Home :: DVD :: Horror :: Cult Classics  

Classic Horror & Monsters
Cult Classics

Frighteningly Funny
General
Series & Sequels
Slasher Flicks
Teen Terror
Television
Things That Go Bump
Rosemary's Baby

Rosemary's Baby

List Price: $14.98
Your Price: $11.98
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 4 .. 17 >>

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Quite Possibly The Greatest Horror Movie Ever Made
Review: The film is not in your face. In fact, Roman Polanski's visionary work is more subdued than many films at this time. But it is that tameness, and peace that makes the mood of this movie so uncomfortable. Everything is fine, only the opposite. The film starts slow enough, a young couple moving in together, trying to have a baby. While they come at the mercy of strange happenings. Whether it be Rosemary's friend 'jumping' to her death. Or it be her somewhat too nice neighbors. You begin to see the world through the eyes of Rosemary, and you grow terrified along with her. While the sheer horror really comes at the end, when we realize how easy evil can seduce us, the movie stays chilling until the last frame. While movies like Nightmare on Elm Street and The Thing try to capture a horrible beast in his most frightening stage, this movie teaches us that the scariest things in life may be the people we trust the most. This truly is Polanski's best work, and it has survived the test of time.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Horror as Art... a masterpiece classic
Review: Sometimes a film comes along that redeems the art form that is cinema, most definitely, Rosemary's Baby is one of those films.

In the film version of Ira Levin's impressive modern gothic, the cinematic content already apparent in the novel is the priority, the auteur understands what is important is not the story as it is seen on paper, but the story as it is told visually. Polanski proves in this film that when he is on top there is none greater.

Polanski takes a sunny Manhattan apartment and in it he creates a sense of claustrophobic atmosphere, and understands both cinematography and the audience so well that he uses a barrage of imagery to play the audience like a violin creating a response of pure terror. However, the amazing thing about this film is that it does even the little things so well.

For example, this film contains the best dream sequences I've ever seen. True, Hitchcock created some of the most fascinating and artisitc dream sequences visually, but none of them came nearly as close to creating what the dream state is truly like. -- And Hitch was really impressed when he saw this one!

Many directors lack a sense of daring, they are so worried about appeasing the audience that they cease to challenge them. Polanski challenges the audience ten times a frame, he creates outrage by allowing chaos to reign, and displays complete disregard for structure/order as the primary priority.

Polanski has always struck me as a balance between a director of the French New Wave style and a student of Hitchcock which supplies him with an amazing combination of freedom and precision. The performances in this film are outstanding all around. Polanski to me is one of the few directors who is completely fearless when it comes to taking risks.

I don't believe I've ever seen another director who possesses and expresses such dual qualities so effortlessly, and what to say of the cast? He ellicits a wonderful, memorable performance by Mia Farrow, who was then practically (no pun intended) a virgin of films, and jumped straight into history.

Polanski feels no obligation to tradition, but simultaneously has an enormous amount of respect for the masters who came before him. There is also a great balance between the fantastic and the realistic in this film, drawing a very thin line between both, and forcing the audience to question the fantastic realities and the realistic fantasies.

