Rosemary’s Baby was released on 4K Ultra HD on October 10, 2023, to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the horror classic. The new 4K Ultra HD package includes a Blu-ray as well as a Digital version and comes packaged in newly commissioned artwork.
Meanwhile, here’s our previous coverage of the movie from way back in 2012.
Rosemary’s Baby is a 1968 American horror film written and directed by Roman Polanski (Repulsion; Cul-de-sac; The Fearless Vampire Killers; The Tenant; The Ninth Gate) based on the 1967 novel by Ira Levin (The Stepford Wives).
The movie stars Mia Farrow (See No Evil aka Blind Terror), John Cassavetes (Incubus), Ruth Gordon, Maurice Evans, Sidney Blackmer and Charles Grodin. It was produced by William Castle (director of House on Haunted Hill; The Tingler).
Farrow plays a pregnant woman who fears that her husband may have made a pact with their eccentric neighbours, believing he may have promised them the child to be used as a human sacrifice in their occult rituals in exchange for success in his acting career.
The film was an enormous commercial success, earning over $33 million in the US alone on a modest budget of $3.2 million. It was met with near-universal acclaim from film critics and earned numerous nominations and awards.
In 1976, a TV movie sequel, Look What’s Happened to Rosemary’s Baby, followed. In 2014, an NBC TV mini-series reimagined Ira Levin’s novel.
Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow), a bright but somewhat naive young housewife, and Guy (John Cassavetes), her husband and a struggling actor, move into the Bramford, a Gothic Revival 19th century New York City apartment building. Their neighbours, Minnie and Roman Castevet (Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer) are an elderly and slightly eccentric couple who tend to be meddlesome but appear to be harmless.
Rosemary meets a young woman, Terry Gionoffrio (Victoria Vetri) in the basement laundry room, and Terry tells her she has been taken in and helped by the Castevets after having slept on the streets and doing drugs. She says Roman and Minnie have been like grandparents to her. As Rosemary admires a pendant necklace the Castevets gave to Terry, she remarks on the strange smell which seems to be coming from the pendant, and Terry tells her it is from some kind of root. Returning home one night, Guy and Rosemary see a commotion and police on the street outside the Bramford; Terry has thrown herself to her death from the window of the Castevets’ seventh-floor apartment.
A short while after Terry’s death, Minnie invites Rosemary and Guy to dinner, and though they are reluctant to go, they ultimately do, and Guy forms a bond with the Castavets (though Rosemary remains reluctant to become too friendly with them). Minnie also gives Rosemary the pendant which had belonged to Terry, telling her it is a good luck charm and the odd smell is from a plant called “tannis root”…
Reviews:
“The film works on multiple levels – as a supernatural thriller (though explicit paranormal elements are limited to a hallucinatory dream sequence and the final shot of the baby’s eyes), as a psychological thriller about a paranoid pregnant woman who imagines herself at the centre of a conspiracy, and as the last word in marital betrayal, since the most despicable villain here is surely Guy…” The Guardian
“Farrow and Cassavetes’s performances as a couple disintegrating serve Polanski well in his attempt to make the potential alienation of everyday family life feel horrific, and the faux-naive score, evoking lullabies, makes the whole affair feel doubly creepy in the most heady way possible.” Time Out
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” …various close-ups of Rosemary’s changing face throughout the film that are so good that actually there is an abundance of easy-to-see details and textures now that are nowhere to be seen on the DVD release. Shadow definition is also greatly improved. What pleases the most, however, is the very solid organic look the film has.” Blu-ray.com
“It’s an involving and frightening story based on Ira Levin’s novel about the secret lives of neighbors and the paranoid suspicions of one young woman played terrifically by Mia Farrow. The Blu-ray arrives with an excellent audio and video presentation. With all-new bonus material that’s worthwhile, the package is a must-own for cinephiles and horror fans alike.” High-Def Digest
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