- I can't even imagine how terrifying it must be to become pregnant. Actually, to be more precise, I don't have to imagine it now that I've seen Rosemary's Baby. This is a film that collects every possible source of maternal anxiety and weaves it into a truly discomforting horror fantasy. Although the film eventually veers into some terrifically absurd territory, at its heart are completely relatable parental concerns such as: Is the new apartment child-safe? Who really is the baby's father? What if doctors aren't giving you the best advice? Do your neighbors seek to harm your child? Is all this pain normal? What if the baby growing inside of you...is the spawn of Satan!?
- But before we witness any full-blown demonic rituals, we first accompany married twenty-somethings Rosemary (Mia Farrow) and Guy (John Cassavetes) on a tour of their new apartment. The landlord (Elisha Cook, Jr.) can't really explain why the previous tenant would have barricaded her closet with furniture, but the place seems great if you don't mind occasionally overhearing the neighbors. About the neighbors: A young woman named Terry (Victoria Vetri) seems friendly enough, but her sudden suicide shocks Rosemary into a state of depression. Terry's guardians, Roman and Minnie Castavet (Sidney Blackmer and Ruth Gordon), were worried something like this would happen, and, by the way, would Rosemary and Guy care to join them for dinner some night?
- An innocuous-seeming pair of retirees, the Castavets are easily the film's most memorable creation, devoting seemingly all of their waking hours to being neighbors. Initially, their smiling impositions take the form of strange-smelling gifts and the obscure confection "chocolate mouse"--surely a mispronunciation, right? After one such dessert, Rosemary finds herself strangely drowsy and soon after experiences some truly disturbing nightmares. Incidentally, Roman Polanski's direction absolutely shines in Rosemary's dreams, where bizarre events flash by quickly enough that they seem more surreal than absurd. The next morning, Guy confesses to having taken advantage of Rosemary while she was asleep, but her half-remembered dreams suggest a still more horrifying occurrence. A month later, Rosemary discovers that she is pregnant. Guy and the Castavets couldn't be happier.
- Come to think of it, isn't it a little strange that the distinctly disagreeable Guy has been getting along so well with a pair of septuagenarians? But I guess nothing is as odd as Rosemary's newfound cravings for raw meat or Minnie's tannis root-infused potions. Family friend Hutch (Maurice Evans) suspects that the elderly couple has some sinister ulterior motives, but the reputable Dr. Sapirstein (Ralph Bellamy) insists that everything is as it should be. Rosemary sneaks off to see another doctor (Charles Grodin), but he simply turns her back over to Sapirstein. Is Rosemary just suffering from an extreme case of pre-natal paranoia, or has the world really been infiltrated by a Satanic cult trying to produce the antichrist? The film maintains its sense of uncertainty for an admirably long time before joyously diving headlong into camp in its final scene.
- Since I'm having trouble deciding whether I was more impressed by the set or the cast of Rosemary's Baby, let me take a minute to address both. Rosemary and Guy's apartment building is one of the great horror sets, which is surprising in retrospect considering that it is not intended as a haunted house. It's just a creepy old place that you can easily believe has seen its fair share of horrifying events over the years, some of which you can still barely hear through the walls. And now to the cast. Farrow and Cassavetes are both excellent, but their performances are completely overshadowed by those of Blackmer and Gordon, who prove here a dictum that David Lynch has repeated over the years, namely that old people can be absolutely terrifying. When those two come sauntering down the street in their markedly sanguine clothing, you know trouble is on the way. Maybe you wouldn't have guessed that it would involve the demonic birth of the antichrist, but still...
- I should also mention small roles by Patsy Kelly, William Castle (also the film's producer), and the voice of Tony Curtis.
- People think Terry looks like Victoria Vetri, which is maybe understandable.
- I like to think that the Castavets were named after John Cassavetes, but I don't know that for sure.
- Based on the novel by Ira Levin.
