The movie -- although is it pleasant -- doesn't seem to work on any of its dark or powerful terms.
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:54
Fresh:53
Rotten:1
Average Rating:8.6/10
Consensus: A frightening tale of Satanism and pregnancy that is even more disturbing than it sounds thanks to convincing and committed performances by Mia Farrow and Ruth Gordon.
Runtime: 2 hrs 16 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Synopsis: Roman Polanski's stylish occult thriller ROSEMARY'S BABY is possibly the director's most famous film and was a big box-office success at the time of its 1968 release. This was Polanski's first... Roman Polanski's stylish occult thriller ROSEMARY'S BABY is possibly the director's most famous film and was a big box-office success at the time of its 1968 release. This was Polanski's first American feature film, following his frightening 1965 REPULSION, which was made in England. The use of producer William Castle--famous for popular low-budget horror--helped propel Polanski forward into a long and rigorous career as one of the masters of the genre. The terrifying satanic story forever haunts fans of this cult film, the setting of which--Manhattan's Dakota building--carries a ghost story of its own as the location of John Lennon's assassination. A young, happily married couple, waif-like Rosemary (Mia Farrow) and struggling actor Guy (John Cassavetes), move into a spacious apartment in a venerable old building off Central Park. They are befriended by the elderly couple next door, Roman (Sidney Blackmer) and Minnie Castavet (Ruth Gordon in an Oscar-winning performance), who seem to take a special interest in Rosemary's well-being. Shortly after another young woman in the building commits suicide by jumping out a window, Rosemary begins to be plagued by disturbing dreams, including a hallucinogenic black mass sequence in which she is raped by something "inhuman" while surrounded by a host of unlikely spectators. Rosemary discovers she is pregnant and soon falls violently ill. The Castavets offer advice and home remedies and even go so far as to talk her into seeing a new doctor of their choosing. But when the young couple's friend Hutch (Maurice Evans) exposes her eccentric but seemingly well-meaning neighbors as members of a witches' coven, Rosemary realizes that she is the victim of a deeply evil conspiracy and that no one can be trusted--not even her own husband. [More]
Starring: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Ralph Bellamy
Starring: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Ralph Bellamy, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans, Victoria Vetri, Patsy Kelly, Charles Grodin, Elisha Cook
Director: Roman Polanski
Director: Roman Polanski
Screenwriter: Roman Polanski
Producer: William Castle
Composer: Krzysztof Komeda
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Reviews for Rosemary's Baby
Roman Polanski somehow brought his brand of paranoid horror to the Hollywood mainstream with rousing success.
Rosemary is slow to realize that the menace she senses in her new apartment building has already manifested itself not only in her apartment but in her own body.
A supremely intelligent and convincing adaptation of Ira Levin's Satanist thriller.
... a serious effort that gradually and carefully constructs a mounting sense of paranoia ...
Polanski's most startling accomplishment is ultimately twisting something as natural as maternal instinct into something horrifying, if not downright monstrous.
Rosemary's Baby (1968) is Polish director Roman Polanski's first American film and his second, scary horror film - following his first disturbing film
It is a creepy film and a crawly film, and a film filled with things that go bump in the night. It is very good.
If Ira Levin's story shrewdly taps into every pregnant woman's fears about the stranger growing inside her, Mia Farrow gives those fears an achingly real and human force.
A very sophisticated, very effective piece of work spun from primal images, with an excellent cast.
Horror fans shouldn’t expect a high amount of on screen gross out material because the horror primarily happens within. Often that’s the best kind.
Genuinely frightening in a way that's impossible to top 35 years later.
Superbly acted (especially by bone-thin Farrow and Ruth Gordon as the ultimate neighbor from hell), it’s a satantango in the land of Is-this-real-or-am-I-crazy?, with a luridly literal ending that doesn’t negate the previous, more interior terrors.
...the humor in no way minimizes the film's ability to frighten and unnerve us.
Having escaped the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust in Poland by the skin of his teeth, Mr. Polanski was well equipped psychologically to re-imagine what was, before Rosemary’s Baby, a B-picture genre into an A-picture genre.
Latest News for Rosemary's Baby
May 31, 2009:
Five Favourite Films with Renny Harlin
Finnish director Renny Harlin has one of the most schizophrenic CVs in movie-dom. He's directed some of the most beloved action films of the last 20 years, including Die Hard 2,... More...
March 05, 2008:
Platinum Dunes Planning Rosemary's Baby Remake
If you were upset when you heard that Platinum Dunes was planning to reboot the Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street series...boy, do we have a story for you. More...
December 27, 2007:
Clive Barker and Guillermo del Toro Are Being Born
Clive Barker and Guillermo del Toro are getting ready to explore the dark side of Claymation. More...
July 05, 2005:
In Other News...Roman Polanski, Ewan McGregor, and An Ally for Brooke Shields
Controversial director Roman Polanski will make an appearance in court this month -- not to continue his infamously interrupted 1977 statutory rape case, but to testify in... More...
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