Superb but not particularly scary (spoilers throughout)

Rating: Null/10 (5 December 2005)

Even though I think Rosemary's Baby is a fantastic film, I wouldn't really class it as particularly scary. If anything it's more of a dark comedy. Pregnancy is the joke and giving birth to the child of Satan is the punch line.
But that's not to say that the film doesn't have its moments. The dreams are certainly creepy. Indeed, the way that Polanski films Satan having sex with Farrow with a bunch old Satanists watching would probably put the willies up most expectant mothers (so to speak). But then again, maybe that's my problem as regards finding the film scary. I'm never going to be giving birth, so I'll never know what it's like to be in that position.
However, the film does do an excellent job of portraying the helplessness of pregnancy and the paranoia that can come about with no longer having control of your own body. Rosemary starts the film as an able woman, a woman who can choose an apartment and make decisions, but once she's pregnant she's ruled by doctors, nosey neighbours and her husband. Suddenly she's passive and suddenly her own importance is downgraded. It's as if she's a mere incubator.
I'm sure that's something a lot of women must feel when they're pregnant. They must feel like conduits. But Rosemary's Baby takes that idea and takes it to extremes.
One of the most amusing things about Rosemary's Baby is its Satanists. Here you have a coven populated mainly by wrinklies and old codgers. Never before have old people been so evil. But then again, are they really that evil? I mean, Rosemary's neighbours provide her with chocolate moose and herb drinks. What's wrong with that? Well, I guess there's a bit of a moral failing when the moose knocks Rosemary out so that Beelzebub can rape her. And I suppose Satan could have at least been a gentleman and date-raped her the old-fashioned way - with a drink and some Rohypnol. But they're mere formalities. And besides, the result would have been the same. But I do like the way that Rosemary doesn't eat all the knockout moose and is partially aware of having sex with the Devil. It adds to the weird helplessness of the scene. The whole thing is like a night terror. Indeed, despite thinking it's real while experiencing it, she puts it down to a dream. After all, it's too crazy to be true, isn't it?
Watching the film again it's fun seeing how the conspiracy works. I mean, when you first watch it, you're not sure whether Rosemary is just going insane. You don't know whether it's mere paranoia. But while the weird chanting through the walls stuck out during the first viewing, when I watched it again I noticed how Rosemary's husband goes off to meet alone with their Satanist neighbours. He's obviously being seduced. Then there's the offhand way that Minnie (one of the neighbours) asks whether Rosemary wants children. It's done in such a light way  Minnie herself doesn't even seem interested in the answer  that when you first view it, you kind of miss this obsessive interest. But you've also got the herb drink, the doctor, the moose, the way that her husband runs off to tell the neighbours about the pregnancy and the way that one of her friends, an old man who is the only voice of dissent when it comes how the pregnancy is handled, goes into a coma and dies. Rosemary is right to be paranoid. Things are going on behind her back.
And that's part of the film's genius, especially in the way it's directed. Rosemary is the focus of everything. She's in every scene and everything is from her viewpoint. Therefore you can never be sure, when you first watch it, whether it's just a fantasy. And Mia Farrow is a big factor in the film's success. Among some actresses there could be a tendency to overplay things, but she plays it as a woman desperately trying to keep control. Only when things go absolutely insane does she resort to hysterics. Consequently, you like her and you want everything to work out for her. And it's also quite winning the way that she gets her haircut during her pregnancy to try and reaffirm her identity and importance, and the way that she talks to her baby when she starts to seriously loose it. She's a woman pushed to the limit, but she's a woman who fights it admirably.
And that likability works for the ending. When she finally sees her baby and what it is, you wonder what she's going to do and you actually care. And the fact that she doesn't kill it and that she begins to embrace it (by rocking the crib with an almost misty look on her face) makes it rather sad. But when you think about it, it's not too absurd that she'd become a mother to Satan's child. I mean, just look at some kids today. Would this kid really be much worse? And I'm sure that being Satan's concubine must have certain perks. But seriously, how often do you hear, "he's got a face only a mother can love"? And people always speak of 'little devils'. The maternal instinct is strong.
But although the ending is creepy and sad, at the same time I find it funny. Just take the way that all the old fogies start shouting, "Hail Satan!" Or the way that the oriental guy snaps photos. Then there's the woman rocking the crib and fact that the scheming neighbour says that the baby has his father's eyes. There's a lot of dark humour in the film and the ending is where it comes through strongest. But that doesn't mean that the joke is funny for poor Rosemary.