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Some mild spoilerage.

Before I start my review I'd like to say that I understand this movie is considered by many to be a horror masterpiece.  But I have to vent my spleen all the same.

This was the most God-awful boring movie it's ever been my misfortune to witness.  Where do I start?

Story
Lame and boring.  Uninteresting and not scary at all.  The basic premise was interesting but it was executed with insomniacs in mind.  For 2 hours 11 minutes I sat in front of my telly, like a complete schlub, telling myself that soon the horror would start and the boredom would end.  Alas, that' never happened.  As for Mia Farrow willingly staying on as the mother of a demon even though the kid has yellow eyes and cloven feet and hands - how is that believeable?

Acting/Actors
Mia Farrow couldn't act her way out of a wet paper bag.  I didn't feel sorry for her, I kept wishing Satan or one of his minions would devour her just to shut up the all the whining.  She vacillated between being wooden and clunky and whining and annoying.  The love scene between her and John Cassavetes was colder than a prossie and her John.

John Cassavetes.
Played his part like he was auditioning to join the Rat Pack, but with zero cool or credibility.  Badly acted and unbelieveable as both a loving husband and nasty guy who sold his soul to the devil.  He would have done better to become a shoe salesman.  I haven't seen him in anything else that I know of and I don't really want to.

Ruth Gordon, et al
Overacted, ham fisted, unintelligible and just plain annoying.  That goes for the guy who played her husband.  And as for those lame arse Satan followers - geez guys, go back to the retirement home.  The only marginally interesting character was Satan and even then you could tell it was just a guy with a bad reptilian suit on.

Overall, it was an awful movie.  No atmosphere, no scariness, no drama, no suspense, no nothing.  Just one boring scene after another dragged out interminably and designed, I suspect, to make you commit hari kari before the end.  So maybe Satan does exist and he's trying to destroy the world using one lame movie at a time, a la MST3K.

Who do I speak to to get that 2 hours 11 minutes of my life back?

try watching it about 20 minutes. i swear to god, it grows on you. It's not supposed to be "scary", by todays standards i would expect most young people would find it boring. It has a quiet way about it, it was appropriate for its time focusing on witches because back in those days cults were starting to become a growing trend.  I never considered it scary or chilling, but more of a slow building thriller. predictable ending of course but i actually ended up liking the film more with each viewing. When i first saw it i thought it was dull , maybe it is and i'm oblivious..lol. but i love the sound effects which are whispers, and quietness.

Her dream sequence when she's drugged for exampe, has a realistic feel to it. The way dreams go, but with a quietness about it where you hear voices muffled and distant. sometimes films overdo it with the orchestra

i didn`t like it or get it the 1st time i watched it either,but after having it on VHS i popped it in a few times over the past year and started to enjoy it more and more,not saying it`s full of ecitement,gore,nudity,like most of my movies, but it gets the job done.

man i hated Minnie,though,and Laura Louise didn`t add any good feelings either,talk about nosy people.

It's odd-I just re-watched this last week! ( I got it on tape.)

On first viewing,many moons ago,I found it dull.

But later....

It gives off an aura of ominus evil creeping into the everyday,the mundane.
Rosemary begins to sense that something is horribly wrong...with her neighbors,her doctor,her husband...and ,most frightning...her baby.

Something vile and perverted....oooooooooooiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeoooooo....

Spooky!

did you like the exorcist?

I've never seen the Exorcist but I've always meant to give it a go.

I might rent it in the next few days.  Is it any better than Rosemary's Baby?

This is a classic.  One of the 5 best horror movies ever made.  Scary in a way most of today's movies could never be.

I didn't like this movie when I was younger but as I got older and started watching/appreciating more advanced forms of cinema my appreciation for Rosemary's Baby grew quite a lot.  Probably my 2nd favorite Polanski film behind Repulsion.

***SPOILERS***

I have to agree with the consensus about ROSEMARY'S BABY, in fact, I think it's a masterpiece. 

