Rosemary's Baby (1968)

"We're your friends, Rosemary. There's nothing to be scared about. Honest and truly there isn't!"


That's the question really isn't it? Except, that's what you would expect the question to be. Usually, we the viewer are asked to work this out one way or the other. In the case of Rosemary Woodhouse you would expect us to have to work out if her neighbours really are Satanist or whether Rosemary is just suffering some sort of mental breakdown as a result of her traumatic pregnancy. But quite quickly the outcome seems so blatently obvious, Rosemary's worst nightmares are very much true. This works because Roman Polanski doesn't refrain from telling us anything but just lets the story play out and leaves it up to Rosemary to discover what everybody else is telling her is not the case. We know the truth, she knows the truth and the horror comes from our knowing that we cannot help her.

The story follows Rosemary and her husband Guy Woodhouse. Initially they seem like the ideal couple. He is a semi successful stage and commercial actor, they have just moved into a new swanky apartment and together they want to settle down and have a family. Their neighbours are an eldery couple, Minny and Roman Castevet who seem likable if slightly peculiar. Rosemary gets her wish of pregnancy but when an old friend gifts her a book that highlights the fact that her elderly neighbour Roman is actually the son of a devil worshipper she begins to fear that her neighbours are a part of a Satanic cult. These fears escalate and the rest of the film is dedicated exactly to Rosemary wishes to satisfy these fears either way.

One of the films strongest assetts is the performance of Mia Farrow as Rosemary. In fact, it's such a brilliant performance that it ranks alongside Laura Dern's performance in David Lynch's Inland Empire, Francis McDormand's performance in the Coen's Fargo and Bibi Andersson's performance in Ingmar Bergman's Persona as one of the greatest performances by a female in a lead role. It is simply sublime. John Cassavetes is adequate in his role as Guy but Farrow's performance is backed up by two great supporting roles by Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer as the Castevets.


The most impressive scene is the surreal dream sequence in which Rosemary believes she is being raped by the devil himself. Visually it is extraordinary but it also leaves the question of whether or not it really is a dream or whether she actually is being raped. Some will tell you one way, others will tell you the other. I'm sure there is an answer, I just don't know what it is.

I've read a couple of comments by people whose opinion means nothing to me who comment that the ending is anticlimatic and 'rubbish'. Well yes it is anticlimatic but Rosemary's Baby is not a film that builds up to a climatic ending. As I said earlier, it was obvious what the outcome was going to be and as we watch we wait for the horrific truth to be revealed to Rosemary. Many of these comments question why Rosemary didn't kill the baby? After all these Satanists had ruined her dream of settling down into a family. But, I say to these people, look how much she wanted a child throughout the whole film. It's her number one goal and her maternal instincts were always going to be sky high and although she may have given birth to the child of Satan, that child is still hers and I think these maternal instincts stop her from making use of that meaty kitchen knife that she clutches in her right hand in this final scene.

Rosemary's Baby is one of the most chilling films I've ever seen acheiving Hitchcockian levels of suspense along the way. Everything in it works and it firmly ranks along side Polanski's Chinatown as being somewhere near masterpiece status and you simply have to view it.

Rating: 9/10 - highly recommended.