Rosemary’s Baby (1968) 2 x DVD9 and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

Roman Polanski's (Carnage; The Pianist; Chinatown) 1968 Hollywood debut Rosemary's Baby introduced the already established European director of such psychological dramas as Repulsion to an American market with a similar journey through a woman's madness. This time around, however, the journey would take on more supernatural leanings, and Rosemary's Baby, based on the novel by Ira Levin, would also lead the way for the horror/thrillers of the 1970s such as The Exorcist and The Omen.

Starring a waifish Mia Farrow straight from her Peyton Place role in the titular role as Rosemary, the film follows the Woodhouses, Guy (John Cassavetes; A Woman Under the Influence) and Rosemary as they move into a new apartment in Manhattan, the historic building carrying a long history of gruesome deaths. Their nosy elderly neighbors inveigle their way into the Woodhouse's lives. When Rosemary becomes pregnant – the implication being that Rosemary has been raped by the devil himself as we see in an earlier nightmare sequence – Rosemary becomes increasingly suspicious about her neighbors, her doctor, and even her husband, suspecting they want to steal her baby and use it for satanic rituals.

What makes Rosemary's Baby so effective, however, is the fact that the film's focus is rarely on anything supernatural. As a viewer we are forced to question right up to the very end whether Farrow's character Rosemary is truly being targeted by supernatural forces, or if she is just a woman knocked of center by her new circumstances and in the midst of a breakdown. Polanski, already a master at such topics by this time, builds the tension masterfully through his use of the camera, the eerie jazz-inspired score from Krzysztof Komeda, and a breakout performance from Farrow herself.
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