Classic Horror: Rosemary's Baby - Movie Analysis Essay

Introduction

Rosemary's Baby is considered as one of the classic pioneer horror films that have ever been produced. The film creates a gloomy mood even though it does not employ shock techniques. Roman Polanski, who is the director of the film provides an overview of the movie in which he reported that the film was primarily going to cover the story of a loving couple who are expecting a baby. With the help of structural components, the movie gradually develops into suspense. Some of the visible features of the film are foreshadowing, space, colour compositions and tonal variations (Tarratt, 1969). By use of different techniques, Polanski and his crew managed to create suspense and horror in the film excellently. Just like most horror movies that were produced in the late 1960s, Polanski used location, shadow, setting, and darkness to create a masterpiece. The primary objective of this paper is to discuss Rosemary's Baby by use of correct technological and critical language.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Rosemary's Baby is a gruesome brooding film that is riddled with unimaginable danger. It shockingly also contains an eerie sense of humour which spreads throughout it. The film is both creepy and crawly, and it includes numerous incidences where things bump in the night. The movie primarily focusses on the Ira Levin's novel which discusses the modern-day demons and witches. The film is a brilliant suspense story which comes from the directions of Polanski and a series of effectively inspired performances (Tarratt, 1969). For this reason, there is no significant difference between the movie and the book. Polanski employs a conventional suspense mode in the film and elaborates on a great deal of information as the film begins.

Its characters and the story transcend the plot of the film. The film borrows the traditions of other horror films of the Alfred Hitchcock tradition in which the characters are subjected to the mercy of the plot. In this movie, they are actual human beings ding these things. The film is made more interesting by how Miss Farrow and Miss Gordon work together. They are neighbours, and they make extreme demands on Rosemary. There are striking similarities between the film and the memorable performance from Sidney Blackmer. The creation of the film seemed to be hard for Polanski from the beginning, but as it develops, he found his its rhythm and he managed to make it believable up to the end. The film profoundly covers the suspicion that concerns the wives who are genuinely in love and who are forced to cast aspersions on the most malign and improbable things about their husbands. However, Cary Grant in 'Suspicion' was just a bounder, and even a murderer and no one believed in that. Alternatively, Rosemary is forced into the most bizarre suspicions about her husband and everyone believed in them. The film is exciting, and one can barely fail to follow it to the end.

Besides the suspense, flashback and irony that were employed by Polanski, the film is set up in a manner that makes it both exciting and scaring. The hallways seemed to be narrow and extremely lengthy, generating a feeling of loneliness while the rooms appeared flat and wide. The contrast between spaces exhibits the suspense of the movie. The most dramatic scenes of the film were captured by using a wide-angle lens within small areas which result into depth generation within the shot, for instance, when Rosemary is staggering around for support after she was drugged. More serene scenes of the film were captured with a less convoluted frame, and they appeared to contain flat space.

One of the things that Rosemary's Baby is famous for is its dark legacy since most people who were engaged in its production eventually suffered a shocking trauma. For instance, Krzysztof Komedia who was the composer of the film fell from a great height and died immediately after just like a young woman did in the early stages of the film (Boccara, 2013). The trauma also hit William Castle, who was the producer and classic Hollywood camp. He was plagued by hate mail which resulted in his health deteriorating, and he failed to produce another hit film after Rosemary's Baby. Despite being grossly unsympathetic for different reasons over the reception and the impact of the film, Polanski was also stroked by personal tragedy when the Manson family murdered his wife Sharon Tate in 1969 while his film was still playing in some theatres. The Manson killings were an integral part of the calamities that occurred in 1969 and that led some individuals to refer to that year precisely as the end of the hippie movements. However, the reality is more complicated than that. Space was instrumental in offering suspense within the film and building the storyline of the characters. For instance, Rosemary was restricted from leaving the house after she became pregnant, with the only exception of going out to see the doctor.

The film Rosemary's Baby is based on a newlywed marriage that transformed from bliss terror, portraying the union as a gothic space. The film is performed with the primary feature of gothic fictions: the rapidly changing culture and the expression of concerns over modernity. Since its first display in 1967, the film has become a contentious piece of literature. It ignites a conversation about a woman's right to her body and sexuality. Both critics and commentators believe that the film is a piece of feminist literature, specifically when considering the character of Rosemary Woodhouse. The film was aired at a time when the fundamental issues that affected women were hotly debated. Polanski employs different artistic skills to make the movie enjoyable. One of the methods employed by Polanski is personification that enabled Fern to speak to humans. Additionally, Fern uses objects to communicate, especially in her and Rosemary's game in which they use coloured poker chips to portray their understanding that the purpose in question is either similar or dissimilar. The film generated mixed reactions in the early days of its display. The black and white televisions, the scary plots and the first characters prompted viewers to demand more of such kind of films. As much as there were people who requested more of such type of movies, the film itself struck controversy in the early 1960s because of its use of satanic rituals and demons. Most viewers were mortified when the filmmakers went against religious standards. Back then, horror films seemed to be more ridiculous than now and based on the raw and new features of the film back then, Rosemary's Baby will always be a horror classic (Tarratt, 1969).

Rosemary's Baby film grossly influenced American popular culture in different ways. The film helped in the formation of the cultural zeitgeist that led to a rise in interest in cults and Satanism, one that still resonates to date. Levin was startled that years after the release of the film, the audiences misinterpreted the meaning of the book. According to him, the driving theme behind the story was atheism in which he urged readers to question the belief systems. In most parts of the film, different characters criticize religion, and they subliminally became members of a satanic cult by the end. The film drove people to oppressive guilt, making them obsessed with a demon that they ruin a young woman's wife in hopes of bringing some part of Hell to Earth. Although history timelines do not boil down to single definitive moments, the Manson killings were a part of the calamities that occurred in 1969 that made some people refer to that year as the end of the happier movement. The reality is more complicated than that perception. A cultural change requires various events and people and Rosemary's Baby and its relentless bleakness could have contributed to the demise of the hippie movement (Boccara, 2013). However, its impact on the cultural change did not come with its dark side on the shift in culture. The film indeed spoke about a growing embrace of a more insidious aspect of communal living.

References

Boccara, P. (2013). Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir. INTERAZIONI, (1), 127-129. doi:10.3280/int2013-001010

Tarratt, M. (1969). Roman Polanski, Rosemary's Baby. Screen, 10(2), 90-96. doi:10.1093/screen/10.2.90