It has been another educational weekend for Bethany. This time, I went with a theme of "evil children" since I ended up showing almost all slasher films last time. Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow) and her husband, Guy (John Cassavetes), get a lucky break when they find an open apartment in the historic Bramford building, despite the building's rather gruesome reputation. Their neighbors are a little intrusive but Rosemary writes it off as them just being nosy old people. Everything changes when Rosemary gets pregnant, however, and well-intentioned but annoying turns into a sinister plot to steal her baby. As the pregnancy progresses, Rosemary's trust in those around her plummets even as they close tighter and tighter around her.
The true horror of this film is not the Satanic cult but the constant gaslighting and enforced isolation Rosemary experiences. From the beginning, she is told that her pain doesn't matter, her thoughts are confused, her feelings are unimportant. Someone controls what she eats, what she drinks, who she sees, and she --a polite Midwestern girl-- goes along with it because she was raised not to make a scene or put herself first.
It works as a horror film and also as a reminder that we haven't progressed as far as people like to think since the 60s. It's currently streaming on Amazon Prime and Hulu.
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