TotalTelly.co.uk

Devoted to Popular, Cult and Retro TV

Rosemary's Baby [1968]


RRP: £12.99
Our Price: £4.98 (subject to change)

Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

For Rosemary’s Baby, his modern horror tale about Satanic worship and a pregnant woman’s decline into madness, Roman Polanski moves from the traditional monolithic mansions of Gothic flicks to an apartment building in New York City. Based on Ira Levin’s novel, the story concerns Rosemary (Mia Farrow) and Guy Woodhouse who find the apartment of their dreams in a luxurious complex in Manhattan. Soon after moving in and making friends with a group of elderly neighbours, Guy’s career takes off and Rosemary discovers she is pregnant. Their happiness seems complete. But gradually Rosemary begins to sense that something is wrong with this baby, and slowly and surely her life begins to unravel.

Polanski uses such subtle means to build up the sense of preternatural disquiet that initially you suspect Rosemary’s prenatal paranoia to be a figment of her imagination. But the guilty parties and their demonic plan to make Rosemary the receptacle of their master’s child are eventually revealed and, as Rosemary looses her grip on reality, she realises that no one can be trusted. The performances are excellent throughout; Farrow as the young wife is so fragile that you wonder how she made it unscathed to adulthood and John Cassavetes is horrifyingly duplicitous as her husband Guy. But the real star is Polanski’s masterful direction. The mood is at the same time oppressive and hysterical with the mounting terror coming from the situation and gradually unravelling plot rather than any schlock horror moments.

On the DVD: the Dolby 5.1 soundtrack shows off Christopher Komeda’s eerie "lullaby" score to it’s haunting best. The film is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and is relatively free of speckle and dust, some scenes filmed in low light are slightly grainier but this adds to the oppressive tension that Polanski is building up in the film. In terms of extras there is a 20-minute "making of" feature from 1968 and retrospective interviews with Polanski, production designer Richard Sylbert and producer Robert Evans. --Kristen Bowditch


A Timeless Horror Classic
Review date: 2008-10-26 Rating: 10 out of 10

'Rosemary's Baby' is without doubt Roman Polanski's best movie.
Still after fourty years this film scares me. Not in the kind of gruesome (torture-porn) kind of way that the Saw franchise do, but in a deeply psychological way, in the spirit of all the great twentieth century horror films. Rosemary (Mia Farrow) is the young married woman who's just moving into an upstate New York appartment block with her husband, actor Guy (John Cassavetes). The pair soon get to know their neighbours (mainly) Minnie Castevet & her husband Roman Castevet (Sidney Blackmer).
Rosemary's baby is a very scary film, not gruesome (sometimes mildly explicit) but it has that claustrophobic eery feeling & after the first half of the film the feeling that no one can be trusted & that the world is conspring against Rosemary is very apparent.
The story is set into motion when Guy announces to a broody Rosemary that he wishes to have a baby. Which leads to probably the only prorper 'horror' scene in the film.
The performances in the movie are phenomenal, particularly that of Ruth Gordon, who plays the nosy meddling neighbour (she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance). Mia Farrow is also very convincing as Rosemary, the trapped individual whose intentions are always good.
A stupendous film that will give the viewer a taste of a good horror movie, before the directors of this genre got lazy & decided to just give B list actors a vague & undeveloped plot line, just to accomodate 'torture-porn' (which I do like, but it doesn't compare to the creepiness & subtlety of a horror movie like this.)
I would recommend this movie to all fans of Alfred Hitchcock, other works of Roman Polanski & Stanley Kubrick.
In conclusion a great film, everything is right about this, a true horror great that would be in at least the top five best horror pictures of all time.

Similar Products

Reviews


Creepy, especially as it has a ring of truth
Review date: 2008-03-21 Rating: 10 out of 10

I discovered that this film is loosely part of a Roman Polanski trilogy about the horrors of appartment/city living. Oh how true. I lived in an enormous flat in Westbourne Terrace in London and this film reminded me of it. I also stayed in the Chelsea Hotel in New York recently, and that had a bit of the same feel as the Dakota. Se7en was another film which picked up on the emotional disturbances of city life.

When there are lots of other lives going on around you, you can't help but feel lonely and a little scared. Rosemary is in a very vulnerable position when she gets pregnant. The film builds her sense of paranoia very gradually, which gives you the chill.

I was thinking that witchcraft and paranoia are related. If you are in an interpersonal situation where you feel misunderstood, the 'group' you're fighting against can use very subtle ways to undermine your sense of what's right and what's wrong. Those people who should be on your side, turn out not to be. This film explores those feelings.

