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.
The film that spawned a decade of horrors about the birth of an antichrist. It draws on the classic premise of psychological terror, that you can never be sure whether the horrific events are actually happening or if they are the dubious fantasies of a vulnerable, disintegrating mind.
Rosemary (Mia Farrow) and her husband Guy (John Cassavetes) move into an apartment intending to start a family. Guy begins to spend time with some elderly kooks living next door (Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer) just as his struggling career as an actor starts to turn around. When Rosemary conceives, she begins to suspect/fantasise that the neighbours are satanists and her husband has sold them her reproductive capacity.
The film benefits from having a great director, with Roman Polanski making his American debut. His script is faithful to Ira Levin's novel (1967) which presents a problem as the first half of scene setting and exposition is very slow. But once the baby is on board, the film becomes suspenseful and psychologically twisted. There is a support cast of old Hollywood faces as the coven. You know Rosemary is in big trouble when even Ralph Bellamy is in league with the devil!
Cassavetes is terrifically oppressive as her ambitious, extraordinarily mercenary husband. Mia Farrow is well cast as the fragile, neurotic mum-to-be. In the end, we are probably persuaded to believe that this is happening and Rosemary has been raped by the anti-christ. Which makes it very dark indeed, particularly when she eventually shows interest in nurturing the demon baby.
I had never seen this film, and as it so often features on so many best of lists, I was very curious.
However, I was left very flat.
The film is very sixties, well enough acted for sure, but the look just shows its age now, where as other films of the period have lasted much better.
Just like many of the best horrors, this film plays in the mind, there are no shocks, jump scares, or gore splashed faces, just creeping dread.
However, I worked it out (its not that hard) and whilst the ending is neatly done, i was left wondering where the fuss was looking.
Yes, Farrow is superb, and as a portrayal of a desperate mother, overlaid by the is it or isn't it thing going on, you have a decent study on madness and or paranoia, and maybe this film is best viewed as a drama?
I wanted this film to be worth the wait, sadly it wasn't.