Rosemary's Baby

1968

Directed By: Roman Polanski

Screenplay By: Roman Polanski

Starring: Mia Farrow; John Cassavetes; Ruth Gordon; Sidney Blackmer; Maurice Evans; Ralph Bellamy

Based On: Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin

Rosemary's Baby is a 1968 American psychological horror film written and directed by Roman Polanski, based on the 1967 novel Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin. The cast features Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans, Ralph Bellamy, Angela Dorian, Clay Tanner, and, in his feature film debut, Charles Grodin. The film chronicles the story of a pregnant woman who suspects an evil cult wants to take her baby for use in their rituals.

Rosemary's Baby deals with themes related to paranoia, women's liberation, Christianity (Catholicism), and the occult. The film earned almost universal acclaim from film critics and won numerous nominations and awards. It is considered a hallmark of art-horror. In 2014 the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

This film is also one of the very few films where nothing scary really ever appears, nothing scary is really ever seen, nothing ever jumps out from behind a wall or is hidden in a closet and startles out a scream from the viewer, and the titular character is never seen on screen. This lack of visual horror is one of the main aspects creating the terror in this film. It's timeless, remains relevant, and its themes are more than universal—they are eternal. And to this day, this film is in my top five of all-time best horror films ever made. What are the others, you ask? If I told you the answer, it might just freak the bajeezes out of you.