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Rosemary's Baby

Rosemary's Baby

List Price: $14.98
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Rosemary's Baby
Review: Mia Farrow does an excellent job of portraying Rosemary Woodhouse, a woman who moves to a new apartment with her husband.
After having a dream that something not quite human raped her, she discovers later that her neighbours are witches and that her husband has also joined. Rosemary now discovers that she was raped by the devil and that she carries the devil's child whom they will take after birth.
Inspirational cinematography, eerie music score and amazing performances make this a great thriller. Ruth Gordon obviously
deserved the Oscar she won for her performance as the nosy next-door neighbour. Chilling from beginning to end.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: What a disappointment
Review: From reviews I had thought RB would be a genuine thriller.
The only thing I found thrilling was the realization after an
hour or so that the film would soon be over. Can't understand why anyone would make the effort to mentally get into this film.
I found it corny and I'm certainly glad I didn't pay for the DVD
that I watched. Everything about this film was heavy - heavy acting, heavy scripting. Heavy,heavy, heavy.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Devil Maycare
Review: Rosemary's Baby was among the first films of the late 60's and 70's to use demon possession as the basis for a film. Based on author Ira Levin's best selling novel, the movie, is a creepy psychological thriller from director Roman Polanski.

The story follows a young, loving New York City couple, as they await the birth of their first child. Like most new mothers, Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow) is filled with lots of fear and doubt. Her Husband Guy, (John Cassavetes) is a struggling out of work actor, who needs to provide for his family. Rosemary's behavior, takes a drastic turn once as the due date nears, as she is convinced that her baby is the work of something evil. Those around her, including neighbor, Minnie Castevet (Ruth Gordon, in a great, Oscar winning role) do little to ease her fears. But are Rosemary's problems real, or imagined? What sinister forces are at work? Polanski lets the performaces speak for themselves-Farrow is quite effective, especially as the film plays out. The movie keeps viewers off balance and has just the right amount of jolts to make you question what's going on.

As memorable as the film is though, the extras on the DVD, are fairly lackluster. The retrospective interviews with Polanski, Production Executive Robert Evens, and Production Designer Richard Sylbert are surprisingly limited. They don't offer much information. It is a shame that they are so brief. I wanted to know more. The only other extra is a vintage making of featurette, made to coincide with the movie's theatrical release. The problem here is that, this footage concerns itself primarily with Polanski and Farrow's celeb status, rather than the filmming process. I would have even liked to see the original trailer added on as well.

This DVD would have gotten a higher rating from me, if more thought was put forth into the bonus material. The film deserves better. Still, if you want to be psyched out, Rosemary's Baby does the trick and then some, thanks to a fine cast

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Truly Scary
Review: I always felt the main problem with many of the modern horror movies is the emphasis on the villain. Too often, the viewer is treated to a bunch of annoying and aggravating characters who get sliced and diced, leaving us with a mixture of ambivalence and boredom. Who really cares if the annoying movie character gets killed anyway? If the horror directors of today want some inspiration, they should look no further than Roman Polanski's frightening masterpiece, Rosemary's Baby. There is no violence, no graphic gore or mayhem, just a crisply written story that builds into a very disturbing mixture of social commentary and medieval symbolism.

Rosemary, in this case, is a young urban housewife who hails from a rural background, but quickly adapts to the sophisticated intellectual elite she becomes acquainted through her actor husband. The young couple move into a high class apartment building known for shadowy occurrences in years past, but the two newlyweds can't wait to move in and start their new exciting lives together. However, the mood turns decidedly darker when they meet their neighbors, an odd assortment of eccentrics and the ultra powerful. Rosemary's husband soon seems to be entranced by certain members of the clique, as his career takes off as a result of several unfortunate "accidents". He also places greater emphasis on their conceiving a child, an effort which he seems to take an unnatural interest in. As the pregnancy progresses, the health of Rosemary seems to take a turn for the worse, as she in encouraged by her husband and her neighbors to consume various mixtures. She soon realizes something has gone wrong, but has no one she can turn to, and is forced to suffer through the long months of her pregnancy. The climax is of course shocking and disturbing to all but the most stalwart viewer.

