Rosemary’s Baby
HORROR-THON 2023 • IT’S ALL IN YOUR HEAD
10/10
DIRECTOR: Roman Polanski
STARRING: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon
RELEASED: 1968
RUNTIME: 2 hours, 17 minutes
WATCH ON: Paramount+, AMC+, Amazon, Apple TV, Fandango at Home, YouTube TV
SCARE LEVEL: Low on jumps, high on dread
TRUSTING THE NEIGHBORS: Never
The scariest people in this movie are the elderly couple next door. They bring over homemade desserts, they drop by without calling, and they are a little too interested in your pregnancy. I have never been more suspicious of a chocolate mousse.
Rosemary and her actor husband, Guy, land a gorgeous, gloomy apartment in an old Manhattan building with a dark history. Their neighbors, Minnie and Roman Castevet, are loud, nosy, and extremely friendly. Guy starts spending a lot of time with them. Then his career suddenly takes off.
Rosemary gets pregnant after a night she remembers as a very strange dream. The pregnancy goes wrong from the start. She’s in constant pain, she’s losing weight, and the neighbors insist she drink their herbal shakes and see their doctor. Everyone she trusts tells her she’s just nervous and overthinking it.
She isn’t.
MY HUMBLE OPINION
This is a horror movie where almost nothing scary happens directly on screen, and it’s still one of the most upsetting things I’ve watched. The true horror is every person in Rosemary’s life telling her she’s just imagining things: her husband, her doctor, her friends. It’s Gaslight with a nursery.
Guy is the real villain here, and I’d like to file a formal complaint about him.
Ruth Gordon as Minnie Castevet won an Oscar for this, and she deserved it. She’s loud, tacky, and nosy, and she’s terrifying because she’s so normal.
Also: the pixie cut. Mia Farrow’s Vidal Sassoon haircut halfway through is one of the most famous in film history. Pair it with the ‘60s babydoll dresses and the Manhattan apartment, and this is a gorgeous movie to look at, even when it’s making you utterly sick.
FUN FACT FOR YOUR NEXT DINNER PARTY
The scenes where Rosemary walks in front of traffic were spontaneous and real. Roman Polanski reportedly told Mia Farrow, “Nobody will hit a pregnant woman,” and he successfully captures the scene with a handheld camera.