Thomas’s review published on Letterboxd:
“Rosemary´s Baby” is a masterclass in slow-burn psychological horror. It doesn´t rely on simple shocks, gore, or special effects, and instead delivers subtle and subversive terror that gets under your skin. The film is an early example that showed that horror can be artistic and cerebral and not just B-movie schlock.
The first thing you notice is the brilliant technical craftmanship. Cinematography, editing, production design, and sound are all fantastic, yet above all, it´s Polanski´s excellent direction and his impeccable mastery over atmosphere and symbolic mise-en-scène that shines the most. From the first moment on, the entire movie is unsettling, uncomfortable, and foreboding. There is always a sense of high tension, even though most of the time nothing explicitly scary or dangerous is happening. Superficially, everything is normal, yet there is something strange and off-kilter about how everyone is acting. Small doses of dark humor only add to the jarring, disorienting tone. You can´t really put your finger on it, but it creeps you out, and this sense of ambiguity and subtle, hard to grasp horror is the film´s biggest strength. It´s such a refreshing contrast to the loud and in your face jump scare-heavy mainstream horror cinema of today. And every modern exception to this trend, such as “Hereditary”, is clearly influenced by “Rosemary´s Baby”. It casts a long shadow over the entire genre.
What might irritate some modern viewers is the slow yet (in my opinion) entrancing pacing of the movie. I have no problem with it. The engrossing atmosphere and masterful direction make sure that I´m never bored and the emotional payoff is definitely worth the buildup. The film´s deliberate pacing simply shows its confidence in itself and its audience, which unfortunately has become rare in modern horror films.
The film succeeds in putting you in the shoes of the protagonist and making you feel what she feels, which is mainly confusion, fear, and helplessness. And let´s not forget the spooky surreal dream sequences. Pure nightmare fuel.
What truly sets “Rosemary´s Baby” apart and makes it every film critic´s favorite horror film to write about is its rich and layered thematic subtext. It touches upon a wider variety of topics such as paranoia, conspiracy, isolation, modernity vs. tradition, religion and occultism, gaslighting, emotional and physical abuse and exploitation, toxic relationships, motherhood, gender roles, and women´s liberation. In particular, it portrays women´s struggle to protect or reclaim their agency, the horror of not being believed or taken seriously and instead being infantilized and oppressed, and the subtle social norms and attitudes that serve to keep women in check. From a more general perspective, the film explores and deconstructs trust and faith in all their forms.
Since “Rosemary´s Baby” is a character-driven movie, it can only be as great as its cast. Fortunately, they all brought their A game. I think it´s fair to say that Mia Farrow delivers her career-best performance in this film. It´s complex, haunting, and believable, and although Rosemary is such a meek and vulnerable character, Farrow´s screen presence commands your attention in every scene. Rosemary´s steady mental and physical deterioration hurts to watch, while her arc of finding her determination and fighting to reclaim her agency and protect her child is quietly powerful despite the unavoidable bleak ending. We shouldn´t overlook John Cassavetes´ performance, though. It´s equally complex, subtle, and believable as well as thematically important. In a film that features fanatic Satanists, Guy manages to be the most despicable villain. How he views and treats Rosemary (like property he can freely use for his personal gain) is just as evil and disgusting if not more so than all the occult suff. You could argue that Guy´s sexism is a more dangerous “ideology” than satanism, since it is much more pervasive in society. So much that you could overlook it on your first watch, especially in the 60s, when the film was released. Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer complete the main cast and they also kill it as the intrusive, superficially nice yet subtly off-putting elderly couple with sinister motives. To conclude, the entire cast is terrific.
I use the word subtle a lot in this review, and that´s because it perfectly describes “Rosemary´s Baby”. Even during the bone-chilling fatalistic climax, the horror takes place mainly in our heads (We don´t see the baby). It´s easy to see that Hitchcock is Polanski´s greatest idol, and with this movie he doesn´t need to hide from his great teacher. The film demands your attention, but it also rewards it greatly. It´s atmospheric, thought-provoking, allegorical horror at its finest.
