Day 14: Rosemary's Baby

14. Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Dir: Roman Polanski
Cast: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer...

Today's post regards a tense and dark thriller based off Ira Levin's 1967 novel of the same name and brought to life by who else but film auteur Roman Polanski. Where some films may initially scare you there others that tend to hit you on a deeper, more psychological level I definitely felt this after seeing the dark Horror/Drama that is Rosemary's Baby,

Originally a project pursued by notable horror director William Castle, who instead ended up producing and having a cameo, Paramount executive Robert Evans decided upon on hiring European director Roman Polanski to make his American film debut. Casting a young Mia Farrow in one of her first roles, John Cassavetes as her husband and an ensemble cast of veteran actors, Rosemary's Baby would become an instant success, even leading to an academy award for best supporting actress for Ruth Gordon and most importantly would be a classic entry into the timeline of horror movies.

Set in New York City, Rosemary's Baby is about a young couple; Rosemary Woodhouse and her actor husband Guy moving into the Bramford apartment complex, a building with somewhat of an unsavory past of tenants and events. Meeting their somewhat strange neighbors, an elderly couple Minnie Castevet (Ruth Gordon) and Roman (Sidney Blackmer), things already seem a bit off. Soon enough Guy lands a role in a play and the couple decides to have a baby. The night the decide to conceive they are visited by Minnie bringing Rosemary a strange tasting chocolate mousse. That night Rosemary has a bizarre dream about being raped by a demonic creature and the next thing you know she's pregnant... Only this is no ordinary pregnancy.



Rosemary's Baby isn't necessarily about the scares, rather it's more concentrated on building an atmosphere. The film is shot beautifully and excellently directed by Roman Polanski but as well made all the creepier by it's magnificent score by Krysztof Komeda, a frequent collaborator of Polanski in the 60s. The somewhat slow pacing only adds to the building tension and the film ends on quite a disturbing note.

Rosemary's Baby is definitely one of the finer examples of horror and drama blending to make a strong compelling piece of cinema and entertaining whether you're a horror fan or not.

Fright Fact: Mia Farrow does the vocals on the title-sequence lullaby.

Horror Highlight: The end is pretty eerie, but I wouldn't recommend watching this if you haven't seen the movie.