''Rosemary's Baby'' is a 1968 American psychological horror film written and directed by Roman Polanski, based on Ira Levin's 1967 novel of the same name. The film stars Mia Farrow as a young (soon

pregnant Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring develops (gestation, gestates) inside a woman, woman's uterus (womb). A multiple birth, multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins. Pregnancy usually occur ...

) wife living in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...

who comes to suspect that her elderly neighbors are members of a

Satanic Satanic may refer to: * Satan * Satanism * ''Satanic'' (2006 film), a 2006 American horror film * ''Satanic'' (2016 film), a 2016 American horror film * Operation Satanic, when the DGSE bombed the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour See also * ...

cult In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal ...

and are grooming her in order to use her baby for their rituals. The film's supporting cast includes John Cassavetes,

Ruth Gordon Ruth Gordon Jones (October 30, 1896 – August 28, 1985) was an American actress, screenwriter, and playwright. She began her career performing on Broadway at age 19. Known for her nasal voice and distinctive personality, Gordon gained internati ...

, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans, Ralph Bellamy, Patsy Kelly,

Angela Dorian Victoria Vetri (born September 26, 1944; also known as Angela Dorian and Victoria Rathgeb) is an American model and actress. Early life and education Vetri was born in the Queen of Angels Hospital in Los Angeles, California, to Italian immigra ...

, and, in his feature film debut, Charles Grodin. The film deals with themes related to

paranoia Paranoia is an instinct or thought process that is believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy conce ...

, women's liberation,

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesu ...

(

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

), and the

occult The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism ...

. While it is primarily set in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

, the majority of principal photography for ''Rosemary's Baby'' took place in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

throughout late 1967. The film was released on June 12, 1968 by

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

, and was a

box office A box office or ticket office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a wicket. By extension, the term is f ...

success, grossing over $30 million in the United States. It received almost universal acclaim and was nominated for several accolades, including multiple

Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...

nominations and two

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment in ...

nominations, winning Best Supporting Actress (for Ruth Gordon) and the Golden Globe in the same category. Since its release, ''Rosemary's Baby'' has been widely regarded as one of the greatest

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apo ...

s of all time. In 2014, the film was selected for preservation in the

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception ...

by the United States

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The librar ...

, who deemed it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Plot

Guy Woodhouse, a stage actor, and his wife, Rosemary, move into the Bramford, a large

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range ...

apartment building in

. They disregard their friend Hutch's warning about the Bramford's dark past with

witchcraft Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have u ...

and murder. In the laundry room, Rosemary meets a young woman, Terry Gionoffrio, a recovering drug addict whom Minnie and Roman Castevet, the Woodhouses' elderly neighbors, have taken in. One night, Terry apparently jumps to her death from the Castevets' 7th-floor apartment, distressing the Castevets. While Guy grows close to the couple, Rosemary finds them annoying and meddlesome. Minnie gives Terry's pendant to Rosemary as a

good luck charm In most contexts, the concept of good denotes the conduct that should be preferred when posed with a choice between possible actions. Good is generally considered to be the opposite of evil and is of interest in the study of ethics, morality, ph ...

, saying it contains "tannis root". Guy is cast in a prominent play after the lead actor inexplicably goes blind. With his acting career flourishing, Guy wants to have a baby with Rosemary. On the night that they plan to conceive, Minnie brings over individual cups of chocolate mousse for their dessert. When Rosemary complains that it has a chalky "under-taste" and does not finish it, Guy criticizes her as being ungrateful. Rosemary consumes a bit more to mollify him, then discreetly discards the rest. Soon after, she grows dizzy and passes out. In a dreamlike state, Rosemary hallucinates being raped by a demonic presence (

Satan Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an entity in the Abrahamic religions that seduces humans into sin or falsehoo ...

) as Guy, the Castevets, and other Bramford tenants, all nude, watch. The next morning, Guy explains the scratches covering Rosemary's body by claiming that he did not want to miss " baby night" and had sex with her while she was unconscious. He says he has since cut his nails. Rosemary becomes pregnant, with the baby due the last week of June. The elated Castevets insist that Rosemary goes to their close friend, Dr. Abraham Sapirstein, a prominent obstetrician, rather than her own physician, Dr. Hill. During her

first trimester Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring develops ( gestates) inside a woman's uterus (womb). A multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins. Pregnancy usually occurs by sexual intercourse, but ...

