A Chilling Masterpiece of Horror

Rating: Null/10 (23 February 2003)

Really Creepy. Even Today. This 1968 Roman Polanski directed classic of the macabre is a brilliantly terrifying excursion into modern day NYC & the lives of a newlywedded young couple. What makes this movie work so well is the off-beat, hippie-ish way in which its told. It made it seem so much more believable & it made the commonly seen, cliched horror films of the day looked uninspired & unsophisticated by camparison. Both this film and the best-selling novel by Ira Levin were phenomenally popular with the masses back in the late sixties. I can remember my mom reading the book & telling me how scary the movie was - which I was too young young to see owing to its rating. I thought Mia Farrow's portrait of the title character was finel y etched and that she put a lot of "feeling" into her unusual role. John Cassevettes does fine as Guy. Ruth Gordon, hammy and hilarious, steals the show as Minnie Castevet, the eccentric nosey neighbour. She won her best supporting AA for this: "I can't tell ya how encouragin' a thing like this is at my age" should told the academy during her acceptance speech. Her playing of Minnie, when seen today, borders on being overdone in some respects, especially when she makes those animated faces while eating & serving up cake in her apartment. Her apathetic attitude toward the death of the dope addict girl cracks me up: "Oh, yeaah" * but her "nude" scene is a creepy turnabout for her character. Sidney Blackmer is excellent as her "fascinating" husband while Ralph Bellamy easily gives his finest latter-day performance as Rosemary's "concerned" doctor. A MUST for horror fans!