11 HORRIFYING Films About Cults
2. Rosemary's Baby
Another undisputed classic horror film. Released in 1968, the film is based on the novel of the same name, written by Ira Levin.
Rosemary (Mia Farrow) and her husband Guy (John Cassavetes) move into The Bramford – an old apartment building in New York. The major city setting of Rosemary’s Baby is unusual for these cult horror films. Normally these cults are sequestered to isolated, distant places; the idea of a satanic cult hiding in plain sight in a populated city is a powerful idea - and a prescient one giving the rise of the satanic panic in the '80s.
Rosemary and Guy are inundated with well-wishers when they move into the building; they all seem friendly enough, even if Rosemary thinks they’re busybodies - they pester the couple non-stop.
Rosemary hears a story circulating that the building has a dark past and some historical connection with witchcraft, but it’s quickly dismissed as gossip.
When Rosemary becomes pregnant, her neighbours develop an unhealthy interest in her unborn baby.
The film is a superb exploration of paranoia; Rosemary suspects that the cult wants her baby for some unthinkable purpose, and she has no idea who she can turn to for help.