Rosemary's Baby [1968] [DVD] | ![Rosemary's Baby [1968] [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41S6NKJKYWL._SL160_.jpg) | Director: Roman Polanski
Actors: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans
Studio: Paramount Home Entertainment
Category: DVD
List Price: £12.99
Buy New: £4.33
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Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 8766
Format: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL
Languages: English (Subtitles For The Hearing Impaired), Arabic (Subtitled), Bulgarian (Subtitled), Czech (Subtitled), Danish (Subtitled), Dutch (Subtitled), Finnish (Subtitled), German (Subtitled), Hungarian (Subtitled), Icelandic (Subtitled), Norwegian (Subtitled), Polish (Subtitled), Romanian (Subtitled), Swedish (Subtitled), Turkish (Subtitled), English (Original Language), German (Dubbed)
Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Region: 2
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 131 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5014437810434
ASIN: B000059L9G
Theatrical Release Date: June 12, 1968
Release Date: November 5, 2001
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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Amazon.co.uk Review
For IRosemary's Baby/I, his modern horror tale about Satanic worship and a pregnant woman's decline into madness, Roman Polanski moves from the traditional monolithic mansions of Gothic flicks to an apartment building in New York City. Based on Ira Levin's novel, the story concerns Rosemary (Mia Farrow) and Guy Woodhouse who find the apartment of their dreams in a luxurious complex in Manhattan. Soon after moving in and making friends with a group of elderly neighbours, Guy's career takes off and Rosemary discovers she is pregnant. Their happiness seems complete. But gradually Rosemary begins to sense that something is wrong with this baby, and slowly and surely her life begins to unravel. p Polanski uses such subtle means to build up the sense of preternatural disquiet that initially you suspect Rosemary's prenatal paranoia to be a figment of her imagination. But the guilty parties and their demonic plan to make Rosemary the receptacle of their master's child are eventually revealed and, as Rosemary looses her grip on reality, she realises that no one can be trusted. The performances are excellent throughout; Farrow as the young wife is so fragile that you wonder how she made it unscathed to adulthood and John Cassavetes is horrifyingly duplicitous as her husband Guy. But the real star is Polanski's masterful direction. The mood is at the same time oppressive and hysterical with the mounting terror coming from the situation and gradually unravelling plot rather than any schlock horror moments. p BOn the DVD:/B the Dolby 5.1 soundtrack shows off Christopher Komeda's eerie "lullaby" score to it's haunting best. The film is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and is relatively free of speckle and dust, some scenes filmed in low light are slightly grainier but this adds to the oppressive tension that Polanski is building up in the film. In terms of extras there is a 20-minute "making of" feature from 1968 and retrospective interviews with Polanski, production designer Richard Sylbert and producer Robert Evans. --IKristen Bowditch/I
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 21
 Polanski's urban horror classic November 15, 2000
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Rosemary's Baby is regarded by many as Roman Polanski's finest achievement. Although it is now 32 years since Poland's enfant terrible brought his adapation of Ira Levin's 1967 novel to the screen, it stands up well to the test of time. Starring Mia Farrow, Ruth Gordon, and John Cassavetes, Rosemary's Baby is a stylish and brilliantly executed set piece, accurately reflecting the New York of the late 1960's. pSet in the famous Dakota building - later to become infamous, following the senseless assassination of John Lennon, on its' doorsteps some two decades later - this masterpiece of suspense will chill even the most hot blooded spine. Polanski coaxed brilliant performances from his stellar cast, also featuring Sidney Blackmer, and Ralph Bellamy as Rosemary's insidious gynacologist, and Ruth Gordon won an Academy Award for her star turn as the nosy parker next door.pRosemary's Baby is not simply a classic tale of suspense and horror, but a fine example of how a feature film of the genre need not lose it's impact when viewed on the small screen. A 20th century classic! 5 stars. Kym Jones
A fantastic horror film and a very well made disc December 18, 2001
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is a truly brilliant film with a great script and great acting - especially from Ruth Gordon and Mia Farrow. The suspense is kept high throughout the film, and for anyone who's spent any time in New York City it will feel all the more real and horrifying. It's not a typical horror film in that there's no blood guts - the horror's purely psychological. Quality wise the film looks pretty clean detailed, obviously quite a lot of effort was put into the making of this disc. The sound quality is good for a film that's over thirty years old too. The menu layout is clean user-friendly and worked faultlessly (something of a first for a dvd!). All in all a great addition to any horror fan's DVD collection.
A superb, disturbing drama, but no horror movie March 17, 2003
Trygve Lie (Oslo, Norway)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
Rosemary's Baby is a magnificent movie. Mia Farrow puts in a stunning performance as the protagonist of the story; in my view one of the finest dramatic performances in modern film history. pIt is, however, somewhat misleading to categorise Rosemary's Baby as a horror film. By the modern conventions of what constitutes a horror film, it is no such thing; the terror in this film is understated and on the mental stage, and expressed without any outrageous scenes that make you jump in your chair. pNonetheless it will leave an impression on the viewer: the intellectualised depiction of terror in this film is since unsurpassed in the modern history of scary films.
Polanski's third suspense masterpiece. April 29, 2005
The Cobra Group (Bristol, UK)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Suspense as in classic Hitchcock, and a bit beyond, with horror and black humor of the first magnitude. ( Note- this is not millions of pounds worth of FX or CGI, or Grand Guignol gore: it's scarier than that. ) Uniformly excellent performances; Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon reach career highs. The soundtrack by the great Polish free jazz innovator Krzysztof Komeda courses from haunting lullaby to shreiking noise. (You can hear contemporary versions of this music, plus other Komeda/Polanski film scores, on trumpeter Tomasz Stanko's tribute to his friend and compatriot: Litania, on the ECM label.) pRosemary's Baby was the first American film for Polanski, and remains one of his most fully realized efforts, thematically and technically: Only Knife in the Water, Repulsion, Chinatown and The Tenant attain this level, but to me this is where it all the pieces fall into into place. Despite/because of the seeming cliches of the material, and the mix of very eccentric and very normal characters, Polanski suspends disbelief from the outset. The exceptional dream sequence will be better appreciated by those who know a bit of early 1960's American history. pProducer William Castle, director of many lesser but enjoyable B horror movies films like Straitjacket, The Tingler, and House on Haunted Hill, got lucky backing the relatively unknown director, and he has a brief cameo near the end- as does a very young Charles Grodin. Most of the shoot was on location in or around the gothic Dakota apartment building, John Lennon's tragic final address, and the other external shots of Manhattan circa 1967-8 reveal a surprisingly clean and graffiti-free urban environment.
A landmark in screen chills March 4, 2004
Andy Millward (Broxbourne, Herts, UK)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Whether you call it horror or not is purely symantics. At the age of about 11, I once stayed up and watched Rosemary's Baby on my own (a very long time ago!), and it certainly chilled me to the bone! pDon't be misled - this is a beautifully crafted film by a master of suspense, superbly performed and delivers the shocks in no small proportion. Techniques that are commonplace nowadays were innovated by Polanski in the late 1960s, so Rosemary's Baby is a landmark in the evolution of screen horror.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 21
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