, Rosemary suffers severe abdominal pains and loses weight. By

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

time, her gaunt appearance alarms her friends and also Hutch, who has been researching the Bramford's history. Before sharing his findings with Rosemary, he falls into a mysterious

coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...

. Rosemary, unable to withstand the pain, insists on seeing Dr. Hill, while Guy argues against it, saying Dr. Sapirstein will be offended. As they argue, the pains suddenly stop and Rosemary feels the baby move. Three months later, Hutch's friend, Grace Cardiff, informs Rosemary that Hutch is dead. Before dying, he briefly regained consciousness and said to give Rosemary a book on witchcraft, ''All of Them Witches'', along with the cryptic message: "The name is an

anagram An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into ''nag a ram'', also the word ...

". Rosemary eventually deduces that ''Roman Castevet'' is an anagram for ''Steven Marcato'', the son of a former Bramford resident and a reputed Satanist. She suspects that the Castevets and Dr. Sapirstein belong to a Satanic coven and have sinister intentions for her baby. Guy discounts this and later throws the book away, upsetting Rosemary and making her suspicious of him. Terrified, she goes to Dr. Hill for help. Assuming that she is delusional, he calls Dr. Sapirstein, who arrives with Guy to take her home, threatening if she resists, to have her sent to a mental hospital. Rosemary locks herself into the apartment, but coven members somehow infiltrate and restrain her. Dr. Sapirstein sedates a hysterical Rosemary, who goes into labor and gives birth. When she awakens, she is told the baby was

stillborn Stillbirth is typically defined as fetal death at or after 20 or 28 weeks of pregnancy, depending on the source. It results in a baby born without signs of life. A stillbirth can result in the feeling of guilt or grief in the mother. The ter ...

. As Rosemary recovers, she notices her pumped

breast milk Breast milk (sometimes spelled as breastmilk) or mother's milk is milk produced by mammary glands located in the breast of a human female. Breast milk is the primary source of nutrition for newborns, containing fat, protein, carbohydrates (lac ...

appears to be saved instead of disposed of. She stops taking her prescribed pills, becoming less groggy. When Rosemary hears an infant crying, Guy claims new tenants with a baby have moved into an apartment one floor up. Believing her baby is alive, Rosemary discovers a hidden door in the bedroom closet leading directly into Minnie and Roman's apartment. Guy, the Castevets, Dr. Sapirstein, and other coven members are there, gathered around a bassinet draped in black with an

upside down cross The Cross of Saint Peter or Petrine Cross is an inverted Latin cross traditionally used as a Christian symbol, but in recent times also used as an anti-Christian and Satanic symbol. In Christianity, it is associated with the martyrdom of Pete ...

hanging over it. Peering inside, Rosemary is horrified and demands to know what is wrong with her baby's eyes. Roman proclaims that the child, Adrian, Satan's son, "has his father's eyes". He urges Rosemary to mother her child, promising her she will not have to join the coven. When Guy attempts to calm her, saying they will be rewarded and will conceive their own children, she spits in his face. After hearing the infant's cries, however, Rosemary gives in to her maternal instincts and gently rocks the cradle.

Cast

Production

Development

In ''Rosemary's Baby: A Retrospective'', a featurette on the DVD release of the film, screenwriter/director Roman Polanski,

executive Robert Evans, and

production designer In film and television, the production designer is the individual responsible for the overall aesthetic of the story. The production design gives the viewers a sense of the time period, the plot location, and character actions and feelings. Wo ...

Richard Sylbert Richard Sylbert (April 16, 1928 – March 23, 2002) was an American production designer and art director, primarily for feature films. Early life Sylbert was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Samuel and Lily (Lazell) Sylbert, and was the twin bro ...

reminisce at length about the production. Evans recalled

William Castle William Castle (born William Schloss Jr.; April 24, 1914 – May 31, 1977) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. Orphaned at 11, Castle dropped out of high school at 15 to work in the theater. He came to the attenti ...

brought him the

galley proof In printing and publishing, proofs are the preliminary versions of publications meant for review by authors, editors, and proofreaders, often with extra-wide margins. Galley proofs may be uncut and unbound, or in some cases electronically tran ...

s of the book and asked him to purchase the film rights even before

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Ger ...

published the book in April 1967. The studio head recognized the commercial potential of the project and agreed with the stipulation that Castle, who had a reputation for low-budget

s, could produce but not direct the film adaptation. He makes a cameo appearance as the man at the phone booth waiting for Mia Farrow's character to finish her call.

