Rosemary’s Baby / 1968
I had heard of the title of this movie only in passing perhaps once or twice in my life and never really knew what it was about at all until finally seeing it this week for our annual Halloween movie marathon.
What to say except that it’s a masterpiece of filmmaking and telling not showing. It’s an early horror movie without gore, without jump scares, and instead removes the character’s decision-making skills and positions it squarely against the patriarchy of the time. A male dominated world and household robs Rosemary of every decision she could make and thus infantilizes her to the point where when she finally does act on her own agency and gets a short haircut she’s told it’s ugly and the worst decision she’s made.
I still am curious, though, as to why the cult and Satan chose her to have his child? She’s not remarkable and maybe that’s why, because she was easy to manipulate, and perhaps goes to show that the innocence that people carry may actually be their undoing. The world of the 60′s had jerked itself out of the squeaky-clean veneered 50′s and experimented with new ideas and ways of life that made the old way of doing things like a child-proof lock.
And yet, in the end, despite all that happens to Rosemary, she finds a little happiness is knowing she brought in a life to this world. For the first time it would seem that she accomplished something, something that only she could do, and no one was taking it away from her this time, even if it was the Antichrist.