Written And Directed by Roman Polanski
Roman (re Adrian): "Rock him."
Rosemary: "You're trying to get me to be his mother."
Roman: "Aren't you his mother?"
After finishing up American Horror Story: Delicate, it felt only right to go back and watch the movie that influenced that particular season and yes, it was the better experience. I forgot how good this movie was. Well, the adaptation of Ira Levin's book of the same name.
The premise was simple. It's New York in the 1960s and a young married couple are settling into a new apartment in the Bramford building where the previous tenant killed herself. That would be just the start of the craziness to befall this film.
The couple in question were stage actor Guy Woodhouse (John Cassavetes) and his wife, Rosemary (Mia Farrow). They move into the creepy building, befriend the creepy neighbours Minnie (Ruth Gordon) and Roman Castevet (Sidney Blackmer) and not only that, but the topic having children also came into conversation.
Yeah, by the time we're halfway through the movie we had Rosemary having hallucinations about being involved in a Satanic ritual and then she ended up pregnant. From there on in, it's less joys of impending motherhood and more a growing sense of paranoia and mistrust.
For Rosemary, she had Guy constantly dismissing her concerns, her weight fluctuating, the neighbours being too involved in her pregnancy and a newly recommended doctor that wasn't a bit helpful for her. Oh and any of the few people who might have been able to help her were also taken out of the picture fairly quickly as Rosemary became aware that witchcraft was afoot with her pregnancy.
The rest of the movie of course had Rosemary give birth to her baby, had said baby removed from her before she discovered the horrifying truth about her baby being the next Antichrist. Let's just she didn't take the news particularly well, especially when realising how deeply everyone was involved in this demonic pregnancy happening.
- The book Rosemary was reading was called All Of Them Witches while baby Adrian had an upside down cross over his bassinet at the end.
- The tannis root was created for the book/movie and doesn't actually exist. It's also the most faithful adaptation ever, changing hardly anything from the source material.
- Standout music: Um, Ave Satanas, anyone? Best not.
- Chronology: 1965-1966, New York.
Rosemary's Baby even to this day remains a classic horror movie. Focusing the themes on motherhood, paranoia, women's liberation as well as witchcraft and Satanism, it's not hard to see why it's had such an enduring legacy. Mia Farrow definitely gave a career best performance with this one.
Rating: 9 out of 10
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