"He was in 'Luther' and 'Nobody Loves an Albatross..."

Rating: 10/10 (13 April 2002)

Poor young Rosemary! She doesn't have an opinion she can really call her own; lives through the impending success of her stage-actor husband, Guy Woodhouse, fills her empty days alone in their new, creepy "Standard Eight" apartment, picking shelf paper, designing the nursery (is there any other color on the primary wheel than yellow, egads!); and, ultimately, is seemingly betrayed by the whole of Manhattan. Ok, I've already given you more than an appetizer, if you're the last person on Earth that hasn't seen it or read Ira Levin's book on which this Polanski chiller is based. It is the first "Serious Horror" film, and set the precedent for subsequent films and novels on Urban Paranoia, borderline Cultisms, and whatever else shamelessly borrows from this, Levin's Opus Magnum. Don't expect to see much blood or post natal puppets; This film's not about that, so grow up. "Rosemary's Baby" is about our reactions to horror, and not the horrors themselves. Jot this down and, should you ever enter the Bramford Apartment Building, make sure you make those corridor turns wide... you might finally get a clear glimpse of the eponymous gargoyle.