Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Rosemary's Baby (1968)

It's October! Bring on the scares, the pronounced shadows, shrilling screams, and supernatural monsters!

Although I am terrified of any noise that echoes from the shadows, I absolutely adore this month. Its okay to scream and feel that release that comes from being scared. It's thrilling, exciting, and silly.

I have to admit that I tend to play around in the low meter of the horror spectrum of movies. I am even ridiculously scared of movies geared towards children.

I am a complete hypocritical wuss. Some one once commented that I must be unconsciously working through my fears. I don't know how true that may be but lets do so for this month. I will try my hand at writing about the many movies that have terrified, thrilled, or made me nervous.And so I won't wake up in the middle of the night with nightmares, I will try to counteract with a feel good. Well that's the plan, we'll see how it works.

It's easy to give an audience a cheap thrill. How effective that thrill is executed is up to the skill of the filmmakers. For me, I am more terrified and awed of movies that leave me paranoid for days. These movies project some invisible menacing horror that just stays in my mind for days. I'm eyeing people on the streets and double-checking the locks on my door.

One of the first movies that popped in my mind when complying this list definitely embodied this category. I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. "Rosemary's Baby" is one of the top horror movie of all time. Hands down.

"Rosemary's Baby" is a thriller movie involving a young housewife Rosemary( as played by Mia Farrow). She and her actor-to-be husband live in an apartment with very suspicious elderly neighbors. Suspicious to Rosemary. The neighbors appear to be normal and meddlesome. Most elders are meddlesome so that shouldn't be too suspicious but something about it just makes it terrifying.To Rosemary's chagrin, her husband seems to become closer and closer to these neighbors.

The young couple decides to conceive a baby together. During a celebration of the husband getting a chance at a role (through, gasp, suspicious means!), Rosemary ends up eating something from the neighbors which causes her to pass out. During her feint, she believes that she is raped by a demonic being.

As Rosemary carries her child, her fears begin to escalate as she suspects that her baby is not human. No one believes her and we watch her spin out in hysteria. It's a movie full of suspense and questions. The ending shouldn't be surprising but it was.

There are no gimmicks or special effects. It's one of those human relationship movies that tap into our inner paranoia. This simple movie is able to make me question on what I perceive to be real. The original "monsters walk among us". You won't be screaming after watching this movie. However, your eyes will be straining out of your sockets to track every detail around you.

1 comment:

Katie said...

This was always a movie that I thought was too scary to watch. ::shudders::
Glad you can watch it, though! I like your idea of scary-movie theme month!