Rosemary's Baby - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Rosemary's Baby



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
Rosemary’s Baby is almost an urban legend in the horror world. There’s been rumors upon rumors stacked upon conspiracy theories about the film being cursed. Not to mention theories that it was the influence behind the horrible murder of director Roman Polanski’s wife, Sharon Tate, by Charles Manson’s group. Whether any of that is true will probably never be known, and likely most of it is simply made up (remember how conspiracy theories about Linda Blair being psychologically damaged on the making of The Exorcist ran rampant for decades?), it certainly makes for a sense of ambiance and mood setting whenever the film is brought up among film fans.

After reviewing The Exorcist a few weeks back and seeing comments on how The Exorcist was so hokey and cheesy back then (it was probably the freakiest movie I had ever seen, and the movie still creeps me out to this day), I have to admit that that is how I feel about Rosemary’s Baby. It’s a bonafide classic that is beloved the horror movie world over, but for some reason I can never take the film that seriously. Maybe it has to do with the over the top stage acting of the 1960s, or maybe it was due to the fact that the main “enemy” was Satan in the film. Back in the 1960s and early 70s, Satan was the big bad frightening thing to people, and films capitalized on it. I guess it comes from being a reformed Calvinist who views the occult as spiritual fan-fiction, but the whole Satan angle is more comical than it is terrifying. That being said, the film is still a well crafted flick that has a lot going for it, with a slow burn psychological build up that culminates in one of the most (at the time) creepy endings that the world had ever seen.

The film revolves around a young couple named Rosemary (Mia Farrow) and her husband Guy (John Cassavetes) moving into a rent controlled New York apartment to be closer to Guy’s work as an actor. Things seem to be going well at first, with the couple getting ready to hopefully conceive for the first time, only for the young neighbor upstairs to commit suicide by throwing herself out of a window. The young girl’s adoptive grandparents Minnie (Ruth Gordon) and Roman (Sidney Blackmer) form a friendship with the young couple after the death, but seem to be a little TOO involved if you know what I mean. Rosemary’s wish soon comes true and she becomes pregnant, only for the advances of the neighbors and her own husband take a turn for the dark.

At first it’s simply little nuances that could be mistaken. A dessert that tastes chaulky to Rosemary but not to Guy. Then the neighbors seems to take an interest in helping her with getting a good doctor. As the months go on her own experiences are getting stranger and stranger, with Guy spending more and more times with the neighbors, as well as Rosemary having horrible dreams involving an evil presence. Little by little the young mother begins to suspect that she’s being gaslit and drugged, and soon there is no one left to turn to as the world seems to be enveloping her in a grand conspiracy that is hurtling her towards the brink of insanity.

As I said before, I have a hard time taking Rosemary’s Baby seriously. Mia Farrow is delightful as the young mother Rosemary. She has that fantastic sense of confusion and sweetness to her that ingratiates her to you so well. However, the older cast (especially Minnie and Roman) are much less serious, having an almost Vaudeville like persona to them. Almost like a slightly tamer (and unintentionally) and straight faced version of Fran Drescher’s relatives in The Nanny. That being said, the film itself does a great job with the pacing, keeping the 2 hours and 17 minute film feeling fresh and engaging, despite some of the wonky acting. Do I love the movie to death? No. But I do appreciate what it did back 55 years ago in the horror community and can appreciate Roman Polanski’s work (before he went off the rails and became a criminal).




Rating:

Rated R by the MPAA





4K Video: Video:

Struck from a new 4K master, Paramount gives us a sticking 4K UHD disc (as well as a Blu-ray struck from the same master. Something which surprised me considering how Paramount has been eliminating the Blu-ray from the 4K packages recently) that really breathes new life into the film. I haven’t seen the Criterion collection Blu-ray release, but this is a fantastic step forward from the old DVD that I used to have back in the day. The image is wonderfully filmic, with a great layer of grain over the entire image. The framing is the original 1.85:1 vs. the 1.78:1 of the old DVD (and supposedly the Criterion release Blu-ray as well), and outside of the truly AWFUL colors that people wore in the 1960s, this is a vibrant and sparkling looking film. There’s lots of tweed brown and orange, with sickly looking greens and yellows that were indicative of the time, and the HDR application looks superb. Everything is crystal clear with only a few soft optical shots here and there, and black levels show every black shadow (or black crib covering) with razor sharp accuracy and no signs of any major artifacting.








Audio:

The film sports the original 2.0 Mono in Dolby TrueHD and the results are about what one would expect for a horror movie of the time period. The dialog is mostly perfect, though there are a couple of screams that sound a bit harsh on the high end of the sound spectrum, and there’s not a whole lot of panning effects. This is a very simple dialog heavy film that has some nice scoring from Krzystof Komeda in the background. Simple, effective, but never flashy or wild.












Extras:

• Rosemary's Baby - A Retrospective
• Mia and Roman
• Theatrical Trailer
• 50th Anniversary Redband Trailer

Final Score: ​

Rosemary’s Baby is a classic horror film for one of Cinema’s most acclaimed (and reviled) directors. The film hasn’t aged as well as I would have hoped, and while I enjoy the experience, I don’t love the movie to death. Fans of the movie will enjoy the brand new 4K master that is present on both the 4K and the Blu-ray disc, and the extras found on the Blu-ray as well. Good classic watch is my recommendation.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruther Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans, Ralph Bellamy
Directed by: Roman Polanski
Written by:Ira Levin, Roman Polanski
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby TrueHD 2.0 Mono, French, German, Italian DD 52.0 Mono
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Dutch
Studio: Paramount
Rated: R
Runtime: 137 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: October 10th, 2023

Recommendation: Good classic.

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I never saw this so will try and check it out.