Synopsis

The wife and mistress of a sadistic boarding school headmaster plot to kill him. They drown him in the bathtub and dump the body in the school's filthy swimming pool... but when the pool is drained, the body has disappeared - and subsequent reported sightings of the headmaster slowly drive his 'killers' (and the audience) up the wall with almost unbearable suspense...

Official Review

Back when I was getting my bachelor’s degree, I took a film class with a really odd professor who I’m convinced picked films to lecture on by throwing darts at a board – Red Rock West is the LAST flick most people would think of when trying to learn basic art motifs. He kept bringing up Diabolique and how much he loved it, which prompted me to pick up the original Criterion DVD. Long story short, I brought up the film after class one day and it turned out he had never seen the original and was foaming at the mouth over the remake starring Sharon Stone and Isabelle Adjani; hell, he didn’t even know it was remake or that Henri-Georges Clouzot’s brilliant thriller existed. Being the generous soul that I am (and feeling a bit smug), I brought him my copy the next day and – to my surprise – he ended up hating it, saying it was “a bit stale and boring.” …Read More