Rosemary’s Baby: The Greatest Horror Film Without Any Horror In It
A psychological spectacular that is not your typical horror flick
The 1960s was a time of cinematic genius, with quintessential horror flicks such as George A. Romero's Night of The Living Dead and Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Just as audiences began to thirst for gore-filled cinema, the 1968 film Rosemary’s Baby, directed by the legendary Roman Polański, shocked audiences with a twisted psychological thriller. Although this film was seemingly out of place in a time of psychopaths and zombies, Polański brought back the psychological thriller in a new and exciting way. Based on the novel of the same name by Ira Levin, Rosemary’s Baby came at a time of religious unease. Toying with the April 1966 Time Magazine infamous cover, “Is God Dead?”, this movie raised a bone-chilling question; if God was dead, did that mean the Devil lived?
The film starts off with a sense of security, as it chronicles around Rosemary, played by the legendary Mia Farrow, moving into a new apartment with her husband Guy, played by John Cassavetes. They move into an ominous New York apartment, with a history of Satanism, and they quickly become acquainted with their nosy neighbors Roman and Minnie Castavet (Sidney Blackmer, Ruth Gordon). When Guy, who is a down-on-his-luck stage actor, gets a role from an established actor who has mysteriously become blind, they decide to start a family, with Rosemary’s due date being June 6th, 1966 (the number of the beast, anyone?). When Rosemary gets pregnant, she becomes increasingly isolated and fears that her mysterious neighbors have diabolical plans for her baby. This film captures the dismantling of Rosemary’s mental state, as those around her ignore her fears and suspicions. Without even her husband to turn to, she begins to fear for the worst; that Satanists are among them. As the film goes on, the feeling of dread seeps through the screen and leaves the audiences feeling as isolated as Rosemary, which is enough to make anyone question; is everyone around me plotting against me?
This film brilliantly re-interprets the Faust legend, with a twist: in exchange for stardom, Guy sells his wife, not his soul, to the Devil. The very thought of someone doing this to their loved one is sickening, which reflects the gender inequalities of the 1960s. Owen Gleiberman, chief film critic of Variety felt that the cult-classic was “always about the condition of being female in our world.” Rosemary’s Baby shows the fears of pregnancy that many women have to face, something that was not widely acknowledged in the 1960s. This underlying theme of the film not only adds to the undying sense of horror and suspense, but reflects on the pitfalls of society and how it failed women for many generations.
Rosemary's Baby has stood the test of time, inspiring one of the most incredible horror directors of the twenty-first century, Jordan Peele (Get Out, Us). His big screen debut, Get Out, is a film about race, where Rosemary’s Baby is a film about gender inequality. In an interview, Peele says that Rosemary’s Baby is a film about “men making decisions about women’s bodies behind their backs.”
In the closing moments of the film, Mia Farrow shows off her acting brilliance when she realizes that her baby is not only her own, but the Devil himself is the father. In 25 seconds of silent brilliance, Farrow gazes into the child's crib, with something like a smile on her face, accepting her role as the mother of the spawn of Satan. This closing moment of the film proves that it has every right to be a horror movie classic; it is about the horrific things that mankind is capable of. Showcasing what excellent acting and storytelling can do, this film was the first to blur the lines between fiction and reality, embodying the poetic brilliance that a horror movie can be.
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