Dir. Roman Polanski, 1968, USA, 136 mins
Cast: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Ralph Bellamy
In 1968 Roman Polanski made his Hollywood debut with Rosemary's Baby. Based on the novel by Ira Levin the film tells the story of a young married couple who move into a new apartment with plans to start a family. What begins as a gentle drama slowly mutates into one of the most frightening films ever made, as Rosemary (Farrow) discovers that the creature growing inside her is not the cute little "Andy or Jenny" she expected.
Today's society is as riddled with fear as it ever was but recent Hollywood horror has tended to ignore these fears, favouring instead mutated serial killers stalking beautiful teens with a nod to the audience in case we forget that it is only a movie. Rosemary's Baby, which has lost little of its original tension over the years, reminds us that horror films are supposed to be scary.
The effectiveness of the film is interesting considering that its producer, William Castle, was famous for low-budget gimmick-heavy horrors that are perhaps partly responsible for the situation the genre is in at the moment. It was Castle who first suggested adapting the novel for film, but producer Robert Evans turned down his request to direct choosing instead controversial European director Roman Polanski. Looking at Polanski's earlier films, particularly Repulsion (1965), it seems an obvious choice for a story primarily concerned with isolation and madness.
As production designer Richard Sylbert says, "Rosemary's Baby opens like a Doris Day movie - that's the whole point" - Rosemary and her actor husband Guy (Cassavetes) are shown around their apartment, get to know the neighbours and tackle the minor problems that come with the move. What this achieves is to draw the audience much deeper into the story than they would usually be expected to go with a horror film. The two leads are likeable and soon feel like old friends - partly due to the talent of Cassavetes and Farrow, and partly to Polanski's skill at directing actors: "I let them go through the scene, and then I try to follow what they do with the camera. I think that doing the reverse is like having a ready suit and trying to find a man that fits it". There are hints of what is to come - bizarre music and chanting, the suicide of Rosemary's only friend in the building, the mysterious circumstances surrounding Guy's big break - most of which are somehow connected to the apartment next-door owned by aging couple Roman (Blackmer) and Minnie (Gordon). However, by the time we realise that something is seriously wrong it is too late - for both the audience and for Rosemary.
Following one of the most surreal and technically accomplished dream sequences in cinema history, Rosemary wakes up to find herself pregnant. Though the tone of the film remains the same, the tension shifts to an increasingly uncomfortable level as Rosemary struggles to comprehend what the audience already knows. It is the decision to show the film entirely from Rosemary's point of view that creates much of the tension and the audience is often made to feel as trapped as she does.
Although more of a psychological thriller in terms of style and subject matter, the film builds up a haunting atmosphere through the claustrophobic setting, the horrific transformation of Rosemary from a healthy beauty to skeletal ugliness, and the disturbingly normal attitude of the Satanic neighbours. Combined with the sheer impossibility of Rosemary's situation and very real fears of a building, a society and her own body working against her the end result is terrifying. Much of this is achieved through the performances and the direction with very few special effects, hardly a drop of spilt blood, and not a single knowing wink to reassure us that all will be well after the credits roll. This is how horror films should be made, and while the recent success of Japanese films such as Dark Water and Audition has proved that the genre has not completely descended into parody, it seems increasingly unlikely that Hollywood will ever scare us like this again.
Chris Regan
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