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| (Buy Rosemary's Baby Criterion) |
Love it or hate it, the slow moving era of movies still reaches to the depths of fear and comes out charging in a relevant way. Whether you’re watching something that came from the mind of Bava or Argento or you’re watching Rosemary’s Baby, you realize that not every horror movie has to have a baby that’s exploding with violence and gore all over the place. Thank you Peter Jackson, but you will have to take a backseat to t his one, as it is far more emphatic through the reveal than anything produced in the last 10 years, although, there was that one movie about the orphan that turned out to be an older woman, what’s that movie called again? Something about adoption, who cares, who knows, let’s talk about this child molester’s movie…what, he was acquitted? No?
Rosemary’s Baby is indeed a classic for a variety of reasons. It could be the naivety that is portrayed by the main character, coming up pregnant amidst what seems like a very odd backdrop. Each 20 minute interval reveals another piece of the puzzle and as the movie continues through a variety of steps, it’s leading up to something big, and you know what the twist is, but you don’t know how it’s going to be revealed. The knowing, the slow pace, deliberate lines and lots of clues lead you to believe that there is something going awry, and when all is said and done, it is truly revealed that the devil is in the details, the little hands, and the laughter, and the coven of witchcraft that has produced the birth of the devil!
The movie is drawn out, long, boring and fully realized by a true artist. You really get tense because of the way the plot thickens into a cesspool of cool. Regardless of your take on the director, you will get a chill up your spine the way things turn out. The scariest moments aren’t really gorey, they are just moments that you see how society has changed in many ways. The hysterical wife that confides in her doctor, only to get taken to her husband, who is in on it, or how everyone involved is very much part of a cult. The whole movie churns its way through several momentous plot points, none of which deliver quite like the pay off.
All in all, Rosemary’s Baby is an example of an older movie that has some scary ideas. However, when it comes full circle it’s actually a tad on the boring side. I liked the overall artistry, it’s a work of great triumph, but in the canon of scary films, this one is not going to win over modern fans. However, if you’re a mother, father, pregnant, or are going to get pregnant, this presents a whole new level of fear that is definitely as scary today as it ever was before. Roman Polanski outdoes himself with such grace here; you don’t really get the age until you start to realize this was made in the late 60s. Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes do a fine job here, and I’m surprised at how much money this made when released. It’s a long one, so strap in for a game of scrabble!
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