I recently re-watched this for the first time since I was a kid, and I realized I've got two major problems with this movie:
1. Ruth Gordon seems to be acting in another film. I know she won the Oscar for this performance, but whereas everything else is about paranoia and slow builds, she's so insanely over the top that it's almost comical. Sidney Blackmer was sort of buffoonish, but there was an underlying menace to him as well, especially in that first scene where he's talking to John Cassavetes. Gordon, on the other hand, came across like she should've been someone's over the top grandmother in a sitcom.
2. The Japanese Satanist at the end. The movie is just coming off a pretty well done climax. Mia Farrow's paranoia finally gets the better of her, a near escape is ripped out from underneath her, and she ends up giving birth to the baby under the care of the evil satanists, still thinking they want to sacrafice her kid. Okay, fine. I'm with it so far. Then she finds out the truth, finds out that her kid is actually the anti-christ, and the scene is punctuated by the spirited Engrish exclamation of "HAIR SATAN!" by a random Japanese guy taking pictures of the whole thing.
What. The. Fuck.
There is nothing approaching that level of insanity in the rest of the movie. It's about as straightlaced (Ruth Gordon's batshit insanity aside) as a movie about getting knocked up by Satan can be, and then suddenly, during the movie's big reveal, we're greeted by a Japanese guy comically snapping photos and telling us how much he digs Lucifer. By the time the movie ends and we're left pondering whether or not Rosemary is actually going to raise her little hellspawn, I didn't care because I was too busy forumlating elaborate backstories for Excited Japanese Satan Fan.
1. Ruth Gordon seems to be acting in another film. I know she won the Oscar for this performance, but whereas everything else is about paranoia and slow builds, she's so insanely over the top that it's almost comical. Sidney Blackmer was sort of buffoonish, but there was an underlying menace to him as well, especially in that first scene where he's talking to John Cassavetes. Gordon, on the other hand, came across like she should've been someone's over the top grandmother in a sitcom.
2. The Japanese Satanist at the end. The movie is just coming off a pretty well done climax. Mia Farrow's paranoia finally gets the better of her, a near escape is ripped out from underneath her, and she ends up giving birth to the baby under the care of the evil satanists, still thinking they want to sacrafice her kid. Okay, fine. I'm with it so far. Then she finds out the truth, finds out that her kid is actually the anti-christ, and the scene is punctuated by the spirited Engrish exclamation of "HAIR SATAN!" by a random Japanese guy taking pictures of the whole thing.
What. The. Fuck.
There is nothing approaching that level of insanity in the rest of the movie. It's about as straightlaced (Ruth Gordon's batshit insanity aside) as a movie about getting knocked up by Satan can be, and then suddenly, during the movie's big reveal, we're greeted by a Japanese guy comically snapping photos and telling us how much he digs Lucifer. By the time the movie ends and we're left pondering whether or not Rosemary is actually going to raise her little hellspawn, I didn't care because I was too busy forumlating elaborate backstories for Excited Japanese Satan Fan.
