We All Pray For Rosemary's Baby

Rating: 9/10 (30 November 2004)

A blockbuster of a movie that still holds tremendous power today, ROSEMARY'S BABY is, along with THE EXORCIST, one of the most compelling and memorable horror films in movie history. Roman Polanski's subtle direction and the naturalistic performances are enough alone to recommend this scary ride.
The plot concerns a young, naive woman (Mia Farrow, in her signature and best early performance) and her ambitious, struggling actor husband (the late John Cassevettes, ruthlessly brilliant) who rent an apartment in a Victorian building in good old New York, New York. It begins on a somewhat light note, but if you go back and look at it again, you will notice small hints that Polanski dropped. Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse become friendly with seemingly well-meaning but nosy elderly neighbors(the priceless Ruth Gordon and the courtly Sidney Blackmer). Rosemary has a violent nightmare in which she is ravished by a horned creature, on the same night (gasp) she and Guy planned to start trying to conceive a baby (coincidence? I think not). Her pregnancy does not seem to be progressing normally, and her close friends become concerned. Around this time, her husband seems to be getting his big break, and increasingly becomes less sensitive to her feelings and needs. Anyone who appears to be really worried about her or who is in Guy's way of success, becomes beset by mysterious ailments and injuries, even death. She does some detective work and learns more about her strange neighbors and her husband than she cares to know. As she attempts to escape, hoping to deliver and protect her baby, it is apparent that she can't trust anyone, not even the "dream boy" doctor. She learns a horrible, incomprehensible truth: she is to bear Satan's child!!!!!!
Producer Robert Evans called this picture, "a horror movie that has no horror in it, and it still scares the hell out of you." Truer words were never spoken. The performances are all right on target. But several unnerving and disturbing coincidences and events have made viewing the film somewhat uneasy. The now infamous Dakota apartment building (referred to as "The Black Bramford" in the film), is where former Beatle and musician John Lennon was gunned down and killed by a deranged fan. Anton Le Vey, the High Priest Of The Church Of Satan, was reputed to have played Old Scratch in the famous dream sequence, when in actuality it is Cassevettes' face the viewer sees in the close-up shot. It still is extremely creepy, as one of Le Vey's congregation members was Susan Atkins, who assisted murdering Polanski's pregnant wife, the beautiful actress Sharon Tate, in 1969 (she supposedly can be spotted briefly during a party scene in Rosemary's apartment, but I have yet to have catch a glimpse of her). The phone voice of Donald Bomgart, the actor who went blind after winning a role that Guy had auditioned for, was Tony Curtis, who worked with Sharon Tate in the 1967 film "Don't Make Waves" and who was a client of Hollywood hairstylist Jay Sebring, who was also murdered that night in 1969.
The DVD release has only improved the movie, and the featurettes are very revealing. It's also a treat to see so many veteran Hollywood actors (Gordon, Ralph Bellamy,Maurice Evans, Elisha Cooke Jr., Patsy Kelly, Phillip Leeds and Hope Summer) in such great roles. Charles Grodin is excellent in an early role as the cold Dr. Hill. As a Catholic, this movie struck a very responsive chord in me. Without a doubt, one of Polanski's best! Don't pass it up, but don't forget to pray for Rosemary's little Andy or Jenny!