 June 2013)

A young couple moves into a New York City apartment, where strange things start happening. Making his first American film, Polanski expertly creates a suspenseful atmosphere where tension builds slowly but surely in this influential supernatural thriller, helped by a haunting score. As with his earlier "Repulsion," the director conveys horror not so much by what is shown as what is suggested. As a young woman undergoing a difficult pregnancy, to put it mildly, Farrow is terrific in a star-making turn. Cassavetes may be miscast as her husband, but Gordon and Blackmer are quite effective as nosy neighbors. The cast features such familiar faces as Bellamy, Cook, Henry, and Grodin.