Rosemary's Baby Analysis

Rosemary's Baby (1968)

Adapted for the Screen and Directed by: Roman Polanski
Starring: Mia Farrow, John Cassevetes
Streaming on Netflix.

Well, I'm generally not into supernatural/paranormal horror. For the simple reason that the level of stakes is so high and there is no grounding to it. After a point, you know what a horror film would have. A couple of jump scares. Some gore. Some action. There's no real mystery to it if you've seen a lot of films. The best type of horror, or even mystery is where you don't know what to expect. Take Burning (2018) - in this film, the mystery slowly creeps into our heads like a parasite without even us noticing. Similarly, what this film does beautifully while setting up is that it starts like a film about a couple. It slowly unravels the horror. It is peeled layer by layer. The film doesn't even has horror in the direct sense of the word. It plays on paranoia, like a psychological thriller. It's also fluid in genre. I think that's the reason even films like Get Out, and Midsommar would work better than an Inisidious-78. 

Mia Farrow is terrific in the film, I loved her performance. She was 23, when she did this. The level of hope for a good future, a good life, the innocence, the naivety she brings in the beginning of the film - it all turns into nerve wracking anxiety as the film progresses. The dream sequence was very interesting. The film has a good usage of craft - production design, hair and make up, editing, everything. I realized for some reason, films in the 70s had more confidence as they were staging scenes. Now we have a lot of cuts, or unnecessary camera movements within even a simple action. We use a track-in when a character is drinking water. I'm like... why? I think we have to revisit some of these films to just brush up our ideas of staging and blocking.