10/31/06 Rosemary's Baby

Rosemary's Baby (1968), directed by Roman Polanski

watched w/ Leslie (partially); DVD (personal copy) @ home

Since there was no poll for this most gruesome & ghastly of holidays, I took it upon myself to introduce a classic horror movie into my personal collection and my Challenge. I heard from a friend that there were deals going on at the local Best Buy (I will not bow to a corporate sponsorship) for the Halloween season where scary movies were getting slashed at affordable prices in order to get you into the terrified mood for the night of hooliganism and candy. Yes, amidst the slasher flicks of "Friday The 13th," "A Nightmare On Elm Street," and the oh-so-obvious "Halloween" series, stood like a beacon of supernatrual and satanic dischord on the shevles this twisted classic. Rosemary (played by mousey and waifish Mia Farrow) and her new husband Guy (why are people called this...should a woman's name also be Gal?) move into an apartment building in New York, as they try to start their new family and settle down. The couple befirends an elderly couple, Roman and Minnie, as well as a few other tenants in the building...one of which Rosemary has an instant connection with in their youthful homemaker gossip down in the laundry room. However, when that young friend turns up dead by an apparent suicide, strange things begin to become apparent to Rosemary. Upon finding out that she is pregnant, the feelings of joy with her husband soon turn to mystery and suspicion that the elderly couple and other tenants are up to something strange in their interest for her new baby. It is soon found through research that her apartment building is housing for something unholy, and that even her beloved husband could be involved in the satanic offerings the tenants' cult could possess. As she searches deeper into some kind of meaning or answers, she begins to unravel a very dark and scary presence in the building she now calls home. Will she be able to escape what horrific things she has foreseen? Is she simply losing her mind slowly at a vulnarable mental & physical state of new pregnancy? What is the true meaning and purpose of Rosemary's baby?!?! The world may never know...or you may never want to know if you are the faint at heart or stomach. Instead of the usual blood & guts gore that permeate the costumes of this annual pagan ritual Halloween (oh yeah, and the delectable candy that we fill our gullets with)...I thought a little mind warp might do the Challenge audience some good. This is a creepy film, mostly in its delivery so frankly of such vile situations. Polanski's a freak anyway, he's his own little Halloween story.

4 out of 5 stars