Rosemary's Baby

  Directed & Written by Roman Polanski

Cast

Mia Farrow - Rosemary Woodhouse 
John Cassavetes - Guy Woodhouse 
Ruth Gordon - Minnie Castevet 
Sidney Blackmer - Roman Castevet 
Maurice Evans - Hutch (Samantha's dad from Bewitched!) 
Ralph Bellamy - Dr. Sapirstein 
Victoria Vetri - Terry 
Patsy Kelly - Laura-Louise 
Elisha Cook Jr. (yes!) - Mr. Nicklas 
Emmaline Henry - Elise Dunstan 
Charles Grodin - Dr. Hill (don't worry, he's not in there for very long) 

Since this review is both complimentary and about an extremely well-known  mainstream movie, I'll keep this short and sweet. It's not nearly as much fun to write about a good movie as bad one. Hey, I don't make the rules.

Rosemary's Baby is the czarina of  Evil Cult films. Like The Exorcist, it is one hell (heh heh) of a hard act to follow.  Its malformed, illegitimate cousins continue to plague us to this very day.

Horror-film dwellers had had to fight against organized groups of baddies who were Up To No Good before, of course, but these were usually groups of people united by a supernatural malady such as vampirism or lycanthropy and set in remote European villages. RB brought it all back home and plunked it in downtown New York City in the present time, giving RB the elusive  documentary-like realism common to some of the best modern horror films. 

The film is perhaps the ultimate example of what is sometimes called Urban Horror or Daytime Terror.  No storms or castles or bats. Everything is so pleasant, so normal on the surface. But every person and detail is to be watched closely, which ratchets up the paranoia at increasing levels as you realize Rosemary has every reason to believe everyone is plotting against her. Clues are found lying on desks, in dreams, in half-heard conversations, in chocolate mousse.  Poor Rosemary just tries to get a better apartment and ends up the mother of Satan. It could happen to anybody. It could happen to YOU.

Based on the flawless Ira Levin novel, director Roman Polanski wisely decided to not tamper with a single detail. According to an account in Stephen King's Danse Macabre, Polanski went as far as personally calling Levin to find out exactly what issue of The New Yorker Guy Woodhouse is supposed to be reading during a particular scene - a minor detail that has nothing to do with the plot, but Polanski wanted to remain faithful to his source material.  (Levin had to admit he made the issue up.)

As a person who finds film adaptations which change details from the book its based on to be a torture alongside unnecessary dental surgery and Christina Aguilera, I can say unequivocally that RB is the most faithful adaptation of a book I have ever seen. (Just for the record, Jaws performs the equally rare trick of being better than the book.) 

Rosemary’s Baby actually gets better the more times you see it, as you’re freed from the craving to find out how it ends and pay attention to subtle details that fill almost every frame. In keeping with the realistic tone, we never actually see the baby, described in the book as a very unrealistic infant with horns, yellow eyes, and a tail. I remember being rather pissed about not seeing the baby the first time I saw the movie (I was also 9), but now know that the appearance of the baby would have destroyed all that went before in terms of plausibility. Watch Rosemary’s Baby - and read the book, damn you - and bask in the pleasure an intelligent, well-made horror film can bring.