François Truffaut François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. After a career of more tha ...

claimed that

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...

was first offered the chance to direct the film but declined. Evans admired Polanski's European films and hoped he could convince him to make his American debut with ''Rosemary's Baby''. He knew the director was a ski buff who was anxious to make a film with the sport as its basis, so he sent him the script for '' Downhill Racer'' along with the galleys for ''Rosemary's Baby''. Polanski read the latter book non-stop through the night and called Evans the following morning to tell him he thought ''Rosemary's Baby'' was the more interesting project, and would like the opportunity to write as well as direct it. After negotiations, Paramount agreed to hire Polanski for the project, with a tentative budget of $1.9 million, $150,000 of which would go to Polanski. Polanski completed the 272-page screenplay for the film in approximately three weeks. Polanski closely modeled it on the original novel and incorporated large sections of the novel's dialogue and details, with much of it being lifted directly from the source text.

Casting

Casting for ''Rosemary's Baby'' began in the summer of 1967 in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wo ...

. Polanski originally envisioned Rosemary as a robust, full-figured, girl-next-door type, and wanted Tuesday Weld or his own fiancée

Sharon Tate Sharon Marie Tate Polanski (January 24, 1943 – August 9, 1969) was an American actress and model. During the 1960s, she played small television roles before appearing in films and was regularly featured in fashion magazines as a model and cover ...

to play the role.

Jane Fonda Jane Seymour Fonda (born December 21, 1937) is an American actress, activist, and former fashion model. Recognized as a film icon, Fonda is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Jane Fonda, various accolades including two ...

Patty Duke Anna Marie "Patty" Duke (December 14, 1946 – March 29, 2016) was an American actress and mental health advocate. Over the course of her acting career, she was the recipient of an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awa ...

and Goldie Hawn were also reportedly considered for the role. Since the book had not yet reached bestseller status, Evans was unsure the title alone would guarantee an audience for the film, and he believed that a bigger name was needed for the lead. Mia Farrow, with a supporting role in '' Guns at Batasi'' (1964) and the yet-unreleased '' A Dandy in Aspic'' (1968) as her only feature film credits, had an unproven box office track record; however, she had gained wider notice with her role as Allison MacKenzie in the popular television series '' Peyton Place,'' and her unexpected marriage to noted singer Frank Sinatra. Despite her waif-like appearance, Polanski agreed to cast her. Her acceptance incensed Sinatra, who had demanded she forgo her career when they wed.

Robert Redford Charles Robert Redford Jr. (born August 18, 1936) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award from four nominations, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, the Ceci ...

was the first choice for the role of Guy Woodhouse, but he turned it down.

Jack Nicholson John Joseph Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American retired actor and filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time. In many of his films, he played rebels against the social structure. He received numerous ...

was considered briefly before Polanski suggested John Cassavetes, whom he had met in London. In casting the film's secondary actors, Polanski drew sketches of what he imagined the characters would look like, which were then used by Paramount casting directors to match with potential actors. In the roles of Roman and Minnie Castevet, Polanski cast veteran stage/film actors Sidney Blackmer and Ruth Gordon. Veteran actor Ralph Bellamy was cast as Dr. Sapirstein. (Many years earlier, Bellamy and Blackmer had appeared in the pre-Code 1934 film, '' This Man Is Mine''.) When Rosemary calls Donald Baumgart, the actor who goes blind and is replaced by Guy, the voice heard on the phone is actor Tony Curtis. Farrow, who had not been told who would be reading Baumgart's lines, recognized his voice but could not place it. The slight confusion she displays throughout the call was exactly what Polanski hoped to capture by not revealing Curtis' identity in advance.

Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...

for ''Rosemary's Baby'' began on August 21, 1967, in New York City, where location shooting commenced. When Farrow was reluctant to film a scene that depicted a dazed and preoccupied Rosemary wandering into the middle of

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 populatio ...

into oncoming traffic, Polanski pointed to her pregnancy padding and reassured her, "no one's going to hit a pregnant woman". The scene was successfully shot with Farrow walking into real traffic and Polanski following, operating the hand-held camera since he was the only one willing to do it. By September 1967, the shoot had relocated to

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

's Paramount Studios in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...

