Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

 

1968, 136 min.

Director: Roman Polanski

Writer: Ira Levin (novel), Roman Polanski (screenplay)

Stars: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon

Rosemary’s Baby is another classic, starring Mia Farrow as the timid, weak-willed Rosemary Woodhouse, wife of an aspiring actor. Rosemary meets all the standards of a stereotypically naive and submissive woman and housewife. After she and her husband move into a luxurious apartment in New York City, their lives appear to take a turn– largely due to the eccentric but seemingly harmless couple next door, Minnie and Roman Catavet. At first, all is well; better than usual, even. Rosemary’s husband unexpectedly gets a huge job offer and she finally becomes pregnant with ease. It’s around this point that things start to go downhill though.

The night that Rosemary’s baby is conceived, she has blacked out after eating some chocolate mousse given to her by her neighbor Minnie. Rosemary has hallucinations of being raped by the devil that night. Again, being the naive, submissive woman that she is though, she thinks nothing of this, nor of all of the strange events that soon begin to unfold. She’s quickly and rather easily coerced into taking the advice of Minnie and Roman in regards to her pregnancy. Rather than taking any sort of pills during her pregnancy, she’s swayed into drinking some odd form of a cocktail.

Like so many classic movies, this one probably wouldn’t be considered scary by most peoples’ current-day standards. However, Polanski’s film is still harrowing in its own rights and was a psychological thriller before psychological thrillers were even a mainstream movie genre. It’s not gruesome, it’s not even particularly violent, but the whole film has an eerie, just plain weird atmosphere about it. In fact, Rosemary’s baby is never even shown. It simply shows the cradle her baby is in.

The magic of this movie lies in its character-driven plot, exclusion of too many details, and it’s shot really well.  Afterall, this is a movie that came from the same man who directed Chinatown, so that should say enough. Another notable feature of the film is its lack of a musical score throughout most of it. Something about the silence really gets to me, personally, and plays well alongside Rosemary’s own silence and general lack of will to stand up for herself.

 

The ending of the movie is rather unclear and leaves a lot open, just like how they never actually show her baby. Her look says it  all first. I love Polanski’s device of never actually showing what is terrifying her so, much like how no witches are ever seen in The Blair Witch Project. Afterall, the expression of sheer terror on Rosemary’s face says it all.

Best Line &/or Scene: One of the final scenes, when Rosemary looks into the cradle. It’s chilling.

Story: 8/10
Gore Factor: 1/10
Scare Factor: 5/10
Overall: 7/10