Rosemary's Baby - Timeless horror on so many levels

If you have only really heard of ‘Rosemary’s Baby,’ by its considerable reputation then you may be inclined to believe that it simply finds its horror through a tale of demonic possession.  After all, its central premise is that a young couple move into an upmarket apartment block in New York, only to find that their new neighbours are more than a little bit satanic.  Maybe it was just a film about devil worshipers when it was released back in the sixties.  However, watching it now, there’s a secondary level of ‘horror’ written into it – namely how women are both portrayed and treated.

Mia Farrow plays the titular ‘Rosemary’ as she’s basically pushed, pulled, ordered and generally manhandled through both her attempts to get pregnant and the subsequent pregnancy itself.  If this film doesn’t bring a shudder down most women’s spines at how little control the central protagonist gets in her life and body then nothing the devil himself will.

But, of course, speaking of Beelzebub, he does do his best to make an appearance and generally make things even worse for our helpless heroine.  The devil-worshipping scenes are pretty dark and Roman Polanski’s chilling direction gives the whole film a clinical and bleak feel to it.

‘Rosemary’s Baby’ is still as watchable today (and, of course, deeply horrific and disturbing) as it was all those years ago.  It doesn’t need gallons of fake blood or computer-generated effects to be scary.  Everything here feels a little too real and is a credit to how films can be made.  Don’t expect a rollercoaster ride of scares and guts – it’s much too ‘foreboding’ to succumb to anything so cheap and easy.  If you’re in the mood for something horrible, dark with an every-increasing sense of dread then give this one a watch before it gets remade with too many special effects and no soul (and I’m not counting the ‘Astronaut’s Wife’ in that!).

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