Reviewed By: Zayaan Alamgir
October is finally here, which means that for many the spookiest time of the year has arrived with a prominent history in paganism. But what many people gloss over is how a single month or season may not necessarily be the spookiest time of the year. For some, there is an ongoing paranormality occurring in their lives. And as art often imitates life, Roman Polanski’s 1968 horror ‘Rosemary’s Baby’, based on the novel of the same name by Ira Levine, has been able to capture the true essence of paranoia and ongoing horror in one’s life and how certain circumstances may lead to a seemingly never-ending playtime for the paranormal.
‘Rosemary’s Baby’ follows Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow) as she and her out-of-work actor husband, Guy, move into The Bramford, a high-end luxury apartment complex in Manhattan. But what originally starts out as nothing more than overly soliciting neighbors and the unsettling odor of Tannis root soon escalates to something demonic. This premise on its own brings nothing new horror had not already seen during the time this movie was released. But the artful execution and filmmaking that went into the production helped it transcend the clichés of what made other films of the same genre unworthy. ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ uses techniques such as long takes, social commentary and most importantly, perspective to convey its own style of horror, a realistic horror.