Now this is a real movie, and it's older than Jaws. The contrast couldn't be starker: in a couple of days I watched an old movie that felt stale in every way, and an older movie that felt immediate. Everything about Rosemary's Baby was better than Jaws. I liked all four performances of the two couples. Certain shots struck me as really nice and smartly chosen. I experienced a bit of dread, built by careful screencraft, as opposed to the single moment of jump-scare fear in Jaws. None of this movie made me cringe with cheesiness; several scenes made me feel relieved to be watching a decent movie.
To my surprise, most of it was closer to psychological drama than horror. And it built slowly, with lots of pleasant material.
It reminded me of Shutter Island, with its anagram and its dubitable sanity, although Rosemary's Baby left no ambiguity by the end. Farrow's Rosemary reminded me of Naomi Watts in Mulholland Drive or other Lynch blondes, enduring surreal dreams and a descent into hell, comprising heroic acting.
It was a little more straightforward than I would have liked, a little less scary, but I liked this movie. I received a 10 minute call at the very climax, which threw my nerves into an ice bath. Too bad. For the first few minutes of that call I felt paranoid and out-of-body, so engrossing was said climax; but you could say that by the end of the call, I'd ruined the climax for me. Not recommended, to slice a climax like that -- that's why more of the movies we watch should be in theaters.
I'm curious if you'd like other Polanski movies. Chinatown mainly. But that isn't really like this movie. So don't see a transitive property there. A personal favorite is The Ghost Writer, but that one really only has a niche following.
ReplyDeleteTbh the logical successor to Rosemary's Baby is probably The Exorcist. But that's full fledged horror. It is von Sydow tho. And it's a good movie separate from the scary meter horror marketplace.