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Rosemary's Baby


Rosemary's Baby

(Roman Polanski)




I'm struggling with the way the husband has been depicted here. I went into the film knowing only one thing. Rosemary has a baby and it's the devil's spawn. That's about it. So I was shocked when they visually depicted the husband having his hand in the "occult". I'm wondering why they didn't have his involvement more of a mystery. Is he involved? Does he not know? Is she safe with him? Is that mystery more unsettling than knowing that he is involved? I'll admit, that knowing he had a hand in it really leaves her all alone. Her closest relationship is a fraud, but I think Polanski could have played with the audience a bit here in regards to his character's intentions.

I knew that the neighbours would be in on it as well as the necklace being part of the witchcraft. Elements that I wonder if they were suppose to come as a surprise when they were revealed. Rosemary's Baby lacks surprise. I felt like I knew exactly where it was going at every turn. People are not who they seem, trying to take care of the baby, even the other doctor's call to the husband was no surprise. I thought that the film would offer something more, but much to my disappointment, it doesn't.

I wanted Rosemary to really descend into madness. I wanted this devil spawn to really take a toll on her. Aside from being thin and some pains here and there...nothing. I guess having the devil's seed inside you isn't that bad. Another missed opportunity from Polanski here in my opinion. I really hated how gullible and trusting she was. She seemed too nice and too naive for everything. Even when she started to suspect things, she didn't end up putting up much of a fight.

What the film did right? Well, right after she started to suspect things is when the film turned around for me. It finally got interesting, it was finally going somewhere and Polanksi seemed to have more interest in the subject matter. Maybe the build up to everything didn't interest me or that Polanksi took a bit too long to get to where I wanted the story to go, but to me the second half is a lot better than the first.

I decided to read the back of the DVD case after the film was done. It started off by calling the film the greatest horror film ever made...then went on to say that the husband made a deal with the devil for his career. So I suppose the husband being involved isn't suppose to be that big of a deal, but the greatest horror film of all time? I think not.