Fame and success - paranoia and dark spirituality

Rating: 9/10 (24 June 2009)

Roman Polanski's 1968 classic 'Rosemary's Baby' deals with a subject matter that's first class horror material; the birth of Antichrist. Set in mid 60ties New York we meet the married couple of housewife Rosemary (Mia Farrow) and struggling actor Guy Woodhouse (John Cassavetes). Moving into their new apartment they befriend the old neighbor couple of Minnie and Roman Castavet, who Guy becomes unusually close to. Guy soon lands a major role and starts heading for success, and with this he decides to stop his self-centered behavior and focus on his wife and so they decide to have a baby. Becoming ill the same night, Rosemary encounters a terrible dream the night of the intercourse with spiritualistic and mythological aspects, which is the start of a slowly spiraling pregnancy towards darkness.
Polanski created a shocking film when it was released in 1968. It's thematic content is frightening and obnoxious, and it certainly lead the way for William Friedkin's 1973 'The Exorcist'. Mia Farrow's performance is her best, it's a harsh performance that shows her sickening mind and body afraid of what she's facing; Cassavetes (who was the symbol of cool and daring independent movie-making as a director in the 60ties and 70ties) pulls out a strange but interesting performance, at further viewings it may you might feel that Guy knows what's going on from the very first second, but then again, he pulls out this lovable husband that shows genuine interest in her well-being. And for me, the film is mostly engaging as an interior study of marriage facing unsureness and scare, with the pure horror elements of the plot coming second rate when it comes down at the end. It's more a drama film with a dark underbelly (with certainly interesting revelatory aspects), than a full-on shocking horror film about the birth of Antichrist. Cause like in 'The Exorcist', you have a demon-possessed little girl with a transformed, monstrous face who's vomiting, spitting, squirming, attacking and shouting crude one-liners; in 'Rosemary's Baby' we're given an intensity surrounding "what's going on with this bright young lady?" - and the horror comes in her grueling sickening, her more and more dominant paranoia, her husband's mysterious behavior, the old couple's weird behavior, and all the subtle clues given throughout. 'Rosemary's Baby' was a daring film back then, and its own "under-performance" of the plot grows more and more in mind afterward.