Ruth Gordon is delightfully spooky. Mia Farrow is beautiful and brilliant. Having watched Chinatown recently, I never realized that Polanski was such a giant in the cinema. I loved this film and I've signed up to get the others in the trilogy.

One of my favorites
Review date: 2008-01-01 Rating: 10 out of 10

I always loved this film. It was almost perfect in every way. My Grandma used to remind me of Ruth Gordon, so I just adored Ruth Gordon. Here she was her New York yenta-ish self, but a Satanist, too. This is exactly why the film works so well. We all get scared of monsters and psychopaths running around with knives. In this movie, though, the villians are are New York yenta and her intellectual husband.

This does follow Ira Levin's excellent novel. Mia Farrow is perfect as gentle, almost timid Rosemary. The entire cast is wonderful.

I remember watching this movie as a child, and I'm almost certain that the ending here is changed. When Rosemary enters the neighbor's apartment with her knife, and goes over to the bassinet, then gasps in horror, there used to be a superimposed image of cat-like eyes while Rosemary screams, "What have you done to his eyes?" That really worked well, but it's gone here, or at least on the dvd I watched recently.

All in all, an excellent movie.

By the way, several years ago I was in the bookstore and came upon Ira Levin's sequel to this, "The Son of Rosemary". UGH! This is the most horrible novel EVER. Well, probably not ever, but definitely up there. What a disappointment that was!

Great 1960s horror classic!
Review date: 2007-12-22 Rating: 10 out of 10

'Rosemary's Baby' is an absorbing film with great performances from all its cast.

Whilst never a fan of Mia Farow, one cannot take away from her the utter convincing role she plays in this. This was one of two films where Farrow made a lasting impression; the other being just three years later in the British thriller from 1971: 'Blind Terror' where she starred alongside Paul Nicholas and Norman Eshley.

Ruth Gordon was to co-star in this, an actress who also starred in a subsequent masterpiece just a year later in 1969: 'What Ever Happened To Aunt Alice' alongside Geraldine Page.

The most clever part of this movie is that most of what could be going on is left to the imagination - even to the look of the baby that the viewer never get to see! There's something to be said for not revealing all which most movies these days tend to do. Very similar to the theme to 'Fright' from 1971 starring Susan George; this has a very haunting theme score-type lullaby which lingers on, long after the movie has ended.

Definitely a 1960s classic!

The movie that had caused the fall of Hammer British Horror in the late 60s
Review date: 2006-10-28 Rating: 10 out of 10

yes it was! The director Roman Polanski tried to integrate some old horror flicks like a Gothic satanic worship, an ancient rite along with a modern place and era like New York city.
The story of Rosemary Baby is much more interresting than any of Hammer British gothic horror movies in the late 60s. This one is a real thriller, suspense and mystery, because one cannot catch exactly, why the Rosemary's pregnancy has been betrayed by her own husband ?

Mia Farrow was very succesfull to play innocent girl Rosemary. This film was a huge success in the late of 60's, which caused slowly the fall of old fashioned Hammer british horror productions.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Ruth Gordon
John Cassavetes
Mia Farrow
Sidney Blackmer
Maurice Evans

Creators:
Mia Farrow (Primary Contributor)
John Cassavetes (Primary Contributor)
William A. Fraker (Cinematographer)
Roman Polanski (Writer)
Bob Wyman (Editor)
Sam O'Steen (Editor)
Dona Holloway (Producer)
William Castle (Producer)
Ira Levin (Writer)

Director(s):

Recording label: Paramount Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: Paramount Home Entertainment
EAN: 5014437810434
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL,
Release date: 2001-11-05
Number of discs: 1
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 131 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1968-06-12
Language: Arabic (Subtitled)
Language: Bulgarian (Subtitled)
Language: Czech (Subtitled)
Language: Danish (Subtitled)
Language: Dutch (Subtitled)
Language: Finnish (Subtitled)
Language: German (Subtitled)
Language: Hungarian (Subtitled)
Language: Icelandic (Subtitled)
Language: Norwegian (Subtitled)
Language: Polish (Subtitled)
Language: Romanian (Subtitled)
Language: Swedish (Subtitled)
Language: Turkish (Subtitled)
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: German (Dubbed)

Add to Cart

© 2006 Darren Hester, DesignsByDarren.com, Some Rights Reserved.
Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional