Rosemary's Baby [M]

Newlyweds Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse move into their first apartment as husband and wife and Rosemary is ecstatic with happiness. But that is before she meets their neighbours. Minnie and Roman are seemingly just an over-friendly old couple who take a quick shine to the Woodhouses. Shortly after meeting them, Guy ceases to be a struggling actor and is offered the lead in a career-catapulting play. Soon after that, Rosemary falls pregnant and the happy honeymooning stage is over as Guy begins acting very strangely, the neighbours become very obsessive over Rosemary, and her pregnancy harbours some unpleasant, unnatural, symptoms. 

A beautifully crafted horror movie that shows more than first meets the eye Rosemary’s Baby is a film that you definitely should see more than once to really appreciate the magnitude of its brilliance. Underlying its initial story of a Faustian deal made with the Devil, are explorations of themes such as motherhood, the mystery of ‘woman’, the disintegration of marriage, and that existential fear that you can never truly trust anyone. And all this is wrapped in classic Polanski fashion of sinister comedy, suspense, familiarity, wonderful performances, and that gorgeous low-budget sheen of 1960s cinema. 

Possibly the best thing about this movie, and the thing that makes it so frightening, is the fact that all the characters and the settings are very familiar. Not intertextually or generically recognisable, but familiar on a personal level. The décor of the neighbours’ house, all the characters themselves, they could be your own next-door neighbours or the people from the house down the street. It’s this familiarity that plays on that deep-seated fear and question of trust that the film explores so intimately: can we ever really trust anyone? Rosemary is the proxy for practically every member of the audience, the everywoman living the worse case scenario: she can’t trust her neighbours, her doctor, or even her own husband. 

Mia Farrow delivers a marvellous performance as Rosemary and her transformation throughout the movie is just one other thing that adds to its creepiness. Beginning the film as the pretty blonde with the wispy voice, during her pregnancy she is transformed into a gaunt-faced, sallow-skinned, shrieking woman who is thin as a soap bubble. Her shoulder-length hair of the beginning being cut into a butch pixie cut really pronounces her angular cheekbones and how they protrude away from her hollow cheeks: it’s really striking and startling. 

John Cassavetes as Guy plays the handsome but selfish and career-driven dickhead perfectly and his slow decline into fear, helplessness and hopelessness is subtle but still noticeable, particularly in the scene where the baby starts moving for the first time; his fear and disgust counteracting Rosemary’s joy. 

Starring Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans, Ralph Bellamy, Victoria Vetri, Patsy Kelly, Elisha Cook Jr., Emmaline Henry, Hanna Landy, Phil Leeds, D’Urville Martin, Hope Summers, and Charles Grodin, Rosemary’s Baby is a chilling but masterful film filled with romance, drama, suspense, horror, and comedy. I have no doubt that multiple viewings will only enhance the genius of this film rather than deplete it and I look forward to watching it again and uncovering more Polanski gems that may be hidden within the folds of this impressionable and great film.