They say that the great artists know the rules, but can get away with breaking them because they realize that it is something far beyond rules that makes their medium what it is, and I can think of few filmmaker's who exemplify this to same extent as Roman Polanski.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Art Of Haunting Cinema
Review: Roman Polanski's 1968 "Rosemary's Baby" was his first American film debut. He had already directed a film based on another book by Ira Levin that starred French actress Catherine Deneuve. Ira Levin's novel was a best selling work of horror in the late sixties. The film, for the most part, is true to the book and it's very likely fans of Ira Levin's novel were satisfied with the film adaptation. Roman Polanski, Polish-born, was the right director for the film. His life story is tinged with loss and sorrow that could easily translate into cinema with biting cynicism and horror. A young Mia Farrow who might have been appearing in her film debut, plays the title heroine Rosemary Woodhouse and John Cassavetes plays her husband Guy Woodhouse. On DVD, this film, which may appear dated and even old fashioned to many modern horror fans, appears appropriately chilling and eerie, especially for its use of subtlety which is lost in the wake of today's horror. The musical score is jazz-like but dramatic and scary. The New York City atmosphere, the 60's milieu and the credible and convincing performances by all the actors makes this novel extremely haunting and intense, even if there is no blood or gore. The real meat of this film is that the horror is invisible, it's simply there, acting as normally as the normal-behaving people. The most profound fears of human imagination, the Devil, is a danger and horror not outside but inside- as close to home as possible- inside Rosemary's womb. The ending seems to be also the climax. Rosemary finally realizes that the baby she gave birth to is the son of Satan, the Anti-Christ and though she is horrified, her mother's love and the experience of having carried him through pregnancy, in short, her maternal instincts, is to care for the child after all. She rocks the black cradle over which an upside crucifix hangs and decides to "mother" the monster.

Guy and Rosemary Woodhouse move into an old apartment complex in New York City (the location was shot in the same area where John Lennon was shot and killed. The owners of the apartment are an elderly couple who give off eccentric vibes. A young woman who was living in the apartment commits suicide by throwing herself out the window (she had been the first woman the Satanic couple wanted to give birth to the Devi's baby). The old apartment has been the sight of many frightening going-ons, including murders and satanic rituals. The old couple decide they want Rosemary to have the Devil's child. They make a deal with Guy, who aspires to be a famous and wealthy actor. Guy will have his fame and fortune but in return his wife Rosemary must have the Devil's child. After being drugged by a dessert, Rosemary falls into a comma-like sleep in which she dreams she is on a boat with leisurely passangers, including John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy, the Presidential couple. With her being numb, she is unaware that the evil couple have conjured up Satan to impregnate her. Later, when she is pregnant, she is given strange concoctions to make sure the baby will be born healthily and she is taken to a doctor who also happens to be in on the cult. Rosemary is pale and anorexic-looking and realizes something is wrong.

The pregnancy is the slow build up to the dark finale. Rosemary has not quite grasped the true situation. Also, through the dialogue and the behavior of the people around her, the film seems to want to trick you into thinking that Rosemary is merely hysterical and imagining things as a result of a complicated pregnancy. But we know well that she is not. Finally, she does become aware that the neighboors are witches and devil worshippers and that she and her baby are in danger, thanks mostly in part by a book and anagram puzzle that a friend provided after his death. Although she tries to escape, she is trapped in the apartment and gives birth to the baby with the assistance of the witches. She is frightened in the finale to realize that she has indeed delivered the Anti-Christ into the world.

