#183: Rosemary’s Baby
Release Date: June 12th, 1968
Format: DVD
Written by: Roman Polanski
Directed by: Roman Polanski
4 Stars
Possibly the greatest psychological horror film ever made, it’s interesting to consider what happens off screen in Rosemary’s Baby as much as it is to be enraptured with what wunderkind Roman Polanski was accomplishing on screen.
Yes, what appears on screen is undeniable, with its incredible casting and performances, its airtight plot and pacing, and its mastery of tone. Few writer/directors have reached the artistic heights that Polanski reaches with this film.
But man is it fun to think about all of the depravity that Polanski keeps out of sight.
If you’re not familiar with the movie, it’s about a young married couple, Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse, who move into an old apartment building in New York City and befriend their elderly neighbors next door, Roman and Minnie Castevet. Rosemary’s friend, Hutch, warns Rosemary and Guy of strange goings on from the building’s past, strange reports of the occult and satanic worship from within the Bramford, but Rosemary and Guy are undeterred, and not only make themselves at home in the old building, but decide to start a family.
When Rosemary becomes pregnant, she begins to suspect that something is not right. A neighbor commits suicide, Guy grows distant, Hutch becomes sick, and Rosemary’s pregnancy seems…unnaturally painful.
Polanski wisely keeps the audience as unsure as Rosemary about just what is going on. We suspect, but we don’t know.
We suspect Guy is talking to Roman about something important over cigars in the living room, but what? Hutch loses a glove, but what happened to it? And the chanting behind the Woodhouse’s bedroom wall, what is it?
Is Rosemary going crazy?
She doesn’t think so, and neither do we.
When we finally reach the film’s climax, the iconic scene with the film’s titular baby, Polanski diabolically leaves it off screen as well. We never see it.
But Rosemary does. We’re left with her terrified screams: “What have you done to it!? What have you done to its eyes!?”
Callously, she is told that it has his father’s eyes.