As said before, Rosemary's Baby doesn't rely on visual thrills to scare the viewer. It is a much more subtle horror, slowly building within the unassuming world of Manhattan high society. Director Roman Polanski plots and paces this movie expertly, always raising the audiences suspicions while never really tipping them off too much. By the time you reach the end of the movie, you really care about Rosemary, played by the elfin Mia Farrow. This connection provides for a real gut shot moment at the end. The acting is done very well, with Farrows husband, John Cassavetes, providing a sinister shadow to Rosemary's sunny innocence. It is a great examination of boundless, secular evil, and the temptation of greed and success. I suspect the skeletal fragments of this movie are true, concerning high class Satanic groups, read up on the David Berkowitz case if you want to experience some eye opening literature.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Very Shakespearean....
Review: Very Shakespearean in the following ways: (1) Shakespeare must have foreseen this film when he coined the phrase "much ado about nothing"; and (2) he must have been foreseeing this film when he described "a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing." Talk about a nothing ending! BORING! Zzzzz.....

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Intellectual Terror
Review: I first saw Rosemary's baby in 1995, and I was not dissapointed. Those who like the modern "Jason" movies will not be impressed. To state it more generally, it is a deep movie for intelligent deep thinkers.
The plot builds as does the suspense. If you know the ending, but have not seen the movie, it is still worth the time. I enjoy watching it over and over again. It is a true classic.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not a horror film as such, but entertaining
Review: If you have never seen Rosemary's Baby, see if for the fine film-making that it is. Remember that it was made in 1968 so it would have been quite scary for audiences then. Noted on the back as "probably the best horror film ever made", my response to that would be "probably not".

What I did like about Rosemary's Baby were the excellent performances by all actors, including Mia Farrow as Rosemary, and Ruth Gordon as the nosey neighbour. Rosemary is convinced that those around her plan to cause her unborn baby harm. A film that deserves to be seen at least once, particularly as it is a Roman Polanski film.

DVD SUMMARY: Considering the film was made in 1968, the special features are quite impressive. An interview with Robert Evans and Roman Polanski starts it off, then a featurette which contains some excellent behind the scenes footage! This featurette was made at the time of production so is a bit grainy, but nevertheless pure gold.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best Horror Film
Review: When I finished watching the DVD, I knew. I knew this was the greatest horror film out there - I have seen many - and I knew it would probably be the best horror film ever made. That's right - ever.

Polanski's visionary work will have you in suspense from the beginning of the film. Its tremendous reputation aside, the cinematography, timing, acting, and music come together in a terrifying way. The film conveys the magical realism and suspension of disbelief in Ira Levin's book: while the actual plot of the movie is simple to figure out, the movie, through its slight twists and marginal revelations, makes you believe what is going on is plausible. By the end of the film, you will know exactly what is going on, and an entirely implausible event leaves you speechless.

Afterwards, you'll shake your head, drink a vodka blush, and realize it was all a movie. Some of you tough-guys might have been saying that all along. But something about the film is chilling, something about the "God is dead" motif will strike you as real, and something about Rosemary's world will seem very much like our own.

Mia Farrow's performance is extraordinary and should have nailed her an Academy award (same goes for Polanski's debut directorial achievement, though he got his just desserts with The Pianist). This movie, like other classics in their respective genres, are movies to be emulated and never quite duplicated in style or effect. Even today, this movie could not have been done better, or with better casting. The movie is masterfully directed, frightfully self-aware, and simultaneously realistic and fantastic.

The DVD is terrific. Outstanding audio/video quality, superb special features including contemporary interviews. An essential DVD for your library. Not suitable for small children: unless they were rocked in an all-black cradle.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Suspense and Horror Film
Review: This a great horror film and the way a horror film should be made without all of the blood and gore in horror films today. It is a film that allows you to use your imagination without trying to gross you out right to the very end, the scene where Rosemary is forced to have sex with Satan is creepy enough and can give you nightmares.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: This isn't a horror movie
Review: It's more like a thriller. When i read the reviews for this movie i thought i was gonna have the [pooh] scared out of me, but i was mislead. In no way, shape or form is this movie scary. I gave it three stars because it is a good story. It takes 2 hours for this movie to take off, and when it finally does, it's the end of the movie. It's pretty weird too. This film does have some great actors in it, who all do a fantastic job. If your looking for a real scary film, look elsewhere, but for a great story and some thrills here and there, than this is what your looking for.


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