Repulsion

This button is up for sale.

The last (and first) time I saw "Repulsion" was when I was home alone since my sister was out of town for the weekend. This was in maybe 2004 or 05. I went over to Stardust (when they were more of a video store) to rent some movies and I must've completely had "Repulsion" mixed up with another movie I wanted to see. For some reason, I thought it was a sexy, 1960s "romp" (don't you hate that expression?), you know, semi-pornographic fluff with kool music and nice vintage scenery. Boy, was I wrong! I quite possibly rented the worst thing I could've picked up considering my situation. What's even funnier is that I somehow managed to sit through the entire movie!

To give you some background, yes, I've watched lot of scary movies in my day, but the older I get, the wimpier I've become. Sad, but true. I'm a strange one when it comes to fears (hell, I'm even getting scared as I write this while my fiance Jeffrey sleeps and the whole room is quiet, let me turn on the TV!). Ok, I'm back. Certain television production company jingles scare the crap out of me. The 1970s version of Paramount's logo (the one that came after "The Brady Bunch" if I recall), and most recently the WGBH Boston one that they play on the "Degrassi Jr. High" DVDs. I get so scared that I start thinking that I'm seeing things in my house. I mean, my hair stands on end. Silly sounding, I know. Also, the theme to the 1980s version of "The Twilight Zone" is the scariest thing to me. I can't explain it. Doesn't the Grateful Dead do that version? 

Anyway, in case you don't know, "Repulsion" is about a quiet shy girl who completely loses her mind while she's alone in her apartment because he sister has gone out of town to see her boyfriend. Yikes. I told you it was a bad movie to rent. The movie was very slow from what I remember, but I still recall some of the scenes pretty vividly. Such as one where she starts seeing people (that may or may not even be there) grab at her in her apartment, or when she cuts this lady's finger at the nail salon she works at. I think it was Roman Polanski's first English language movie.

I had a hard time deciding which poster to dissect when looking at all the great artwork out there. A lot of times when I'm designing pins, I try to create something from a few sources and put them together. The design I chose is a foreign poster with an English title pasted on top, changed to white instead of its original red. I multiplied the paint strokes to round out the image for the button face. I remember trying originally to use the "razor blade" image, but I was concerned that it wouldn't translate into a one inch surface. It might be too small to see what it is. I also moved the straight razor to the right side of her face instead of below.