I’ll be the first one to admit that I like scary
movies, but I am definitely not a fan of scary movies that use a lot of blood,
gore, and body parts exploding every ten minutes.
Granted, there are some exceptions. I loved both versions of “Dawn of the Dead”,
and I eventually grew to like and appreciate last week’s topic “Pet Semetary”
(despite the fact that it took me almost a decade to summon up enough courage
to watch it the whole way through). And,
if the film has a decent enough plotline in which the gory scenes make absolute
sense and aren’t just thrown in for shock value, then I am all for it.
The “Scream” series managed to do this well. “Friday the 13th” started off
strong, but got silly towards the end.
And, I don’t even want to discuss “Saw”, “Final Destination”, or any
other movies with the words “Saw” or “Final Destination” in the titles, because
I will not
be diplomatic.
I may be a rare breed here, but I find that the
best scary movies are the ones that don’t have to rely heavily on gore to make
an impact. One of the main reasons why I
loved Alfred Hitchcock movies so much was because of the fact that he used very
little gore in his films (well, aside from the shower scene in “Psycho”), and
instead made some of the best psychological thrillers in the history of cinema.
I think a lot of it also has to do with the
calibre of acting skills that the people demonstrate in the films that can make
or break it. The reason why I tend to
shun some of the most recent horror/thriller films made (within the last ten
years or so) is because the acting is so over-the-top that I dismiss them more
as tragic comedies rather than scary thrillers.
I’m not saying that everyone in the film has to have training at
Julliard or have won an Academy Award, but at the very least make the
performance believable.
Today’s blog entry will be focusing on a film that
is definitely classified as a horror film, and it certainly made audiences
flock to the box office with the expectation of being scared. When it opened up in theatres on June 12,
1968, the film made close to $34 million (which doesn’t sound like a whole lot
until you realize that the totals were based on what the prices were back in
1968). But unlike some of the current
horror flicks that are showcased at the box office, this film did not use a
whole lot of gore to make its point, yet it still remains one of the scariest
films ever made.
The film ended up making “Peyton Place” star Mia Farrow
even more famous, and it was one of the last films Roman Polanski directed
before the tragic slaying of his wife Sharon Tate at the hands of Charles
Manson and his followers.
That movie, of course, is “Rosemary’s Baby”, the
1968 psychological horror film adaptation of Ira Levin’s 1967 bestselling novel,
which in turn was based on the publicity that surrounded the Church of Satan of
Anton LaVey, which had been founded a year before that. The film earned quite a few accolades from
critics at the time, and if you log on the website “Rotten Tomatoes”, you’ll
likely find the film ranks within the 90-100% range on any given day. It was nominated for several awards, and just
take a look at some of the big awards that the film ended up winning.
1 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress (Ruth
Gordon)
1 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress
(Ruth Gordon)
2 David di Donatello Awards for Best Foreign
Actress (Mia Farrow), and Best Foreign Director (Roman Polanksi)
1 French Syndicate of Cinema Critics Award for
Best Foreign Film
2 Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards for Best
Supporting Actor (Sidney Blackmer) and Best Supporting Actress (Ruth Gordon)
(Wow...Ruth Gordon really hit the ball out of the
park with her performance, didn’t she?)
Anyway, aside from Mia Farrow, Ruth Gordon, and
Sidney Blackmer, the film also starred John Cassavetes, Maurice Evans, Ralph
Bellamy, Victoria Vetri, and Charles Grodin.
The movie begins as young, married couple Rosemary
and Guy Woodhouse (Farrow and Cassavetes) move into a 19th century
apartment building in New York City known as the Bramford. They are immediately welcomed with open arms
by their elderly neighbours, Minnie and Roman Castevet (Gordon and Blackmer),
who appear quite harmless in spite of their quirks. Guy is instantly drawn to the elderly couple,
and Rosemary also treated them kindly, even though she was a bit guarded
towards them.
While Guy goes out in the city to try and land
acting jobs, Rosemary stays at home to become a housewife, and one particular
day, she meets a young woman in the laundry room named Terry Gionoffrio (Vetri)
who sings the praises of the Castevets.
She looked to the Castevets as surrogate grandparents who helped her get
off the streets, and who helped her overcome a drug addiction. Rosemary is drawn to a pendant that Terry is
wearing, and remarked on the beauty of it, despite its strange smell. But the pendant is Terry’s prized possession,
as it was given to her by the Castevets.
One night, Rosemary and Guy are both stunned to
hear all sorts of commotion going on down on the street, and even more shocked
to learn that Terry committed suicide, throwing herself out the seventh story
window of the Castevet apartment. Minnie
and Roman are absolutely devastated by Terry’s death, and they are obviously
very shaken, but Rosemary comforts both of them by telling them what Terry told
her.
