A Thrilling-Yet-Imperfect Achievement for Psychological Horror

Rating: Null/10 (11 August 2003)

Warning: Spoilers Throughout This is most definitely an extremely creepy film and just about deserves each and every accolade that it has received over the years. I think that the main reason for its effectiveness is the superficially innocent layer that it holds over each horrific event as it unfolds, always suspending the audience's disbelief  there is always the notion that, perhaps, Rosemary is just insane. Characters are presented as ostensibly harmless people as an insidious theme of evil lurking beneath the surface is achieved in such a subtly convincing way that it makes David Lynch's work look amateurish by comparison.
The film also works well on levels of alienation and existentialism  there is even some satire present (Guy's willingness to cross over to the dark side' in exchange for fame/fortune makes for quite a severe shot at the psychological effects of entertainment industry.) But the film's ever-present atmosphere of dreary cynicism eventually crosses over the realm of plausibility and into the absurd. By the end, Polanski's unwavering refusal to provide any shred of hope or optimism toward humanity becomes unnecessarily depressing and ultimately left me feeling quite empty.

We're left with a cold statement basically telling us that evil is simply inviolable and will ultimately consume even the most innocent of people, in favor of an annoyingly overwrought depiction of motherly love, and in doing so Polanski appears to unintentionally glorify Satanism as well. I'm not suggesting that there should have been bloodshed to resolve anything, but perhaps this whole thing would've worked out better had Rosemary been depicted as rejecting Catholicism rather than simply ignoring it. There also happens to be a gaping plot hole in this resolution  why would Rosemary show affection for the devil child if she already knows that it's going to be sacrificed by flesh and blood' anyway  as revealed earlier in the film?

With all of these complaints aside, I still consider Rosemary's Baby' to be one of the finest psychological horror films that I've ever seen. Polanski manages to provide us with subtle hints that never really provide clear-cut answers but allow us to think back and piece everything together quite neatly in the end.