, where interior sets of the Bramford apartments had been constructed on sound stages. Some additional location shooting took place in Playa del Rey in October 1967. Farrow recalled that the dream sequence in which her character is attending a dinner party on a yacht was filmed on a vessel near Santa Catalina Island. Though Paramount had initially agreed to spend $1.9 million to make the film, the shoot was overextended due to Polanski's meticulous attention to detail, which resulted in him completing up to fifty takes of single shots. The shoot suffered significant scheduling problems as a result, and ultimately went $400,000 over budget. In November 1967, it was reported that the shoot was over three weeks behind schedule. The shoot was further disrupted when, midway through filming, Farrow's husband, Frank Sinatra, served her divorce papers via a corporate lawyer in front of the cast and crew. In an effort to salvage her relationship, Farrow asked Evans to release her from her contract, but he persuaded her to remain with the project after showing her an hour-long rough cut and assuring her she would receive an

nomination for her performance. Filming was completed on December 20, 1967, in Los Angeles.

Music

The

lullaby A lullaby (), or cradle song, is a soothing song or piece of music that is usually played for (or sung to) children (for adults see music and sleep). The purposes of lullabies vary. In some societies they are used to pass down cultural knowledg ...

played over the intro is the song "

Sleep Safe and Warm "Sleep Safe and Warm", also simply called "Lullaby from ''Rosemary's Baby''", is a musical composition by Krzysztof Komeda, written for Roman Polanski's 1968 American psychological horror film '' Rosemary's Baby''. In the original version, vocals ...

", composed by

Krzysztof Komeda Krzysztof Trzciński (27 April 1931 – 23 April 1969), known professionally as Krzysztof Komeda, was a Polish film music composer and jazz pianist. Perhaps best known for his work in film scores, Komeda wrote the scores for Roman Polanski’s f ...

and sung by Mia Farrow. The composition " Für Elise" is also frequently used as background music throughout the film. The original

film soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

was released in 1968 via Dot Records. Waxwork Records released the soundtrack from the original master tapes in 2014, including Krzysztof Komeda's original work.

Track listing

Release

Critical response

In contemporary reviews,

Renata Adler Renata Adler (born October 19, 1938) is an American author, journalist, and film critic. Adler was a staff writer-reporter for ''The New Yorker'', and in 1968–69, she served as chief film critic for ''The New York Times''. She is also a write ...

wrote in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' that "The movie—although it is pleasant—doesn't seem to work on any of its dark or powerful terms. I think this is because it is almost too extremely plausible. The quality of the young people's lives seems the quality of lives that one knows, even to the point of finding old people next door to avoid and lean on. One gets very annoyed that they don't catch on sooner." Stanley Eichelbaum of the ''

San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corpora ...

'' called the film "a delightful witches brew, a bit over-long for my taste, but nearly always absorbing, suspenseful and easier to swallow than Ira Levin's book. Its suggestions of deviltry in a musty and still-respectable old apartment house on Manhattan's upper West Side are more gracefully and appealingly related than in the novel, which I found awfully silly, when it wasn't downright noxious. The very idea of a contemporary case of witchcraft, in which an innocent young housewife is impregnated by the Devil, is to say the least unnerving, particularly when the pregnancy is marked by all degrees of mental and physical pain." '' Variety'' said, "Several exhilarating milestones are achieved in ''Rosemary's Baby'', an excellent film version of Ira Levin's diabolical chiller novel. Writer-director Roman Polanski has triumphed in his first US-made pic. The film holds attention without explicit violence or gore... Farrow's performance is outstanding." The ''

Monthly Film Bulletin ''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991, when it merged with ''Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with a ...

'' said that "After the miscalculations of '' Cul de Sac'' and ''

Dance of the Vampires ''The Fearless Vampire Killers, or Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck'' (shortened to ''The Fearless Vampire Killers''; originally released in the United Kingdom as ''Dance of the Vampires'') is a 1967 British comedy horror film directed b ...

