Rosemary's Baby

Rating: 5/10 (26 May 2011)

Rosemary's Baby In my opinion, this movie doesn't suffice to call "Rosemary's Baby" a horror film; that implies something corny. "Rosemary's Baby" is anything but corny. It is actually creepy. The plot of course and different scenes of this movie have weak-looking Rosemary Woodhouse getting pregnant and discovering that the father is Satan; Rosemary's husband Guy is colluding with Satan's beliefs neighbors Roman and Minnie Castevet so that he can get a part in a play. Everything looks normal, but as the story progresses, you begin to get the feeling that something's not right, and then you find out the horrible truth.
Most notable of course are the character portrayals, and those many special moments one immediately realizes were created not to drive the story, further the potential success of the movie or the fame of anybody involved, but to plainly create atmosphere and entertain us. Rosemary's Baby is an extraordinary picture in that it conveys so much information, it illustrates so much of its motive, and makes anxious its truths long before Rosemary knows them herself, but yet somehow it can fill a viewer with constant and complete suspense. And Rosemary's predicament isn't exactly something new in the realm of storytelling; in fact it's formulaic in many ways. When you go into a film knowing it's supposed to be horrific, but are not given any strong shocks or scares for almost the first hour – that alone creates tension to me. But it is this particular fact about Rosemary's Baby that makes many question its 'horror movie' standing.