A few days after Terry’s death, Rosemary and Guy
are invited to the Castevet apartment by Minnie for dinner. Although Rosemary is reluctant to go at
first, the couple decide to attend anyway, where Minnie gives Rosemary Terry’s
pendant for her to wear. Minnie explains
that the strange smell is caused by the plant root inside the pendant, “tannis
root”, and that the pendant would be a good luck charm for Rosemary. Rosemary is still a bit hesitant of the
couple, but accepts the gift in good will.
Things start happening to the Woodhouses shortly
after that dinner. Guy ends up getting a
break in a play after the lead actor who originally had the part loses his
vision in a rather bizarre way. And, Guy
sees this as a sign that he and Rosemary should try for the child that they
have always wanted to have together.
Rosemary agrees, and on the night that the couple plan to conceive their
child, Minnie ends up bringing over a chocolate mousse dessert for both of
them. But unfortunately for Rosemary,
her dessert has a bit of a strange aftertaste, and she can only stomach a few
mouthfuls of it before deciding that she can’t stand eating another bite.
That night, Rosemary ends up having a rather
frightening and horrible dream where she is surrounded by a bunch of naked
people (all tenants of the apartment building, including the Castevets) who
stand around and watch as she is repeatedly attacked by a demonic
presence. It is a scene so shocking that
I can’t post it on here, but take my
word for it, it’s probably one of the most disturbing scenes in the whole
movie. It’s so disturbing for Rosemary
that at some point, she exclaims that she is no longer in a dream and that it
is really happening. She wakes up with
scratches all over her body, and she is wondering what happened. Guy tells Rosemary that when he saw that she
was unconscious (from the dream), he was disappointed because he really wanted
to conceive a child with her that night, so he made love to her while she was
out cold.
What a prince, huh?
Sure enough, Rosemary discovers that she is
pregnant shortly after that horrible event...the due date being in June of
1966...or...6/66. The symbolism is just oozing out of this
picture, isn’t it? And, within the first
few months of the pregnancy, Rosemary seems to exhibit some rather...odd
symptoms. She actually loses weight
instead of gains it, her skin becomes increasingly pale, and her favourite food
craving happens to be raw meat! On top
of all that, she doesn’t even get to go to the doctor that she wanted to go to
during the pregnancy, with the Castevets insisting that Rosemary have monthly
check-ups with a doctor they have recommended, one Dr. Abraham Sapirstein
(Bellamy).
Rosemary’s friend Hutch (Evans) notices the
negative changes that have happened as a result of her pregnancy and he is
incredibly disturbed to hear that Rosemary is drinking a cocktail that is
enriched with tannis root. He tries to
do some research on the root so he can warn Rosemary, but just before he can he
develops a strange illness and falls into a coma. He briefly comes out of the coma long enough
to tell a doctor that he left a book about witchcraft on his desk, and that he
wants Rosemary to have it before passing away.
One of Hutch’s friends makes sure that Rosemary gets the book at his
funeral, and when Rosemary examines it, she finds a message in Hutch’s
handwriting that reads the following. “The
name is an anagram”.
And, that’s where I plan to end this look back at
Rosemary’s Baby, because if I go any further, I’ll spoil the surprise
ending. And we wouldn’t want that, would
we?
Instead, here’s a bit of trivia surrounding the
making of this film.
-
Initially, the role of Rosemary
Woodhouse was intended for Tuesday Weld or Sharon Tate to play.
-
Patty Duke was also briefly considered
for the role of Rosemary, but was instead given the role in the 1976 made for
television sequel “Look What’s Happened to Rosemary’s Baby”.
-
Mia Farrow was married to Frank
Sinatra at the time she accepted the role of Rosemary. It would be this role that would later be the
catalyst to the marriage breaking up, with Sinatra filing for divorce while Mia
was filming the movie, even having somebody serve her the papers while she was
filming a pivotal scene for the film!
-
Robert Redford and Jack Nicholson were
both considered for the role of Guy Woodhouse.
-
You know the scene in the movie where
Rosemary calls the newly blind actor whose part Guy took over in that
play? The voice belonged to Tony
Curtis! In fact, Mia Farrow was not
informed of who the voice would be reading the lines of the actor in order for
Polanski to get a more genuine reaction from Mia.
-
In the opening scenes of “Rosemary’s
Baby”, Rosemary’s long hair was actually a wig that was fashioned by Sydney
Ghilaroff. When the wig was removed, it revealed
the incredibly short Vidal Sassoon cut that made headlines after Farrow chopped
off her signature long locks during filming of “Peyton Place”.
-
Ruth Gordon was the only actress to
reprise her role in the 1976 sequel.
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