Anybody looking for jolts, gore, morbid violence or the typical mindless mayhem in the horror films of the last 30 years, should avoid this film.  This is just a horror story albeit largely psychological.  Though tame perhaps by today's standards, the subject matter was shockingly notorious in 1968.  Not the slaughterhouse IT'S ALIVE, nor the original classic gross-out EXORCIST, ROSEMARY'S BABY is about a newly-wed whose husband conspires with Charnel house witches to have her raped and made pregnant by Satan.  Writing that down gives it the weight it warrants.  Killer Bees, you understood instinctively that RUTH GORDON's character is intended to be annoying (she's a witch) and most of the characters are old, that was no coincidence... You understood JOHN CASSAVETTES' performance better than you realize; his character is a phony...  :question:  I'm not exactly a fan of MIA FARROW, but think she has several great films to her credit with this one probably the best...

There's a reason ROMAN POLANSKI is so highly regarded. 

It's a whole different animal. It is a CLASSIC. Hands down! Rent it. Hell -(no pun intended)- BUY IT. You won't regret it!!! One of the best movies of all time. ALL TIME. Did I just repeat myself? REPEAT MYSELF. Echo! ECHO!

I remember a 9 year oldish girl after my own heart when at Walmart she was begging her dad to buy "The exorcist"

Then i remembered some of those scenes that were quite graphic that her father may have forgotten about

oh my

Killer Bees, you will love THE EXORCIST if you hate ROSEMARY'S BABY.  Disturbing, nasty, creepy, gory, EXORCIST uncut is, even today, not tame...!!!  :teddyr:

Thanks everyone for your feedback.

I will rent the Exorcist and give it a go.  From the tiny bits I've seen, it looks awesome even by today's gross out standards.

I was quite disappointed that I didn't like Rosemary's Baby and it isn't because I've been desensitised to violence and gore today.  I honestly thought it would be creepy in the way that The Ring and those kinds of movies are.  I actually enjoy a good psychological thriller, this one just didn't do it for me.

I guess maybe because I thought Mia Farrow was too wimpy and being a mother myself, there's no way in hell I would ever let someone tell me what's best for me and my baby.  That's probably my downfall - projecting too much of myself and my own choices onto a movie character  *lol*

I understand that John Cassavetes was a phony and Ruth Gordon was annoying, but I was expecting them to to be a little more subtle in their actions.  That would have been a lot creepier because you wouldn't have seen it coming.  They would have had the veneer of people who seemed genuine in their concern for Mia Farrow's character, only to stick it to her in the end. As it was, they were blatantly obvious and Farrow didn't even start questioning them until it was too late.  And then when she did grow a bit of a backbone, she didn't stick with it.  Stupid berk.

Anyway, I'll probably re-rent it at a later stage and see if I change my mind.  Maybe I was just having a bad hair day or something. 

:thumbup:  karma 
Our pleasure, if I may be so bold as to speak for all contributors.  You're welcome!  Thank you for giving us a venue to talk about this film. 

You are right on, that's what movies are all about, projecting yourself onto a character.  Rosemary Woodhouse is perhaps too naive for today's woman, but perhaps not all women...?  Food for thought only. 

Well, I think in its day it was more subtle; you went into the film with certain expectations in the wake of today's deep horror like THE RING so you certainly expected something coming... one of the things that's interesting about this film (and other POLANSKI films) is that the film audience sees what's coming, but the main focus of our attention may not.  A large part of the horror of ROSEMARY'S BABY is the destruction of the innocence of the lead character. 

Great film, but certainly not for everybody (though it was a smash if I'm not mistaken).  You didn't like the music?  I hear that title and closing tune in my head sometimes... particularly on cold grey mornings or stifling hot afternoons.  MIA FARROW is a baby, is the baby, hideously losing her innocence and... her... baby...
 :smile: 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/music/wma-pop-up/B000068TN9001009

Mild Spoilerage Alert!

Allhallowsday,

I don't really remember the music.  I only saw it the one time and then returned it straight away.  Such was my disappointment.  I think I was actually groaning in pain at the awfulness of this movie for about 2 hours afterwards  *lol*

Life in 1965 was certainly much different from life today. I couldn't really relate to anything in this movie at all.   But some part of me likes to think that at an opportune moment, Rosemary took her demon spawn and killed the hell out of it just to spite the coven and the husband.  Then she sets fire to the oldies' apartment and gets the heck out of dodge only to become a rogue witch hunter herself, whilst spreading rumours about her husband being a rabid paedophile.

