Product: Rosemary's Baby (El Bebe de Rosemary) [ NON-USA FORMAT, NTSC, Reg.4 Import - Latin America ] (1968)
Rating: 3.0
Too Stupid to Live
This movie is nicely filmed and acted. Other than that, the only thing that distinguishes it from a terrible B-movie is the wonderful dialogue of the main male devil-whorshipper in which he sets out to offend the Catholic church. Other than that, there was absolutely nothing new or daring about this movie (even then, the filmakers could hide behind the fact that the offensive character WAS supposed to be evil). Most of the suspense in the movie depends on the lead character, Rosemary, acting like she doesn't have a single brain cell to her name, and so the whole plot winds up being completely contrived, not unlike teen slasher films that depend upon the audience believing that the victims will stay in the house after discovering their friends murdered and actually take time out for sex or a shower. Without Rosemary's utter stupidity, the whole movie would fall apart. However, unlike a teenage slasher films where this sort of thing can be expected and laughed at, this film takes itself a bit too seriously for such stupidity to be humourous (although the film does sometimes get deliberately tounge-in-cheek). As a result, Rosemary's actions are more irritating than humourous, for example when she believes the Satanist doctor's assurances that it is normal for a woman to lose weight and become increasingly skeletal during a pregnancy. There are far better Polanski movies, far better horror movies (serious and humourous), and far better artsy movies than this. It does not deserve its status as a classic although it is not a bad time-waster.