Rent Rosemary's Baby (1968)

Devil of a good movie - Rosemary's Baby review by AS

No hands coming through walls, no faces melting, no insects pouring out of ears, no hooded figures in the corner. But this is a very disturbing movie. Mia Farrow grows increasingly paranoid over the actions of her neighbours. Are they really just cosy elderly folk? Is she actually going nuts? This was the one that led the way, spawning a thousand rip-offs, send-ups and copies; some of them good, most of them rubbish. Polanski, as always, shows the art of subtle directing. Classic.

Cradle to Gaslight - Rosemary's Baby review by griggs

This genuinely rattled me. I’d expected cults and devilish twists—but hadn’t realised just how quietly insidious it all is. It’s not the horror of blood or demons that got to me, but the slow, steady erosion of control. Every smile feels like a trap, every act of kindness like a setup.

What struck me most was how isolated she becomes—not through violence, but through niceness. Mia Farrow is phenomenal, all sharp cheekbones and growing unease. You want to shout at the screen as everyone around her—especially her husband—treats her like a child in her own life.

It’s a horror film, yes, but also a razor-sharp portrait of what it’s like to be disbelieved, dismissed, and domesticated. The fear creeps in like a draught you can’t quite place. By the time it all comes together, I wasn’t shocked—I was furious. And that, I think, is the point.

Classic American Horror - Rosemary's Baby review by GI

Director Roman Polanski's seminal horror classic delves deep into the existential fears that one can have about trust and about whether the people around us are genuine or not. This slow building film of dread remains powerful and has hardly been diminished by the plethora of more visually shocking horror movies that followed. The fact that Polanski hints at events and shows just mere glimpses of what Rosemary goes through is where the power of the film lies. Rosemary (Mia Farrow), a naïve catholic girl, and her struggling actor husband, Guy (John Cassavetes) move into an old, dark New York apartment building and plan to start a family. They are soon befriended by the elderly eccentric neighbours (Ruth Gordon & Sidney Blackmer) who have a host of equally weird friends. After a night of very bad dreams Rosemary finds she is pregnant and soon under the control of the neighbours and a sinister doctor. It turns out of course she has been raped by the Devil conjured up by the coven of her fellow tenants and her husband has agreed in return for success as an actor. The themes of trust, isolation and the corruption of family are at the centre of this film and Farrow is first rate here and should have received an award for her performance. Polanski has taken a fairly pulpy novel and faithfully adapted it but added nuances and a growing sense of suspense that has made this film a key one on the horror genre. Some may find the film anti-climactic in the decisions to show very little of monstrous although the rape scene is still shocking today and very risqué for its time. This is certainly a film that you should check out if you've not seen it as it ranks as one of the best of American horror films.