Oh, well, I suppose I can live in hope that the story will continue.

The film is 1968... your story is not nearly as original in 2007 as Ira Levin's story was in 1967 when his novel was published. 
I hear you, but remember, Rosemary's one wish was for the safety of her baby... her baby...  :smile:

Satanism wasn't dealt with in films...at least in mainstream films...seriously by major studios,up untill that time. You would have cheezy horror fliks (HORROR HOTEL, and the like),but a major film,with big name actors...dealing with satanism,rape,etc...that was quite conterversial back in the 60's.

To chime in on THE EXORCIST:

Definitely a classic.  And I think it is the #1 scariest movie ever made.  Unfortunately, I don't think it packs the same wallop today as it did in the 1970s.

Anyone who remembers the original theatrical run of THE EXORCIST will know what I'm talking about.  There was an unbelieveable amount of hype and word-of-mouth about how scary and shocking it was.  Some people found it so disturbing they needed to leave the theater in the middle of the movie or had nightmares about it.  I remember seeing talk shows devoted to discussions of the movie.  Church attendance increased noticeably in the U.S. after the movie came out.  I saw it at the drive-in and thought it was great.  However . . .

 . . . a few years ago, they released "the version you've never seen" to theaters.  I went to see it and and the theater was sold out.  However, no one in the theater seemed to be the least bit affected by the movie (possibly because many of them had seen it before).  Some people were even laughing at certain parts.  A couple of girls that seemed to be about 15 or 16 years old were sitting behind me and they spent most of the movie laughing and talking on their cell phones.  So, I guess the impact has worn off.  I think today's graphic movies (although they are usually not very scary) have desensitized most people.  But back in the 1970s, THE EXORCIST made a lot of people very afraid of the devil.  Really.

thew story did continue,and the sequels SUCK!!!don't watch them,please!and do give it another shot in a year or 2...may i recommend a couple of flicks for you?they might work better for the ambience you were expecting...
the gaurdian
full circle(this is also mia,she's less childlike in this one)
the changeling

maybe you'll like these,maybe you won't but all are worth a rental,specially if you're on netflix!
and if you like asian stuff,i can recommend around 60 right off the bat,i own tons !:)

zombie

Thanks for recommendations, 316Zombie.  I'll add them to my rental queue.

Teenagers are so fickle these days with movies.  It almost seems like you need the real Satan to jump out and bite them before they get scared  *lol*

I will watch Rosemary's Baby again in a year or so to see how I go.  I haven't really seen many older horror movies.  I think the oldest one I've seen was The Omen and then the next one with Sam Neill in it.  They were pretty good from what I remember.  But that was quite a while ago.

I'm not really a fan of Asian movies generally.  But I did enjoy The Host quite a bit.  And I saw a Godzilla movie where there were two American kids and their dad in it.  I think the Japanese parts were dubbed into English.  I guess that's not really horror, but I enjoyed that as well.

I think this is one of those movies you may be able to appreciate, but not exactly like if you grew up watching a lot of horror movies.  Even when I was a wee tot (less than ten), I had already seen enough devil movies that this movie seemed downright predictable.

"Mom, why doesn't the lady realize the old people are devil worshipers?"
"Because she's an idiot."

But, you say, it was original when it came out.  Ah-ha, I say, that was forty years ago!  I'll give it some respect for being one of the first big-studio devil movies but, these days, it's pretty stale and musty.

Frankly, I think Rosemary's Baby would have worked better if they left out all the stuff about the child of Satan and just made a movie about a woman who, during the course of her pregnancy, slowly realizes she doesn't want to be a parent.  Knowing the rest of your life is going to be devoted to a child you don't want --while everyone around you is so excited about it -- is, I think, one of the most horrifying of any real-life situations.

