Review of Rosemary's Baby (1968) by Christopher A — 09 May 2013

Rosemary's Baby is a movie in which the ending is rather unimportant. Maybe "unimportant" isn't the right word, but that's the one that fits the most. Much like "Jaws", the immediate threat is not necessarily what the movie is about. It's about the events leading up to that threat. If the movie was merely about this immediate threat (which will remain unnamed), then the movie would be considerably shorter and less impressive. Roman Polanski's work in "Rosemary's Baby" is reminiscent of Hitchcock in the way that the suspense is so great that you feel as if you're a part of the story rather than an observer. It's a "Hitchcockian thriller" better than any Hitchcock film I have seen.

It is a film that almost gets better with each viewing. I've seen it about 3 times, and each time I discover something that I had missed before. Watching the film after knowing the ending and how the story unfolds is an experience in and of itself.

Simply a masterpiece.