Product: Rosemary's Baby (El Bebe de Rosemary) [ NON-USA FORMAT, NTSC, Reg.4 Import - Latin America ] (1968)
Rating: 5.0
THE ULTIMATE HORROR STORY
The film begins with a bird's eye view of a huge apartment building in New York that overlooks Central Park, where John Lennon lived and was killed (Yoko still resides there). Of course, in Rosemary's Baby, the place is not called The Dakotas, as it is today. It's the last apartment building that newlyweds Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse have looked at. The apartment is huge, old and needs some sprucing up, but Rosemary just ADORES it and begs Guy to buy it. "Oh, please, please....," she pleads. He gives in, saying it's close to the theatre district in Midtown Manhattan--he could walk to work. Guy is an actor who isn't doing as well as he hoped he would, a commercial here, an off-off Broadway part there. Typical. They move in without much furniture and that night end up making love on the hardwood floor. Wine. Candles. Newlyweds. Go figure. Upon further inspection of the dusty flat filled with old furnishings leftover from the woman who had lived there had died--not there, but in the hospital, the apartment manager told them earlier that day as he guided them around the place. One room had an herbarium, with all kinds of pots filled with spices and herbs. And then they found a note left on a desk that said, "I am beginning to lose touch with reality...." and it drifted off.Days later Rosemary meets the neighborlady, a nosy old woman wearing clownish makeup, who knocks on her door and then lets herself in to look around. Her name is Minnie. Her husband's name is Roman, she tells her. The old furnishings have been removed. Painters are busy wallpapering. She asks the price of a new chair. And then she eventually gets aroud to asking Rosemary if they are planning on having children. This affronts and embarrasses Rosemary. But Minnie insists that they must and will. She then asks her to bring her "hubby" over that night for dinner. He reluctantly agrees, but then becomes somehow, suddenly interested in having more and more conversations with Roman, the old man. Now she wants to avoid them, but he does not. Hmmm...and then one evening Rosemary has a romantic dinner set up for just her hubby and herself. The doorbell rings. Guy answers and returns with Minnie's home made chocolate mousse. Guy makes fun of Minnie, but Rosemary shushes him and says they should at least try the dessert. Minnie means well, she tells him. So they do, but Rosemary detects a bitter undertaste to it and refuses to eat the rest, dumping it into her cloth napkin. A little later Rosemary starts feeling funny, dizzy and...Thus is the pretext for what will occur, and what should be terrifying for the audience. But today's audience may not have the patience for this film--it is eventually shocking, but it unfolds as drama does, well written, sharply directed and fascinatingly acted good drama, that is. Thus the audience needs to pay attention to the details (to not talk or text during it). This is a psychological thriller, a horror film and a drama. There is no blood, no overt violence, no crass, vulgar language, no teenage girls baring their breasts. The main characters are adults! Imagine that? And today, unfortunately, many teens cannot watch a film without teens as the main characters. WTF? HOW RANDOM!! This is an ADULT film, meant to horrify ADULTS. Yet I was a teenager when I saw it in the theatre (when moviegoers went to see films with adults in them who were often older than themselves,) not quite old enough to be allowed to see it, but I was a tall, big kid. They let me in. Man, was I glad they did. I was glued to my seat all throughout it. Also, I was a Roman Catholic kid, and the rating for this movie was, according to the Catholic Legion of Decency: CONDEMNED! This meant NO Cathoilc in good standing with the church was allowd to see it. It was a sin to do so.Today I experience it the same as I had then. I become completely immersed in Guy and Rosemary's paranoid world, recalling my original reaction to it as a kid everytime I view it as an adult now, but that is GOOD for me! This is the classiest horror film of them all and ranks among the 10 best films ever made in my book. There is no let up of suspense. No cheap tricks. No GOTCHA moments. It is realistic. Even the witches seem, as they are, the people next door. The acting is Oscar worthy in every way, from big stars to bit players. And Roman Polanski is at his exceptional best as director here. From the haunting score, to the camera work, to the sets, Rosemary's Baby is a winning, chilling thriller from start to finish. Buy it. Watch it every Halloween as we do here at home. But whatever you do, watch it with someone who has a reasonably sized attention span, who knows better than to chat and make remarks as the plot thickens (and it does!). This is a masterpiece. Applaud when Rosemary finally spits in her husband's face. And remember, as Rosemary says: "THIS IS NO DREAM--THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING!" And then watch it again...and again....and again...