Clouzot directs with a cruelty that combines a nastily tangled storyline worthy of Hitchcock with three strong performances (one of which is the beautiful Simone Signoret) and a seedy setting.
There are scenes of physical horror, but Clouzot also sets the flesh creeping with incidences of ordinary nastiness.
The remake with Isabelle Adjani, Chazz Palminteri and Sharon Stone just isnโt as scary or eerie as the 1954 original.
9/10