Movie · 1972 · Thriller, Mystery, Horror · 1h 41m · R · English
Curator score: 6.7/10 (30.9K ratings)
A motion picture of the extra senses.
Overview
While holidaying in Ireland, a pregnant children's author finds her mental state becoming increasingly unstable, resulting in paranoia, hallucinations, and visions of a doppelgänger.
Ratings
Curator score: 6.7/10
IMDb: 7.0/10
Letterboxd: 3.75/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 71%
TMDB: 6.8/10
Director
Robert Altman
Production
Hemdale, Lion's Gate Films, Columbia Pictures
Cast
Susannah York, René Auberjonois, Marcel Bozzuffi, Hugh Millais, Cathryn Harrison, John Morley, Barbara Baxley
Curator Review
Verdict
A striking, unsettling psychological horror film that turns a rural Irish setting into a pressure cooker of paranoia, grief, and fractured identity. Its ambiguity, sound design, and vivid imagery make it especially rewarding for viewers who like artful, slow-burn dread over tidy explanations.
Best for
fans of psychological horror and surreal thrillers
viewers who like ambiguous, interpretation-heavy films
people drawn to 1970s art cinema and experimental genre work
fans of atmospheric sound design and expressive cinematography
Skip if
you want clear answers and a conventional plot
you dislike dream logic, repetition, or subjective storytelling
you prefer fast-paced horror with frequent shocks
you need characters and events to be straightforwardly reliable
Overview
Images is one of Robert Altman’s most unusual films: a psychological breakdown story that feels both intimate and disorienting, with reality constantly slipping out of reach. Susannah York carries it with a performance that shifts from composed to unmoored in a way that makes every glance and pause feel unstable.
Worth noting
The film’s real power is in atmosphere. The Irish countryside, the isolated house, and the soundscape all work together to create a sense of encroaching dread, while the camera and editing keep turning ordinary spaces into psychic traps. It’s less interested in explaining madness than in making the viewer inhabit it.
Bottom line
For some, that ambiguity will be the point; for others, it may feel withholding. But if you respond to eerie mood, fractured identity, and horror that plays like a fever dream, this is a standout from the early 1970s.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Sean Baker · 468 likes
This was a first time watch for me. And thanks to Arrow Films, I was able to watch the brand new scan and restoration on Blu-ray. It was an experience because I was overwhelmed with the beauty of this film. I'm speaking to both picture and sound. It's a real technical feat.
Vilmos Zsigmond shot this Panavision (anamorphic) and it's GORGEOUS. Really bold lighting (or lack of lighting) and such rich, immersive images. I wish I had a list of… more
Hari Nef · 307 likes
one of the many things which makes this film sing is susannah york's ability to melt from carnality to propriety in half a second's time
cuckoochanel (4★) · 281 likes
SHOCKtober Day 10 of 31
Robert Altman’s idiosyncratic, psychological thriller, Images, opens with narration of a children’s fantasy epic by the story’s creator and the film’s central character, Cathryn (Susannah York, who actually penned and was given a co-writing credit for the featured tale), an author working on her newest book from her well-appointed home. We see evidence of her struggle with the writing process—crumpled pages and strewn accoutrements—scribbling and mumbling back lines to herself in the loneliness. A menagerie… more
Tony the Terror (4.5★) · 237 likes
Finally got around to watching this and I was not disappointed. Dark, twisted, and full of great fog shrouded atmosphere and general fall vibes, this tale of a woman’s descent into madness belongs right up there with Repulsion and I’m a bit baffled as to why it isn’t better known than it is.
This is another hidden gem of 70’s surreal horror with a great ambient score. Susannah York gives one of the greatest performances I’ve seen in quite some… more