Rent Gaslight (1944)

I suppose that this is a good film but.... - Gaslight review by SB

I found it hard to warm to. Charles Boyer seemed to me rather too remote a figure at the start to cause the attachment between him and Ingrid Bergman's character, and some of the underlying premise is not believable. There must be many simpler ways to get at the jewels (or at least try to get at them) in an uninhabited house than going through a marriage, whatever the delights of Bergman. And on that subject, why on earth was she lumbered with such an unflattering hair style for most of the film? Of course she is not just beautiful but also a good actress, but she always seems to be slightly unreal in this role. As for the detective, it is impossible to believe in him as someone from the time period in which the film is set - he could be wanderinga round 1940s New York. Disappointing overall and interesting mainly for historical reasons.

So this is why it’s called gaslighting.. - Gaslight review by SG

This film is good. It’s a 1944 classic movie with disturbing overtones of modern society. Ingrid Bergman is quality as the paranoid induced woman while her psychotic husband Charles Boyer is chilling. Angela Lansbury makes her debut in movies as the 17-year-old housemaid with a surprisingly accurate London accent. The slow decline into delusion is well staged and the foggy London roads create a smarmy atmosphere. Lots of the sets are very claustrophobic with deliberately too much furniture and the gaslight flickering is a great monument to suspense and fear. It’s a gold-plated black-and-white classic.

Don't watch TOWIE, rent this instead.

Turning Down the Lights, Turning Up the Doubt - Gaslight review by griggs

The term gaslighting owes its name to this taut psychological thriller, where the flicker of a lamp becomes a weapon as cruel as any blade. Ingrid Bergman is luminous as Paula, a young wife whose confidence is methodically dismantled by her charming, manipulative husband (Charles Boyer, all silk and menace). His campaign of whispered doubts, staged “forgetfulness” and sinister coincidences traps her in a fog where she begins to question her own sanity.

George Cukor directs with an elegant, slow-burn precision, framing domestic interiors as if they were prison cells. Joseph Cotten brings a welcome jolt of warmth and steadiness when the story most needs it, but this is Bergman’s film—her performance charts the slide from poised newlywed to terror-stricken captive with heartbreaking clarity.

It’s both a masterclass in suspense and a chilling study of emotional abuse—proof that the most dangerous monsters aren’t always hiding in the shadows, but sitting across the breakfast table.