10 Shocking Examples Of Gaslighting In Movies
6. Rosemary's Baby
Rosemary's Baby belongs in the pantheon of horror movies. Rather than being rooted in shock and awe moments of jump scares and bloody knives and hooks, Polanski's classic film is instead rooted in more everyday threats to one's safety. A woman and her husband try to get pregnant, and, after passing out, has a dream she's raped by a demon. The husband tells her no, he had sex with her while she was sleeping. Things may not get worse from there, but they certainly don't get better.
Rosemary has an obstetrician she prefers, but their creepy new neighbors insist that she use their own doctor, a mysterious man with very unusual caretaking methods. Her pregnancy goes poorly. She's in constant pain and has odd hunger cravings. Rosemary's husband, Guy, is strangely adamantly opposed to her getting a second medical opinion. When she does get a second opinion, the doctor doesn't believe her and believes she is going insane.
The threat of Rosemary's baby is not just the spreading of the demon seed. It's the abuse by Rosemary's husband, a person she is supposed to trust who enlists her as a pawn of a demonic cult without her knowledge or consent. Though she instinctively feels something is awry, her worries are always cast aside by those around her, minimized as she is made to feel as if her own gut reactions are foolish.