The oldest you've ever seen was the OMEN?
Noone of the early Universal Monster films? Or Val Lewton's RKO pictures of the 40's? No Lon Chaney Sr or Jr.? No Lugosi,Karloff, Lorre or Price?
None of the British Hammer Studio's pictures?
No PSYCHO? the original the HAUNTING? The BIRDS? No BLACK SUNDAY?!?!
No DEEP RED or the original TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE? NO NIGHT OF THE KIVING DEAD?!!?
I...I feel faint....
Wow...I envy you! You've got a LOT of GREAT viewing pleasure to look forward to!  :smile:
Me...I have to dig through obscure garbage to even find ONE gleaming nugget of GOOD horror... :bluesad:
But...I've developed a taste for insanely, BAD movies...so it's not so bad...! :teddyr:

One of the most difficult things to do is to suspend disbelief enough to allow the conventions of the age to work their magic --
Like learning about fine wine, gourmet cooking, archaeology, or anything else, it takes some focus and concentration.  You have to train yourself.
If you're experiencing cultural difficulty with "Rosemary's Baby", then you may not be able to appreciate such wonderful things like "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"(1919), or silent horror or black-and-white horror in general.
RC Merchant mentions Val Lewton.  Try picking up "Curse of The Cat People" or "The Body Snatchers" & watch them several times in a row.  Let the conventions of old-style acting & storytelling just sort of wash over you.  In time, you'll come to appreciate the beauty of the whirling chains on the car tire being heard as the approach of the Headless Horseman.
peter johnson/denny living in the past . . .

Yes.  I HIGHLY recommend the Val Lewton boxed set. 

really,you should definitely check out so many older films..geez,i wish i was you!there are so many amazing movies you haven't seen,in all genres..night of the hunter,you HAVE to see that,totally paranoid!!do you like anthology movies,like creepshow?there are SO many great anthologies out there,especially from the 60's and 70's...as to asian movies,have you seen ringu/it's the japanese original for the ring?WAY scarier than the u.s,version...geez,i REALLY wish i was you!

I've not got the boxed set, but some of Val Lewton's movies are worth watching.

The Body Snatcher is pretty good.  It's not even a little bit scary but Boris Karloff gives the best performance of his career in it.  Bela Lugosi is good in his scenes with Karloff, as well.  Curse of the Cat People is all right, if you don't really expect a "horror" movie.  Isle of the Dead is a horrible bomb, though.  I didn't care for Bedlam.  It just wasn't scary or ... anything.

Those are the Lewton movies I've seen.

Another Lewton movie is the CAT PEOPLE,which CURSE of the CAT PEOPLE was a quasi-sequel. Simone Simon plays a woman who...when sexually aroused, turns into a black panther (..or does she?) highly atmospheric and well done!

Which one do you all think is the better and more effective film? Repulsion or Rosemary's Baby?

I've always leaned a bit more towards Repulsion but they're both still classic films.

After reading this thread I got interested enough to check out youtube for the original trailer.  I'm too lazy to post the link but someone re-edited their own trailer for this movie presenting it as a chick flick to the theme of one of Enya's songs -absolutely hilarious.

I suppose it depends upon how you define "mainstream," and it may not have been obvious, but "The Masque of the Red Death" (1964), "The Seventh Victim" (1943), and "The Black Cat" (1934) all dealt with the subjects of Devil worship and Satanims before "Rosemary's Baby."

And I hold "Rosemary's Baby" to be one of the greatest horror films ever made.

torgo,i'd go with repulsion.to this day,my hubby still thanks me for introducing him to it,and still has nightmares about the walls of hands every time we watch it,lol!

Nope, never seen any of those.  I did see the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre with Jessica Biel and enjoyed that one.  I didn't really get into horror and gore until a few years ago when my 16 yo son was old enough to enjoy them.  He kind of dragged me along for the ride that way.  Until then I was more interested in comedies and rom-coms *shamedfaced*.  Although these days, horror/supernatural/terror/suspense/fantasy type movies are mostly what I watch.

I know I have a lot of movies to wade through and I figure I watch maybe 2 or 3 a week, so that leaves probably a lifetime of viewing still to go :thumbup:

I've written a list of all the recommendations from this board and as I get through them I'll provide a critique.  I understand b-movies are an acquired taste sometimes, so be prepared for someof them to be trashed   :teddyr:

Many thanks to everyone who have been quick to help out a newbie like me.   :smile:

trashing movies is kind of a given here,killer,lol!

You know, none of the numerous reviews I've read of that movie give away that spoiler.

Sorry! :bluesad: