Product: Rosemary's Baby (El Bebe de Rosemary) [ NON-USA FORMAT, NTSC, Reg.4 Import - Latin America ] (1968)
Rating: 5.0
A devil of a good time
In June of 1966 (Yes, 6/66), Rosemary Woodhouse gave birth to Satan's son, Adrian. This movie details how she came to be begotten by the Devil and the plot of her husband and neighbors in order to give the world over to Satan.Honestly, one cannot ask more from a horror movie. Sans any special effects, it's all up to the story, acting, and directing to pull it all off, and they all work perfectly together to appropriate the correct mood.Roman Polanski said of the book, "At first I thought it was a soap opera, and then I found myself reading it at four in the morning with my eyes burning." So the directing goes. Mia Farrow's acting is of young innocence that seems rather childish in some parts, but profoundly adult in others: she is a young woman with hopes and dreams and worst of all, fears. Rosemary's concern is never for herself, even as she discovers the plot against her; it's for her child.Better, the audience is never really sure she's not insane. As the plot thickens away from cheery city life towards claustrophobic fear of entrapment, even as we sympathize with Rosemary her angst, her outward worry is not sympathetic to a world where everyone acts as if all is normal. For all we know, nothing could be wrong at all.Then we find ourselves at the end, the coup de grace of horror movie design, where she makes a decision that is sure to shock even the most blase of viewers.The cinematography in this film is amazing. At one point she's looking at a clock and it seems to warp in space and grow further away from her, fitting her insecurity expressionistically perfectly. Simple things like doorways are shown as if there's no mystery behind them at all, yet as they are opened they become forboding.For horror fans, there is little better.--PolarisDiB