Product: Rosemary's Baby (El Bebe de Rosemary) [ NON-USA FORMAT, NTSC, Reg.4 Import - Latin America ] (1968)
Rating: 5.0
Roman's masterpiece and modern horror classic
I had read the book Rosemary's Baby many years before actually seeing this movie. As in most cases, the book is far superior because it's a different experience than seeing a movie version. Had this movie been made today it would have been far more gorey and graphic, but this has very much an old school horror mentality of suspense. Sometimes the best horror situation is knowing that there is something wrong, just beyond your reach, just past your field of vision, and it's coming for you. The growing sense of paranoia and mounting fear can make anyone cring.In her most famous role, Mia Farrow plays Rosemary, a sweet, somewhat neive housewife who has just moved into a new apartment with her husband, Guy (John Castavettes). While they are adjusting to their new surroundings, they are befriended by an elderly couple and their friends in the building. They seem very interested in Rosemary and their impending plans on starting a family. Unknown to Rosemary, Guy discovers that these seemingly harmless old people are a coven of Satanists and he makes a pact with them for his own success. When Rosemary discovers that she is pregnant, she is carrying the devil's child.Suspense begins to build as her neighbors seem overly excited and eager to help her along. They even go so far as to hire a top notch OBGYN, Dr. Sapperstein, and Minnie makes and feeds her a special herbal drink everyday. Rosemary accepts their generosity as being overly friendly and somewhat lonely, but begins to suspect something's not right. Her concerns about her pain are dismissed, her husband is oddly cold and detached from the whole situation, and it all seems a little too weird. Rosemary is going to unknowingly have the devil's child which they will be caring for after they do away with her.Mia Farrow seems to play her part a bit too well in her relationships with other men in this movie, as in real life she played the hippiesque, neo-Lolita to a lot of older men (Frank Sinatra, Woody Allen, Andre Previn, etc.) like she did with Hutch, Dr. Sapperstein, Roman, and even her husband in some reguards. In those days it was more acceptable if not uncommon for a woman to be somewhat childlike and dependent, but had this movie been made now she would have more resourceful and aggressive with others. Her sense of paranoia is very believable, as she realizes everyone really REALLY is out to get her and she has no where to turn to. Even her one friend who really got it, Hutch, is victim to their evil but tries to warn her by leaving her the books on witches.This is a Roman Polanski movie, who always seemed to have the hook for an impending sense of doom. When we reach the much anticipated finale, we never see the child with his father's eyes. We only hear a baby cry, knowing that this is the beast in that craddle. That's the real horror, not seeing the devil's child when you are so so close. *Shudder*