Roman Polanski’s 1968 horror film brought Satan to the modern era and installed him in Central Park West. With a cast including Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes and Ruth Gordon, Rosemary’s Baby was a tale of paranoia, motherhood and the Antichrist, as an actor sells his wife’s body to Satan for a chance at success.
Rather than spending time on the trials and tribulations of Cassavetes, Polanski focuses instead on the victim, the mother who begins to believe that she has been raped and impregnated by Satan himself. Much of the horror is psychological: is Rosemary paranoid, slowly going insane? Or is she about to be mother to the Antichrist?
An absurd sense of humor permeates Rosemary’s Baby, making it more unnerving than a serious Satan film. Polanski uses caricatures and jokes that cut through the more horrifying moments. The final scene possesses a sense of triumph, as Rosemary finally casts off everyone who has victimized her and sits down beside her child. It is a strange triumph, but one which the film dwells on.
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