''", Polanski had "returned to the rich vein of '' Repulsion''". The review noted that "Polanski shows an increasing ability to evoke menace and sheer terror in familiar routines (cooking and telephoning, particularly)," and Polanski has shown "his transformation of a cleverly calculated thriller into a serious work of art." Today, the film is widely regarded as a classic; it has an approval rating of 96% on review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

based on 72 reviews, with an average rating of 8.80/10. The site's critics' consensus describes it as "A frightening tale of Satanism and pregnancy that is even more disturbing than it sounds thanks to convincing and committed performances by Mia Farrow and Ruth Gordon."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

reports a weighted average score of 96 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Accolades

Home media

The ''Rosemary's Baby'' DVD, released in 2000 by Paramount Home Video, contains a 23-minute

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

, '' Mia and Roman'', directed by Shahrokh Hatami, which was shot during the making of the film. The title refers to Mia Farrow and Roman Polanski. The film features footage of Roman Polanski directing the film's cast on set. Hatami was an Iranian photographer who befriended Polanski and his wife

. ''Mia and Roman'' was screened originally as a promo film at Hollywood's Lytton Center, and later included as a featurette on the ''Rosemary's Baby'' DVD. It is described as a "trippy on-set featurette" and "an odd little bit of cheese." On October 30, 2012,

The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cine ...

released the film for the first time on

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of s ...

Legacy

The scene in which Rosemary is raped by Satan was ranked No. 23 on Bravo's '' The 100 Scariest Movie Moments''. In 2010, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' ranked the film the second-greatest horror film of all time. In 2014, it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the

and selected for preservation in the

. The film inaugurated cinema's growing fascination with

demons A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology, and folklore; as well as in Media (communication), media such as comics, video ...

and related themes in the coming decades.

Sequels and remakes

In the 1976

television film A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby ''Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby'' (also known as ''Rosemary's Baby Part II'') is a 1976 American made-for-television horror film and a sequel to Roman Polanski's 1968 film '' Rosemary's Baby'' starring Stephen McHattie, Patty Duke, ...

'',

starred as Rosemary Woodhouse and Ruth Gordon reprised her role of Minnie Castevet. The film introduced an adult Andrew/Adrian attempting to earn his place as the Antichrist. It was disliked as a sequel by critics and viewers, and its reputation deteriorated over the years. The film is unrelated to the novel's sequel, '' Son of Rosemary''. A remake of ''Rosemary's Baby'' was briefly considered in 2008. The intended producers were

Michael Bay Michael Benjamin Bay (born February 17, 1965) is an American film director and producer. He is best known for making big-budget, high-concept action films characterized by fast cutting, stylistic cinematography and visuals, and extensive use o ...

, Andrew Form, and Brad Fuller. The remake fell through later that same year. In January 2014, NBC made a four-hour '' Rosemary's Baby''

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format ...

with Zoe Saldana as Rosemary. The miniseries was filmed in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

under the direction of Agnieszka Holland. In 2016, the film was unofficially remade in Turkey under the title ''Alamet-i-Kiyamet''. The short "Her Only Living Son" from the 2017 horror anthology film '' XX'' serves as an unofficial sequel to the story. In June 2022,

Bloody Disgusting Bloody Disgusting is an American multi-media company, which began as a horror genre-focused news site/website specializing in information services that covered various horror medias, including: film, television, video games, comics, and music ...

stated that the company had received announcement that the film '' Apartment 7A'' is secretly a prequel to ''Rosemary's Baby''.

In popular culture

The film inspired the English band Deep Purple to write the song "Why Didn't Rosemary?" for their third album in 1969, after the band had watched the movie while touring the US in 1968. The song's lyrics pose the question, "Why didn't Rosemary ever take the pill?" The film was parodied in the 1996 Halloween episode of '' Roseanne'', "Satan, Darling".

Notes

References

Sources

* * *

External links

* * * * * * . * . * . Collection of ''Rosemary's Baby'' posters from around the world.
BABY
podcast by Culture.pl's ''Stories From The Eastern West'' about the making of the film.
''Rosemary's Baby: "It's Alive"''
– an essay by Ed Park at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosemary's Baby 1968 films 1968 horror films 1960s English-language films 1960s pregnancy films 1960s psychological horror films 1960s supernatural horror films American pregnancy films American psychological horror films American supernatural horror films The Devil in film Fictional depictions of the Antichrist Films about actors Films about cults Films about rape Films about Satanism Films about witchcraft Films based on American horror novels Films based on works by Ira Levin Films directed by Roman Polanski Films featuring a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award-winning performance Films featuring a Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe-winning performance Films scored by Krzysztof Komeda Films set in 1965 Films set in 1966 Films set in apartment buildings Films set in New York City Films shot in Los Angeles Films shot in New York City Films with screenplays by Roman Polanski Gothic horror films Paramount Pictures films Photoplay Awards film of the year winners United States National Film Registry films 1960s American films