eduardovictory Film Review: ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968)

DAY 13

After watching "Rosemary's Baby", I realize that M. Night Shyamalan's tiny blip of a career (only 4 good films) owes a lot to to this particular movie, in terms of suspenseful storytelling and of course, his signature twist ending. The film stars John Cassavetes and Mia Farrow as a young couple in love and wanting to start a family, who are mystified, weirded out, friendly, and then weirded out again by their neighbors. It is an atmospheric film that gave the world Roman Polanski and features almost no gore. The plot is so rich that at one point, I forgot I was watching a horror picture! Polanski's direction and script are solid and prove that you don't need buckets of gore to deliver scares, a lesson today's horror directors need to learn.

Mia Farrow plays Rosemary Woodhouse, the wife of Guy Woodhouse. The two have just moved into a new apartment in New York in hopes of starting a family and the taking off of Guy's career as an actor. The couple become friendly with an elderly couple, Minnie (Ruth Gordon) and Roman (Sidney Blackmer) Castevet, after a young girl who they ha taken in under their care commits suicide. Soon, Guy becomes too friendly, going over all of the time and doing and taking lots of favors from the Castevets and one night, hear unexplained group chanting through the walls, coming from their apartment. After Rosemary becomes pregnant, she is talked out of seeing her doctor and goes to one recommended to her by the Castevets. She is fed mysterious "nutritional" drinks by Minnie without any knowledge of what's in them and is suffering an intolerable pain. A mutual friend of the Woodhouse's (played by Maurice Evans) soon tells Rosemary that they need to meet. When they are unable to, she eventually receives a piece of information from her that forces her to discover the secret that the Castavetes are hiding...

Mia Farrow as the title character in Roman Polanski's "Rosemary's Baby"

Roman Polanski makes the film visually appealing packing in everything from great looking sets, to interesting usage of lights. There is a beautiful shot in the film in which the Castevets are introduced to us wearing bright colored, mildly flamboyant clothing, against the backdrop of the dark city colors of sidewalks, cars, and concrete. Another has Rosemary standing beneath her kitchen light, which is housed in a beautiful glowing ball. The costumes are very reflective of the period the film takes place in, over a span of nine months going from 1965 to 1966. The way each character reflects their looks is of great importance (note to self: duh) to the over all film. The eccentric and mysterious Castevets are a bit more out there in what they choose to wear and they way they carry themselves. Guy is an up-and-coming actor who dresses for success but can't resist cracking a joke. Rosemary is very shy, but lovely, wearing more conservative dress, but taking a risk with her look about 1/3 of the way into the picture, which also contributes to making her look sickly and her pale complexion was brought out. I wanted to jump into the television and give this poor girl some tamales.

Mia Farrow's performance as Rosemary Woodhouse was one that struck me as strangely sexist. Perhaps, but also, that Polanski was perhaps telling us that women can't trust men. In the film, Rosemary puts her trust in the hands of several men, only to be let down, or somehow ending up with an outcome that she didn't quite expect. One scene at the end of the film comes to mind when she frantically sets up an appointment with her former Dr. Hill and he promises to help her. As the film progresses, Rosemary's frantic state becomes more and more severe, and the audience begins to feel it as well. My eyes were glued to the screen as Farrow began to dig deeper and deeper to find out exactly what the Castavetes were up to and why they were being so kind to her.

Rosemary wakes to find strange scratches on her body after having a strange dream involving the tenants of her apartment building

I am purposefully avoiding giving away the film's third act as it is so weird and out there that it is almost "too much!" It was somewhat funny, but at the same time, terrifying because we are never treated to a supernatural occurrence except for early on in the film, surprisingly, after she has a bizarre reaction to some chocolate mousse. Also, a big hats off to the folks over at the Criterion Collection. To view the film, I used their restoration of "Rosemary's Baby", which is GORGEOUS. The colors vibrant, the sound mix pops, and the packaging also lives up to the legacy of the film. I was impressed by the way Polanski's excellent script was so cleverly able to blend comedy, horror, and mystery together in a film that never felt "heavy" or dragged along. Rosemary's story is light, intriguing and weird as hell.

7.5/10