"He has his Father's eyes." Entertaining psychological horror.

Rating: 7/10 (11 July 2005)

Rosemary's Baby starts as a young seemingly very in love couple named Rosemary (Mia Farrow) & Guy Woodhouse (John Casavetes) decide to take an apartment in a Manhattan complex, despite it's rather notorious history. Rosemary meets another young woman named Terry Gionoffrio (Victoria Vetri as Angela Dorian) who that night is found dead on the street below her apartment, presumably having committed suicide. Rosemary & Guy both meet the old people Terry was staying with during the aftermath, Minnie (Ruth Gordon who won an Oscar for her performance) & Roman Castevet (Sidney Blackmer) who start to show a great interest in the young couple. Suddenly Guy's acting career takes off in unfortunate circumstances when a fellow actor goes blind overnight & Guy is given the role. One night Rosemary has a nightmare about being raped by a creature of some sort while her neighbour's & Guy look on, but she wakes up the next morning in good health apart from some scratches which don't really bother her. Shortly after this Rosemary is informed that she is pregnant, both her & Guy are over joyed. But the Castevet's still show an unhealthy interest in Rosemary & her baby, they persuade Guy to make Rosemary see a different Doctor, Dr. Abraham Sapirstein (Ralph Bellamy), make Rosemary drink all sorts of strange stuff & control her entire life. A friend of Rosemary's, Edward 'Hutch' Hutchinson (Maurice Evans) suspects that the Castevet's may not be as harmless as they seem but mysteriously lapses into a coma & dies. Rosemary has no-one as she believes Guy is in on the conspiracy which threatens both Rosemary & her unborn baby...
Written & directed by Roman Polanski I thought Rosemary's Baby was a solid piece of psychological horror but is perhaps a little slow for todays generation. The script by Polanski based on the novel by Ira Levin of the same name is a little slow & I found my patience wearing a bit thin at times but I must admit Rosemary's Baby is quite gripping & involving, it's a film which rewards patience & the effort it takes to watch it properly. Rosemary's Baby is a complex film that requires thought on the part of the viewer to fully appreciate it, otherwise it will just come across a boring overlong film with no explosions, swearing or special effects. The detailed & intricate screenplay builds the characters up nicely which is essential because we, the viewer that is, need to have some sort of emotional attachment to them for the films climax to be successful in the way Polanski intended. While the pace of Rosemary's Baby is undoubtedly slow it never lapses into boredom as we witness & experience Rosemary's paranoia grow as the film progresses, it is consistently interesting & provides good solid thoughtful entertainment. There is no gore in Rosemary's Baby except a bloody head but it's a film which doesn't need cheap gore effects to hold it's audience, it uses good storytelling instead. There is some nudity too, but not much. Technically Rosemary's Baby is very good, it has dated a bit but nowhere near as much as you might expect a film from 1968 to have. The cinematography by William A. Fraker is solid & does a good job of capturing the streets of New York & the creepy apartment block, Polanski's direction is tight, effective & accomplished throughout. The acting is very strong by all of the cast with Farrow being a particular stand-out as she suffer's a spiral descent into her own personal hell. Overall I liked Rosemary's Baby as a one time watch, it was interesting & provided one of the most famous ending in horror film history which doesn't disappoint as it hits all the right notes. Having said that at well over the two hour mark I won't be in any hurry to watch it again, ever probably as it's a little too slow for my tastes & especially since I know what's going to happen. A good film if your prepared to put the time & effort in but maybe not quite the classic many make out. Definitely worth watching particularly since it probably turns up on TV a lot & can be brought dirt cheap on DVD these days.