Has aged well and can still chill

Rating: 8/10 (18 May 2001)

Rosemary's Baby was a shocker in 1968 when it was released. Recently screening the film with my wife, I see it still can impart a huge psychological impact today.
My wife did not find it particularly frightening. It is true, there are no CG demons flying around cutting people's heads off ala End of Days. It's from an age of film when people actually watched and thought about what was on the screen instead of just being wowed by eye-candy. As such, it calls upon the viewer to be drawn into Rosemary's plight and paranoia. And at this, it still succeeds.
I was struck by the fact that, even though there are some telltale signs of it's age (guys readily smoke around the pregnant Rosemary while handing her drinks, etc.), the film holds up so well and appears even today to be remarkably contemporary. The characters, so well acted, are timeless types of horror: The nosey old lady (Ruth Gordon) who eventually grows on you and, even after you find out what she's all about, you can't help but find her funny; the benign grandfatherly figure (Sidney Blackmer) and the trusted doctor (Ralph Bellemy) who surely wouldn't harm a fly; and the innocent Rosemary who becomes victim to a justified paranoia. At the end, my wife asked whether the second doctor (Charles Grodin) was "in" on the plot. That's the whole point in a nutshell... you never know.
Rosemary's Baby was a daring precursor to many films to follow including the Omen and The Exorcist. While those films use gallons of pea soup and shocking special effects, neither works so hard on your mind as this one. Unlike so many of it's contemporaries, Rosemary's Baby has aged well and can still chill! 8 out 10