#28 – ROSEMARY’S BABY (1968)
Dir. Roman Polanski
In 1968 Roman Polanski made a name for himself as one of the best directors to come out of the New Hollywood. He did it with a film that comes in at number 28 on our list of our favorite horror films. What makes this story of a woman, played by Mia Farrow, who moves into a New York apartment with her new husband and finds herself a victim of a cultish plot so striking and scary is how simple it plays out.
Polanski never uses pyrotechnics or gore to create the ever present dread the film oozes. Instead he relies on smart camera setups and brilliant acting to create a film that suggests more than it shows. What does the film suggest? That anyone we meet could have sinister plans for us, that our world and especially the people that inhabit it are not to be trusted, and that Satan likes blondes.
What is unique to Polanski's direction is that he allows quite a bit of humanity and humor enter into this macabre story. Cult films and what not often play up how odd Satanists are. Usually the audience can tell right away who is and isn't in the Devil's army. Polanski never makes these characters simply serve the plot. These feel like real people and that makes the horror in the film all the more realistic.
Ruth Gordon as Mrs. Castevet is the shining example of this. Here is a character we the audience will feel conflicted about. She is the real force in the film. Coupled against Farrow's strong performance, the film gets so much out of these two woman's relationship. Polanski borrows heavily from Hitchcock throughout Rosemary's Baby be he does something Hitchcock rarely, if ever did, make you believe this could happen, that Rosemary's paranoia is justified. It is here that Farrow deserves so much credit for such a strong performance, she makes Rosemary someone we want to believe because we see so much of ourselves in her.
In the end, Rosemary's Baby may lack big splashes of blood and gore. The film's ending leaves something to be desired. What it gets right though is that horror lives in our daily lives. We naturally distrust our neighbors, avoiding them when we run into them at the mailbox. The paranoia and fear of everyday life is what the film is truly about and for that reason it deserves to be considered one of the best horror films.
written by Matthew Robinson
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