A dark jewel of-a-movie in the Age of Aquarius's occult crown

Rating: 10/10 (28 July 2012)

What does it mean to give a movie 10/10? It must mean that no part of the film could possibly(!) be better: the characters must be three-dimensional and engage the viewer (whether it be sympathetic or antagonistic); the performances must then bring these characters to life; the script must carry the plot without stale verbiage or cliché; the story itself must be believable or, in the case of horror or science fiction, create the conditions wherein the story can be seen as believable; the editing must make it not a scene too long nor a scene too short; the music must beand you get the point, right? On each of these points, as well as any other you care to mention, 'Rosemary's Baby' easily qualifies.
Having established himself as an up-and-coming European director in the 1960s with the likes of his debut 'Knife in the Water' (1962), Roman Polanski was brought to America to direct this horror movie about a secret society of Devil worshippers composed of wealthy and distinguished citizens manipulating a young woman into giving birth to the child of Satan in late-60's New York. The film is the second part of Polanski's so-called "apartment trilogy" (the other parts being 'Repulsion (1965)' and 'The Tenant' (1976)) and as such begins with a shot of the Bramford apartment building (in reality the Dakota building which would later be the building John Lennon was shot in front of) which struggling actor Guy Woodhouse (Cassavetes) and his beautiful young wife Rosemary (Farrow) manage to bag a sizable apartment in. Despite being regaled with macabre stories of the history of the "Black Bramford" from their previous landlord/paternal figure Edward "Hutch" Hutchins the couple move in to begin their new life and soon strike up a relationship with an elderly couple, Minnie (Gordan) and Roman Castevet (Blackmer), after a young drug addict in their care kills herself. Not long after (and with the "help" of a dizzying dream/nightmare sequence which is far more authentic than the famed Dali sequence in Hitchcock's 'Spellbound') Rosemary becomes pregnantbut her jubilation is short-lived and soon transforms into a disturbing paranoid nightmare.
For a horror film it is refreshingly free of gore or ridiculous "jump-moments", and instead slowly chills the viewer through an atmosphere which becomes increasingly unnerving and claustrophobic as Rosemary discovers various clues which suggest that the Castevets may be involved in the darkest of dealings, and may have lured Guy into their ranks. However, the film perfectly walks the line between suggesting an actual conspiracy (supernatural or otherwise) and a hysterical paranoid fantasy on Rosemary's part which is surely a testament to the fine performances of every one of the cast. A particular joy of the film are the countless "Oh yeah" moments you get from corroborating, upon repeat viewings, observations made by Rosemary like the mismatched paintings on the walls of the Castevets' apartment when they first visit, or that Guy is still wearing his make-up when he returns home unexpectedly early to disrupt Hutch's visit, all of which contribute to Rosemary suspecting that something is afoot. These subtle psychological ploys unsettle the viewer as they suggest things which we are prone to miss despite being in plain sight and effectively conjures an atmosphere rooted in the familiar but where disturbing figures may be watching from the periphery.
A year later, Polanki's wife Sharon Tate would star in the role which would earn her pop-culture immortality: a butchered victim of Charles Manson's family. As such, with its explicit occult themes (although Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey's involvement as a consultant and the figure of the Devil in the dream sequence has been shown to be false) and its exultant subversion of Nietzsche's "God is Dead!" the film could be seen as an eerie prophecy of the darker vein inherent in the flower-power ideology which ended so abruptly with the Tate-LaBianca slayingsand the post-script of which would be with Lennon's murder outside the BramfoDakota building. Polanski himself would go on to secure his Hollywood A-List status with 'Chinatown' (1974) and 'The Pianist' (2002), but how can one's career improve upon a movie genuinely worthy of 10/10?