Review of Rosemary's Baby (1968) by Luke A — 14 Aug 2017

Rosemary's Baby is the epitome of classic horror. Oh yes, horror thrillers do not come much classier than this. 1968 and yet impressively still feels fresh when watching it for the first time today.

It's one of those classic films that I think every film buff or cinephile or average movie fan should watch and I'm sure it's a popular choice when studying the medium of film. The story revolves around a young woman called Rosemary who moves into a new apartment with her husband.

She wishes to conceive a baby, but when her obsessive neighbours become involved things start to take a turn into the realm of surrealism. A prime example of this, would be her "dream". She dreamt that she was being raped by Satan and that her neighbours and husband were watching as if it was a ritual.

But of course we all know what actually happened (I shan't spoil it). It's a plot of mystery and intrigue. Roman Polanski's intelligent direction and screenplay was quite unique. We all knew what happened to Rosemary and we all knew what the end result was going to be, but we as the audience were interested in how Rosemary unravels the plot herself.

This could've been a mystery with several twists and turns, but it's more than that. This was all focussed on her. Mia Farrow was excellent and easily held her own against the rest of the supporting cast.

She exhumed innocence, fragility and transformed herself. I was impressed. Ruth Gordon won the Best Supporting actress award, I thought she was good but nothing outstanding. Although, she got that New York accent down to a tee! loved how we never saw what Rosemary's baby looked like, the imagery that is conjured up relies on the audience's imagination and I found that to be powerful.

There were a few plot conveniences and I found the pacing to be inconsistent. A scene that oozed intrigue was then followed by a slower scene that seemed to negate everything that was before it. However, this is a solid classic horror film that, I'm sure, will never be forgotten.