Rosemary's Baby, arguably Roman Polanski's finest film and the film which might well just contain Mia Farrow's finest performance ever, clings to the sort of balmy plot that could well have been downright silly: Farrow, playing the Rosemary of the title, becomes convinced that her husband (John Cassavetes) has made a pact with their odd neighbours to use her baby in an occult ritual in exchange for career success. If it sounds a little goofy, the movie renders it cold and real; indeed, Rosemary's Baby is a low-key, mostly subtle horror film that gets under the skin. Polanski directs the film masterfully and intelligently, but the next door neighbours provide much of the dramatic action here, played brilliantly by Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer (Gordon even won an Oscar for her turn), whose sinister - and devilish - drives the narrative. The best thing about Rosemary's Baby is the way in which we're drawn into Rosemary's position of fear and dread surrounding her unusual situation - we don't feel like we're watching somebody else being tortured as much as we feel ourselves going through everything with her.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
