It was April 8, 1966, when Time decided to publish an article that, for the first time in the magazine's history, was devoid of an accompanying image, to create a sort of disquiet that was further accentuated by the question posed to readers: "Is God Dead?". The article explored the difficulty theologians of the time had in making god relevant in a society increasingly secular and governed by technology, where religion was no longer necessary to explain nature. The following year the writer Ira Levin published an obscure book, which told a terrible story and whose plot certainly had something to do with Satanism, certainly a godforsaken book that echoes what Time published the year before. The book was Rosemary's Baby, and in 1968, Roman Polansky decided to bring the book to the big screen respecting in all respects its themes and structure.

##### [Source](https://time.com/isgoddead/)

Plot

It is the year 1965. Guy and Rosemary Woodhouse are a young couple that decides to move to Bramford (New York City), inside an old building with gothic features, despite a friend trying to dissuade them by reporting dark rumors involving the neighbors. Guy (a gloomy John Cassavetes) is a hapless actor looking for redemption while Rosemary (Mia Farrow) feels ready to become a mother. Guy's career suddenly takes off when the actor manages to get the part of a colleague who has suddenly gone blind. This new stability prompts Guy to meet Rosemary's demands: now that the man's working future is secure, the couple can commit to having a child. And the pregnancy arrives, in a disturbing way to say the least, but this does not lead the girl to reject the child but rather to accept it willingly, dreaming of a wonderful family future with the unborn, at least initially ...

Why you should watch it?

The director: certainly one of the best in the history of cinema (just think of his other masterpieces including "Chinatown", "The Tenant on the Third Floor", or the heartbreaking "The Pianist"), who made Rosemary's Baby one of the most famous cult horror films. As mentioned in other reviews on horror films, what I particularly appreciate are the plausible situations in real life because they are those, in my opinion, can transmit to the viewer a feeling of unease and discomfort, and especially empathy towards the protagonists. Here we find the apotheosis of this concept, where husband and wife, moving house, find themselves having to meet new neighbors, with whom they quickly get to know, being rather friendly and kind. An elderly couple, in mourning by the way, for having just lost a young orphaned woman to whom they had offered the house for years (found dead by the way in mysterious circumstances by the protagonists themselves, literally shortly after meeting her), and who therefore had a necessary need to fill that void. So, we have a young couple who just moved in with the intention of making a family, and an elderly couple eager to help: in short, there are all the cards in order to trust and start a healthy friendship.

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But of course, this is not the case, and the girl starts to become more and more paranoid because of several rather strange situations involving her neighbors, and actually, you can't blame her, and for almost the entire movie even the viewer is left with the doubt about what are the real intentions of this strange elderly couple. The ending of the film (one of the most glorious endings in the history of horror films), will then serve to dissolve these doubts. But I prefer not to add more so as not to spoil it for you.

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The soundtrack: just listening to the soundtrack without watching the movie, you can think of something innocent, that has nothing to do with the brutal story being told, and here is the genius of the choice: there are just a few strings hanging slowly and delicious la-la-la sung by a young Mia Farrow.

The simplicity of the movie: certainly from a graphical point of view it could not be up to the level of a modern movie, but it must be underlined the simplicity with which this movie succeeds in making the audience uncomfortable, that is with its very simple dialogues: the situations are almost always very calm, it is a movie without jumpscare, substantially without splatter and, not considering the horrible scene with which Rosemary is impregnated, it is also without violence.

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Conclusion

Undoubtedly one of the best films in the history of horror, if not in the history of cinema in general, which struck me deeply for the plausibility of the events and the simplicity of the scenes.

Rating

My personal vote is:

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9.5/10

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