1. Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Rosemary and Guy (a struggling actor) move into an old flat in an apartment block. Minnie and Roman Castevet are a friendly, harmless seeming old couple. Rosemary meets a girl called Terry who has been taken in by the Castevets. Terry jumps out of the Castevets' window. Rosemary and Guy have dinner with the old couple and Guy becomes particularly close to them. Soon Guy gets a role in a play after the actor he replaced went inexplicably blind. He tells Rosemary they should have a baby. On the night when they are trying to conceive, Minnie gives them chocolate mousse. Rosemary 'hallucinates' that she was raped by the devil while Guy, the Casevets and other apartment block people stand around watching her naked. She wakes up with scratches on her back and Guy says he had sex with her while she was unconscious because he didn't want to miss out a golden conception moment. Rosemary becomes pregnant but for the first three months, she is horribly sick. A friend gives her a book about witchcraft and Rosemary becomes convinced that she is dealing with an apartment block full of witches, including her husband who has made a deal with Satan to further his career. When Rosemary gives birth, she is told the baby died. However she can hear a baby mewling in another room. She goes to investigate and looks at her baby who has the devil's eyes. She is told Guy is not the father and baby Adrian is the devil's spawn. Sadly, she adjusts the baby's blanket. "This is no dream! This is really happening!". Poor Mia Farrow has a terrible time at the hands of some Satanists/witches who use her to go forth and multiply with the devil's child. We know from the beginning that there is something fishy about the apartment block. The Casevets are just a tad bit too friendly, and why did that girl Terry jump out of their window? Mia Farrow is perfect in her role as the naive young housewife who is bewildered by what all is going on around her. We see the Devil rape sequence through her eyes which is simultaneously hazy and vague yet horribly real. The paranoia in the film is ramped up to hard to bear proportions as we wonder about everyone's motives and actions. Surely Guy cannot have made a pact with the devil to further his career - especially as it is to the detriment of his wife. How can the nice little couple next door be Satanists? The paranoia is what gives Rosemary's Baby its edge. Plus it is a very well acted film - especially Mia Farrow - who carries our doubts and suspicions around with her in a truly professional and believable way.