For Roman Polanski, this 1968 film proved to be ironically true. About a year later, his wife Sharon Tate was brutally killed. Sharon Tate was pregnant with Polanki's baby at the time. The Marilyn Manson cult seem to parallel the coven in the movie. Roman Polanski's parents had also died in Nazi concentration camps. This film seemed suited for him to direct because of it's dark message- that evil is triumphant and that God is dead, the very essence of fear. It is a film that tame as it is, can really scare you and get under you're skin. This haunting film inspired other cinematic horror legends which would become famous in the next decade of the 70's- The Exorcist and the Omen Series. The film won best screenplay adaptation from a novel and Ruth Gordon as Best Supporting Actress.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Long and boring
Review: I can summarize why I didn't like this movie pretty quickly. It was long and boring, and the antichrist wasn't born until about the end of the movie, and then it was over. Nothing really interesting really happened. I felt like it was a waste of time. If you want a good movie about the incarnation of the antichrist, what The Omen, it's much more worth the time.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Polanski's Understated, Skillful Tour De Force
Review: The very elements that made "Rosemary's Baby" such an epic of understated suspense, escalating terror and subtle intrigue are the qualities that substantially undermine the DVD (unless you haven't seen the movie previously). I first saw this film many, many years ago and was nearly catatonic with fear at Polanski's masterful tale. It was certainly the director's finest hour as a filmmaker. However, I found my second viewing (via the newly-released DVD) somewhat of a letdown. I already knew the storyline, so the effects of Polanski's singular talents were significantly muted this time around. What DOES make this DVD worth the price of admission, though, are the extra features: 1) Interviews with Polanski, Richard Sylbert and Bob Evans; and 2) a "making of" featurette that delightfully showcases the warm and friendly rapport enjoyed by the director and Mia Farrow (Rosemary). The movie was filmed in the waning days of the famous "Summer of Love" in 1967, and the era's innocence and exuberance are sweetly captured here. Polanski's wondrously complex and contradictory personality is apparent - as is his childlike zeal for his craft. (Robert Towne ("Chinatown") has called him a "maddening delight" - and that's an apt depiction.) All in all, "Baby" was the work that justifiably propelled Polanski into the limelight - and it remains his most fully realized work.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: CHILLING!!!
Review: This was one of the most creepy movies i've EVER SEEN!!! I reccomend it highly!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: this deserves ten stars
Review: i was always curious about this film but i never checked it out. then finally i rented it. this really is an entertaining film. the acting is great. mia farrow plays rosemary like no one else could've.(tuesday weld and supposedly jane fonda were wanted for the part). ruth gordon as the painfully annoying neighbor is outstanding. but back to the movie. it was scary, disturbing, and i liked the mystery of trying to figure out exactly what was happening to rosemary. and what would happen to the baby. the ending is definitely not the ending i was expecting but still it was effective and i loved all the events which led up to the climatic moment when rosemary discovers the truth. i dont want to be too detailed for those who have not seen the film should have something to look forward to. the scenery and the cinematography are also outstanding. this film is horror at its best without the knife-welding maniac and dumb teenagers. this is truly one of the greatest films ever made.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: ELECTRIFYING PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER
Review: This Polanski gem is quite easily one of the finest horror movies in the history of cinema and I cannot recommend it highly enough!

While not a particularly bloody movie as others in the Horror genre, its devilishly clever writing and screenplay make sure that it maintains an eerily sinister atmosphere throughout. The nightmare sequences will lurk in your memory for a while.

Acting is first-rate all round, but the picture simply wouldn't work without the passionate conviction that Mia Farrow brings to her portrayal. She exudes vulnerability, but also brings so many other subtle but passionate shadings to her characterization that we can never simply pity Rosemary.

Very few movies have been able to mix intense psychological horror, raw emotion and a delicious air of ambiguity with such flair. You're all at once bewildered, scared to death and on the verge of tears.

Grab it if you get a chance, this is a cinematic marvel.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Devil baby
Review: It was long and took a while to get to the point of the movie , but it was Very GOOD . I wish someone in 2004 would redoit though . With the special effects now it would be even better .
They really could of did more w/ the ending showed the whole "baby " .

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: chilling both literally and metaphorically
Review: When the story begins, Rosemary and her husband are leading a happily unconventional life -- he's an artist, creative and free-spirited, and Rosemary's the picture of a young, modern woman who wants to determine her own life. What happens as the story unfolds? Her husband becomes more focused on career success and money, spending time with the older crowd (including the marvelous Ruth Gordon) and wanting them to lead a more traditional life. Rosemary still rebels, wanting to spend time with her own friends, not simply follow her obstetrician's orders and even shearing her hair within an inch of her scalp. Basically, this movie asks: Is pregnancy guaranteed to force a woman to live as a housebound, subservient wife and mother? Polanski's answer appears to be yes. I don't personally agree with that answer, but then again, this movie IS about the worst-case scenario. In its own way, "Rosemary's Baby" is as powerfully feminist a film as I've ever seen.


<< 1 2 3 4 .. 17 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates