“Rosemary’s Baby” is a great Halloween film.
The 1968 psychological horror film has a spooky atmosphere, and some of its best sequences remain frightening to this day. However, it sadly remains relevant in its portrait of misogyny and the lengths to which people will go to control women.
This movie is about a young woman named Rosemary who is married to an actor named Guy. They move into a old, gothic apartment building down the hall from a genial yet annoying older couple named Roman and Minnie.
Rosemary desperately wants to have a baby, and she is soon pregnant. But she starts to suspect her neighbors and her husband have made some sort of mysterious and supernatural pact.
One of my favorite things about this movie is its visual style. Many scenes take place in one shot, with the camera expertly moving to follow the characters. One under-sung long take is a static shot early in the film that shows Rosemary and Guy undressing. It helps set a realistic tone that makes the horror to come all the more shocking.
Another thing that helps set the initial, realistic tone is the filmmakers’ use of real New York City locations. One story has it that the director, Roman Polanski, had actor Mia Farrow walk in front of actual traffic for a sequence. That sequence, as well as several others, gives the film a kinetic charge that could not be achieved on Hollywood sound stages.
This film is great to watch around Halloween because of its increasingly creepy nature. It is not as gory or as reliant on jump scares as recent horror films, but it does achieve some great frightening moments through its eerie score and supernatural situations. Rosemary’s paranoia becomes infectious as the film reaches its chilling conclusion.
Films about the supernatural can often use their more fantastical features as metaphors for elements in society. “Rosemary’s Baby” follows in this tradition, as it uses the antagonists’ efforts to control Rosemary to comment on how society treats women. A lot of the troubles that befall Rosemary are still issues in our society.
Guy often gaslights Rosemary, and his insults about her haircut feel petty. In one sequence, Rosemary is drugged and raped by a supernatural force. Almost every man that she trusts, aside from her friend Hutch, betrays her in some way.
These sequences of gendered horror feel especially pertinent in a year where there is audio of a presidential candidate bragging about his ability to get away with grabbing women by their genitals. It’s a reminder that misogyny is just as scary as the film’s more supernatural elements.
“Rosemary’s Baby” is a frightening film that is perfect for the Halloween season. Its cinematography and mastery of tone show that it is more ambitious than your average horror film. Its disturbing edge will haunt you long after you finish watching it.
Jesse Pasternack
jpastern@indiana.edu
@jessepasternack
