An elegant and sophisticated example of screen horror

Rating: 9/10 (23 May 2018)

This was acclaimed Polish director Roman Polanski's first American movie. It was produced by famed horror director William Castle, who was an odd bed fellow for Polanski but it turned out to be a marriage made in heaven (or hell) as Rosemary's Baby turned out to be one of the films that truly brought the horror genre into the modern age. Like the later film The Stepford Wives (1975), which was also about a woman in a new environment unsure if she is being terrorised by her odd new neighbours, this one was a novel by Ira Levin. Set in super-chic Manhattan, it tells of a young woman who falls pregnant and becomes convinced that her neighbours are a group of Satanists who are trying to control the birth. There's more to it than that but either you know it or you don't need to read it and just see it.
Like Polanski's earlier Repulsion (1965) and later The Tenant (1976) this one follows the somewhat specific template which could allow it to be labelled an apartment horror. In all those films the central protagonist finds themselves a prisoner of sorts in their home. In this example the action is shot on location at New York's Dakota Building, which became forever infamous some time later as the place John Lennon was murdered. Polanski conjures up a truly modern type of horror where the absurd seems deeply plausible, where Satanists knit sweaters and appear completely unthreatening on the surface. In fact, aside from a disturbing dream sequence where Satan rapes Rosemary, the chills in this one are all of the subtle variety, with the fear being what is just out of reach and out of sight; felt but not seen. It also naturally plays on the universal fear of childbirth and the subjugation of women; which must have been extra pertinent in the late 60's times of change. Polanski is the key contributor of course but he is assisted massively by the stellar cast. Mia Farrow is thoroughly compelling in the central role as the vulnerable Rosemary who is in every single scene, John Cassavetes is extremely shifty and creepy as her husband who has made a Faustian pact with the Satanists, while Sidney Blackmer and (especially) Ruth Gordon are simply brilliant as the elderly cult leaders.
Rosemary's Baby was and remains, a towering entry in the horror genre. It was the film whose success ushered in the trend for big budget satanic themed horror movies throughout the 70's, with both The Exorcist (1973) and the Omen (1976) owing some obvious debt to it. Overall, a brilliant achievement.