Roman Polanski's 1968 urban nightmare has developed a well-deserved classic status over the last few decades and part of that is due to the tense, ever-building sense of dread he creates throughout the film, but equal credit should go to Mia Farrow's performance as the initially naive Rosemary Woodhouse. The story sees her and her husband Guy moving into a New York City apartment and becoming pregnant, only to have the other tenants in the building offer strange advice and medicine to help her through the pregnancy. Rosemary soon becomes afraid that her child may be the product of a satanist conspiracy - one she's determined not to be a part of - but her attempts to escape her manipulators and even her own husband fail and she's forced to give birth at a time and place she doesn't feel anywhere near safe in, a feeling many parents can surely feel empathy for. Rosemary's Baby is as much a story about the search for truth and freedom as it is occultism and the terror of having those you most love and trust betray you, and the lead's acquiescence to her and her child's fate could be seen as either her surrender to forces beyond her control or her decision to put motherhood before all else.
