Diabolique (Şeytan Ruhlu İnsanlar)

Les Diaboliques (released as Diabolique in the United States) is a 1955 French psychological thriller directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, adapted from the 1952 novel Celle qui n'était plus by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac.

The story centers on Michel Delassalle, the cruel headmaster of a boarding school owned by his wife. His spouse Christina and his mistress Nicole, a teacher at the school, both suffer under his abuse and join forces to kill him. They carry out what seems like a perfect murder, drowning him in a bathtub, but the corpse mysteriously vanishes and unsettling events begin to unfold, building toward a famous twist ending.

The film stars Simone Signoret, Véra Clouzot, Paul Meurisse and Charles Vanel. Released in France in January 1955, it was one of the year's biggest box-office successes and won the Louis Delluc Prize. Clouzot had secured the screen rights before Alfred Hitchcock could, and the picture later helped inspire Hitchcock's Psycho (1960); Psycho novelist Robert Bloch called it his favorite horror film. Now regarded as a landmark of the thriller and horror genres, it was remade in the United States in 1996.