Review #175: Rosemary's Baby (1968)

This review was originally written in 2022.

Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #30: Rosemary's Baby (1968)

This was the second time I've seen Rosemary's Baby, and the first time I watched it I really didn't care for it. There's no denying: this movie is a fairly slow burn, a lot of the scenes don't necessarily contribute to the plot in a way that couldn't have been gotten across in less time, and to anyone with an ounce of modern genre savviness, it's pretty clear very early on what's happening and most of the rest of the film feels kind of superfluous as a result. And this isn't exactly a short movie- over two hours (and supposedly the first cut of the film was double that!)- so I can't really blame myself for having that reaction.

This time around, though, I actually really liked it! It's got a big problem to hold against it (I'll talk about that in a moment) but overall the characters are all consistent and likable, the scenes themselves move along at a nice clip and the dialogue works really well, and the movie does a fantastic job of setting up the atmosphere and the paranoia that the main character is meant to be feeling. I very much enjoyed it this time around, so it might have just been a matter of mistaken expectations when I went in the first time.

That all being said... the expectations are kind of what this movie lives or dies by. Looking back on it with modern sensibilities, after having seen a hundred other movies with similar plot progressions and similar subject matters, this movie ends in a straight line when I was really, really expecting a turn. We spend a solid 120 minutes watching this 60s-era housewife dreaming of having a baby with her husband in their new home, we watch as it seems like the people around her start to take on a sinister light as everything starts suspiciously going her way with everyone else's cult-like fingers stirring the pot, and she starts getting more and more deranged as she becomes clued in to the nefarious dealings she thinks are going on in the background. While I don't think I would have put it into these words the first time I saw the film, this time I had an incredibly strong feeling that this movie might be the perfect metaphor for the changes that a woman is likely to go through when having her first child- constantly worrying that something might be wrong, second-guessing her own judgment as well as the judgment of her doctor, having suspicions of untruthfulness and unfaithfulness when her partner doesn't seem to be looking at her the same way, feeling body dysmorphia from the changes she's going through, and in the unfortunate event that she might miscarry, the fear and projection that might cause her to think that someone or something is to blame for the tragedy. It REALLY felt like this movie was gearing up for the paranoia to be completely unfounded, subverting what seemed to have been shoved right in our faces for the entire runtime.

But, in the end, nothing is subverted. There IS an evil cult that impregnated her with the devil's child. They DID steal the baby once it was born. All of her suspicions were 100% accurate, even when she sounded like a lunatic. Nowadays, this movie could be remade and done exactly the same and it would be praised for subverting the expected subversion; but considering this film is so old, it wasn't subverting anything, it was creating the trope that later movies would try so hard to subvert. That's not something that Rosemary's Baby can be blamed for, but I would be lying if I said watching it today I felt satisfied by the conclusion when it neither zigs nor zags, but just goes straight to the destination it said it was going to. The final scene felt like an over-the-top parody of modern horror twists, when it was nothing of the sort.

But if I can just get myself to recognize it for what it is, this is a fantastic film that is enjoyable from beginning to end even with its slow pace.

Overall Rating: 9/10 Too-Friendly Neighbors

Fun Anecdote: About ten years ago, my wife entered a contest with a local comedy troupe to come up with the best B-Movie Horror Title. She won, with "Rosemary's Baby Daddy". The prize? Two tickets to see Tracy Morgan at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, where the comedian went on an anti-gay tirade that he later apologized for. Fun stuff!