Rosemary’ Baby (released 1968) is one of the most famous cult movies in Hollywood. This article explores a suble analysis of the movie.

IMDB rating: 8.0/10

Won 1 Oscar, 11 wins with a total of 12 nominations

Rosemary’s Baby is based on a novel by Ira Levin. Usually, book-based movies do not do justice to the story, Rosemary’s Baby movie captures very intricate details from the book. If you enjoyed the book, you will revel the movie as well.

Rosemary’s Baby: the basic plot

Guy Woodhouse is a struggling Hollywood actor, waiting for his big break. He moves to a new apartment with his young wife, Rosemary Woodhouse. Life is good until one day, they meet a very peculiar couple who lives next door. Rosemary feels a strange concern as she sees how Guy is drawn to them and the other strange neighbors who live in the same building.

Things start changing between the couple when Guy finally gets his big break, but at the expense of one of the cast going eerily blind. Rosemary feels lonely as Guy becomes busier day by day. To her sweet surprise, Rosemary comes home one day to find Guy waiting for her with roses, telling her, “Let’s have a baby!”

Spoiler alert: If you haven’t seen the movie yet, this post contains spoilers.

Rosemary’s Baby: eerie details

Terry Commits Suicide

Terry talks great about the Castevets and shows Rosemary the necklace that is gifted to her by the old couple. Two nights later, Terry mysteriously commits suicide. Later in the night, Rosemary hears Roman and Minnie in her sleep, having an argument over Terry. Minnie screams, “I told you she wouldn’t be open minded!”

What really happened: Minnie reprimands Roman for being so abrupt with Terry about what they need from her. They had taken her in because they wanted her to bear Satan’s child. As a result, Terry had committed suicide.

Roman Recruits Guy

Guy Woodhouse seems shell-shocked sitting with Roman Castevet, as Minnie and Rosemary enters the lounge on dinner night. The scene lasts for a very brief moment.

What really happened: Roman Castevet has proposed to Guy that he should join them, and in return, Guy will get his big break in Hollywood. All he has to do is to offer his first child to them for their cult.

Rosemary is Offered Late Terry’s Necklace

The very next night, while Guy visits the Castevets again, Minnie Castevet and Lara Liu barge in Rosemary’s home as she sits drained from her period. They casually offer her a necklace as gift. Rosemary’s watches it in wonder as she recognizes it as the same necklace that they gifted to Terry.

What really happened: the gift of this necklace was actually a guise. It was a container that held Tannis root in it, they needed Rosemary to have it in order to keep her and the would-be baby in Satan’s protection.

Guy Gets the Part

Suddenly, as if on cue, Guy gets the part he wanted all along.

What really happened: Guy had said yes to Roman. He had agreed to their terms, whatever they may be, and in return gotten overnight success. The person who had gotten the role earlier had woken up blind, with no apparent cause.

The Year is One!

Guy and Rosemary attend a New Years party where Roman chants, “the year one!”. Rosemary is pregnant with Satan’s child, hence his chant. But Rosemary only wonders.

Guy Warns About Hutch in Time

Hutch meets Rosemary and sees something is off. Later, he calls Rosemary and asks to meet her in private the next day for lunch. But he never shows up.

What really happened: Guy comes to know that Hutch wants to see Rosemary in private and immediately senses something is wrong. Guy rushes to warn the Castevets about Hutch as soon as he knows. He lies to Rosemary about wanting to get ice cream, and just a few seconds after he shuts the door, we hear a door bell in the background. Since Roman and Minnie are the only other tenants on the same floor, and they can literally hear each other through the walls, it’s safe to say that Guy rang their bell to inform them.

Hutch is (Strangely!) Ill

Hutch never shows up so Rosemary calls and confirms. Hutch seems to have gone in a deep coma without any apparent reason!

What really happened: When Hutch had come to see Rosemary, Roman dropped in and found a way to stay throughout the meeting. He sensed that Hutch can find out about them so he immediately calls Guy home. Hutch seems very curious about the smelly necklace Rosemary is wearing. Guy is seen rushing home even though he says otherwise. Later, before leaving Hutch seems to have misplaced a glove. The missing of the glove seems to correlate with Hutch’s mysterious illness. The illness prevented him from meeting Rosemary and warning her.

All of Them Witches

In the last scene when Rosemary discovers the horrible truth about her son, the scene shows all the rich and powerful people attending the celebration.

What (probably) happened: All these rich and powerful people made a pact with Satan to help him in his war, and in return they were made rich and famous. We see Saperstien, we see people who have come from far away just to attend the celebration of Adrian’s birth.

I could go on and on and on about this horror classic. Rosemary’s Baby has to be the best cult movies produced by Hollywood till date. The acting is superb and the storyline is strong. The movie has done absolute justice to the book and that is what makes it even better.

What are your observations from this movie?

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