#199 Rosemary's Baby

 Rosemary Woodhouse: Witches... All of them witches! 

This film has to be one of my favorite scary movies, I love older horror because its not all about how much blood and gore we can show you or outrageous scenarios we can put our victims in it's all about the story. The who, what, and most importantly the WHY. Rosemary's Baby and other horror films of the past put the emphasis on the story and each character has a part to play. There is much more depth, in my opinion, to movies of this type. So lets give a brief summary: the movie is about a woman and her husband, who is an actor, and they are expecting a child. They move into a new apartment and everything seems to get a little strange from there. What Rosemary doesn't realize is that the plot against her started long before the move or even her pregnancy. She imagines that the neighbors are the sinister "witches" out to steal her baby, now for those of you who haven't seen I won't spoil what is really going on but suffice it to say that the end will be a bit shocking. The film poses a lot of questions, what is the price of success? and how strong is a mother's bond? to name a few. What I really love about it though are some of the supporting characters Hutch, Maurice Evans, who plays Rosemary's loyal old friend, he is charming and likable, although his part is small his role provides a lot of useful information and he is really the one great defender of Rosemary. I have so much love for Hutch and everything he does for Rosemary. The Castevets ( Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer) are the characters you love to hate. They play the sinister neighbors of Rosemary and her husband Guy and are damn good at it! At first they manage to insert themselves into Rosemary's life pretty easily as just an eccentric lonely old couple but as time goes on their motives begin to be revealed and by the end they seem (at least to me) to even look different then they did in the beginning, more evil and more maniacal. Guy Woodhouse ( John Cassevetes) is also an interesting character, and by that I mean he is a total d-bag. His betrayal of Rosemary is by far the worst thing I have ever seen done to another human being. And his behavior throughout the film is extremely cowardly. Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow) has the most complex and unpredictable characters of the film. She goes through this whole ordeal almost entirely alone and learns who she can and cannot trust throughout the film. And ultimately has to decide what being a mother means to her in an unconventional situation.

Now let me hit you with some facts: Rosemary's Baby is a 1968 American horror film written and directed by Roman Polanski, based on the bestselling 1967 novel Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin. The cast includes Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Maurice Evans, Sidney Blackmer, and Charles Grodin. The American Film Institute ranked the film 9th in their 100 Years…100 Thrills list. And a scene from the movie was ranked #23 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments. 

So watch it!