“Wei, Christ, Marx and Wood
Made us humble, made us good.”
Wouldn’t have been the first time.
Anyway, if the sequels can influence how you interpret the original film, it’s unambiguous that Rosemary was caught up in a cult and that supernatural things are real in the story’s world in the made-for-TV sequel Look What’s Happened to Rosemary’s Baby.
In the novel’s sequel, it’s unambiguous that Rosemary was caught up in an Ira Levin novel, the full horror of which is made clear to us only too late.
You’re correct - the pure horror of the sequel is only apparent after the first page.
You know how good the first book was? That’s how bad the sequel was.
Regards,
Shodan
You win the SDMB for the day, and it’s not even 9AM. I’ll just find a quiet corner to sit in, and read a book.
The book was a masterpiece. It also covers the abortion debate quite nicely: Rosemary is a lapsed Catholic, is raped, and is giving birth to a deformed baby and having a very difficult pregnancy. Yet she decides “I won’t have an abortion.”
I’ve always wondered about her husband’s Guy motivations. He is so anxious for fame and fortune that he is willing to have his wife give birth to the Devil’s child?
Yes.
From memory, I think the scene in question went like:
Rosemary, recoiling in horror: What have you done to his eyes?!!?
Roman Castevet: He has his father’s eyes!
Ro: Guy’s eyes are normal!
RC: Satan is his father!
Flashback of floating demonic eyes from the rape scene.
Yeah, that’s darn subtle and subject to so many interpretations. 
This is why the book & film caused such a sensation in 1968. Up to that point (and I’m pulling this out my hat, but it feels true) any literal depiction of people dealing with the devil was set in medieval times and involved stereotypical witches and sorcerers. (For example, Roger Corman’s MST3K-fodder, The Undead.) Putting it in modern day New York blew people’s minds.
Another thing I’ve always wondered: Was Rosemary’s pregnancy agony a physical pain caused by carrying Satan’s child, or caused by the coven to keep her in line. It’s too damn convenient that it suddenly goes away right after Rosemary decides to see another doctor.
I know these, along with Revulsion, make up the the aforementioned trilogy but could you expound on the connection between these two? When I watch any of these I see them as being in their own universe with no relation to the others whatsoever. Am I missing another level that might enhance my enjoyment of these already great films?
I thought it was the tannis root they were feeding her - not to keep her in line, but as magic to assist the development of Satan’s child. And it stops when she insists on not taking it anymore. The idea is that they stop feeding it to her so she doesn’t catch on to what is happening. She says IIRC in the book that she wants regular vitamin pills.
It’s part of the craving for raw flesh that she experiences, which also goes away when she stops taking the tannis root. It then becomes a more normal pregnancy, until the other stuff they are trying to hide (the anagram name of Roman Castavett, the blindness of the actor in competition for her husband’s role, the death of Hutch) tips her off way too late.
It’s part of the plot arc, where, as long as she is under the control of the coven, things are weird, but then become more normal and she thinks all is well. Then the other weird witchy things happen, and the coven and Guy can convince everyone that she has pre-partum depression and is crazy, so they can separate her from her child. She thinks it is so they can use her child as a human sacrifice or something, which makes her regular doctor think she is crazy. Then she is confronted with the even more crazy idea that she has given birth to Satan’s son - and she really does go crazy, and reconciles herself to being his mother. She has the same realization that she did while she was being raped by Satan - “this is no dream, this is really happening!” And just like she was able to convince herself that if she did normal things, she would have a normal pregnancy, if she behaves like a normal mother (“You’re rocking him too hard”), she will have a normal child.
Remember that her first impulse was to kill the baby and commit suicide, like the recovering drug addict that Roman and his wife took in to use as the first incubator for Satan’s child. It isn’t mentioned, but I was never sure if the drug addict killed herself when she found out she was going to be raped by Satan, or after, when she found out too early that she was pregnant by Satan. The coven learned from that not to let the prospective mother figure out what they were up to until it was too late.
Regards,
Shodan
I wouldn’t call it “going crazy” – more like, “maternal instinct trumps all.” On the one hand, the immortal souls of all humanity are at risk. On the other: he’s my baby. Baby wins.
Why? Did they name him Basil? Or was it just a waste of thyme?
Sage advice cumin from you.
Now you’ve tarragon and done it.
That’s so bad you deserve to be maced. And Kimballkid is parsley responsible.
Go and cinnamon no more.
Regards,
Shodan
(slight digression)
This movie features a weird cameo appearance of a sort.
Ralph Bellamy and William Castle both seem to be playing the same impatient person waiting for Rosemary to get out of the phone booth in “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968). You get to see William Castle’s face with his omnipresent cigar when he enters the phone booth–but moments earlier, you see Ralph Bellamy’s back apparently playing the same impatient patron.
(we now return you to your puns, already in progress)
So they’re no longer being held at bay?
I think that was a deliberate fake-out, playing off Rosemary’s paranoia. She thinks (and we think) she sees Dr Saperstein (Ralph Bellamy); but he turns around and its a harmless stranger (William Castle). Whew.