Freaky Friday - Rosemary's Baby

WARNING: Minor Spoilers May Occur!

I'm trying to mix it up some, but basically October is going to be Horror Month. What's funny is, you might think, then, that December will be Christmas month, but I like horror way more than any Christmas movie save one. Anyone that knows me will know what that one is.

Having just watched my yearly viewing of "Rosemary's Baby," I thought it appropriate to review that one. Yes I know it's an old one, but dammit, it's a good one. The review will get into this in more detail, but this is subtle horror. You don't really see anything, but it is that claustrophobic atmosphere and impending gloom that hangs over the movie that just makes it so good.

Summary courtesy of IMDB:

"A young couple move into a new apartment, only to be surrounded by peculiar neighbors and occurrences. When the wife becomes mysteriously pregnant, paranoia over the safety of her unborn child begins controlling her life."

Rosemary's Baby (1968)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063522/

Technical (4.5) - Roman Polanski's pièce de résistance. Although he's done some amazing work since ("Chinatown") this is definitely his defining movie. Its full of subtle nuance that could have easily been over worked and over blown. Michael Bay was working on a remake a few years back that thankfully got cancelled, you can imagine what kind of overblown crap that would have been ("and then we can make the car EXPLODE!!! 'splosions, 'Splosions, 'SPLOSIONS!!!"). He made the right decision to make it character and actor driven more than anything. Most of the movie takes place in the apartment and Rosemary (Mia Farrow) is in every scene. It is her movie and how she's dealing with the conspiracy against her is central. There are some odd things surrounding the "conception" scene that are very avante garde, but given the time this was filmed I think it was very contemporary and it may have been in the novel this is based on, so I have to overlook it somewhat. The half point deduction goes for the camera work that sometimes gets a little shaky. I understand it wasn't shot on a soundstage (it was in an actual apartment so they couldn't make tracks everywhere to do it conventionally) and stedicam hadn't been invented yet, but it gets really distracting at times.

Dialogue/Story (5) - I'm not going to say much here because I might give too much away, but sufficed to say, it is very well written and the dialogue is pretty realistic. Granted they had a novel to work from, but you can cut too much or not enough and have a choppy and uneven movie. Again, it is terribly subtle and nuanced. Like Rosemary cooking a steak for about 1 second a side and then eating it. Just creepy, eerie stuff. They struck the tone just right and were able to make this whole thing believable.

Acting (4.5) - As I said above, this is Mia Farrow's movie. Her husband at the time, Frank Sinatra, divorced her for doing this role against his wishes. And she's all the more famous for doing it. She plays sweet and innocent so well, but pulls off the blood curdling screams and freakouts with the best of them. The secondary actors are amazing too. Guy (John Cassavettes), her husband, is such a shit (excuse the language) and even in the background of the scenes you can see his struggle and angst over what he has done. The Castevets (Ruth Gordan and Sidney Blackmer) are the neighbors and while Gordan won and Oscar for her role (and you can totally see why, your eyes are drawn to her every scene she's in) it is Blackmer that kinda draws the acting down a bit. You can see he's acting in many scenes. Something that I just can't stand.

Tilt (5) -  If you couldn't tell by previous posts, I love this movie. I watch it every year in preparation for Halloween.

Total Score - (4.75)