Product: Rosemary's Baby (El Bebe de Rosemary) [ NON-USA FORMAT, NTSC, Reg.4 Import - Latin America ] (1968)
Rating: 5.0
60's Horror Classic
The horror genre used to be an art. Nowadays, horror films are formulaic and blood-and-guts violence-glorifying mania showcases. There iare always some teenagers vulnerable to death at the hands of zombies or some other monstrous beings or psychopaths. Horror films of classic category (from the 30's to the 70's) relied mostly on the psychological effects on the audience. Such horror films as Psycho, Night Of The Living Dead, The Omen series, The Shining and The Exorcist were not onlly visually frightening to look at but deeply disturbing on a mental level as well. Suspense and subtlety, combined with haunting moods in the score composed the meat of these classic horror films.By 1968, Roman Polanski's "Rosemary's Baby" based on the horror novel by Ira Levin, was treading some new ground in horror cinema. It was considered modern during its time. It's not suited to everyone's tastes. Conservative Christians will be greatly disgusted and opposed to the dominant theme in the movie- the Devil impregnates a mortal woman in order to win over God nor will it please some to hear the blasphemous idea of God being dead, as the scene in which Mia Farrow's character Rosemary Woodhouse glances at the headline of a Time magazine. The witches coven is as diabolical as it can get. A group of ordinary looking New York City residents living in an apartment hide a vicious secret beneath their friendly facade and genteel manners. At first, you don't know where the film is going. Ruth Gordon's character Minnie, who is in fact a witch, is overly concerned and caring for Rosemary during her pregnancy, which she and her husband's coven had arranged by drugging Rosemary. Moreover, by far the most wicked of the characters has to be Rosemarys own husband (played by Jon Cavazet), an ambitious actor who makes a pact with the witches to use his wife as a tool for the Devil to impregnate with his child, In return, he receives success, fame and fortune in his film career. It seems as if underneath the chilling horror, Roman Polanski is providing a social criticism. Money and fame, even if it's Hollywood-based, can be dehumanizing and corrupting. It is true for Rosemary's husband, who was apparently so self-centered he did not care he had used his wife for the greatest evil- the birth of the Anti-Christ or Devils son. For Polanski, whose films always have a tragic and dark cynicism, life was not too happy as proven through his off-career life. His wife Sharon Tate the actress was brutallly murdered by the crazed Marilyn Manson cult. He would express some of his emotion upon this matter in the 1971 film Macbeth from Shakespeare's play.