Although this has a few hallucinating bits of terror, the film is primarily a creaky-door type of melodrama.
Diabolique (1954)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:23
Fresh:22
Rotten:1
Average Rating:8.2/10
Runtime: 1 hr 56 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
Synopsis: Prior to Hitchcock's Psycho, this adult terror classic by French screenwriter-director Henri-Georges Clouzot was considered the most frightening and artistic horror picture ever made. Hitchcock... Prior to Hitchcock's Psycho, this adult terror classic by French screenwriter-director Henri-Georges Clouzot was considered the most frightening and artistic horror picture ever made. Hitchcock admitted an artistic debt to Clouzot in many ways, including borrowing his practice of insisting that no one be admitted to the theatre, once the film began. Adapted from the source novel, CELLE QUI N'ETAIT PLUS, by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, the setting is a provincial boys school. The school is run by the dictatorial Michel Delassalle and his gentle, brutalized wife, Christina, who has a heart condition. If she dies the school will belong to him. Delassalle is openly having an affair with a teacher, Nicole Horner, and has taken to beating her as well. Together the two women plot to murder Delassalle. After the two women drown him in a bathtub, and drop his body into the school's swimming pool, all is calm until the pool is drained and his body can't be found. [More]
Starring: Simone Signoret, Vera Clouzot, Paul Merisse, Charles Vanel
Starring: Simone Signoret, Vera Clouzot, Paul Merisse, Charles Vanel
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Screenwriter: Henri-Georges Clouzot, Jerome Geromini
Composer: Georges Van Parys
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Reviews for Diabolique
Avoids formulas, instead opting to take the audience down the same windy, confusing roads that the characters travel.
...[contains] some incredibly satisfying moments and a twist ending that's almost impossible to guess.
This is one of the dandiest mystery dramas that has shown here in goodness knows when.
One of the outstanding mystery shockers of recent years, this French-language picture is certain to receive critical praise and strong word-of-mouth that will make it one of the top French imports.
A scary movie in the spirit of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, and while it isn’t as well known, it’s just as chilling.
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 36% 36% | G.I. Joe: The Rise of … |
| 52% 52% | The Taking of Pelham 1… |
| 45% 45% | Ice Age: Dawn of the D… |
| 19% 19% | Transformers: Revenge … |
| 55% 55% | Orphan |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 98% 98% | Up |
| 88% 88% | Ballast |
| 66% 66% | The Merry Gentleman |
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