"This is no dream! This is really happening!"
— Rosemary Woodhouse
- Rosemary, dizzy after being drugged, is helpless while being abducted by a cult and raped by Satan. A brief glimpse allows Rosemary (and the audience) to see the Devil's Glowing Eyes of Doom from her perspective.
- For parents, the premise of the movie itself. What's worse than an unhealthy baby? A demonic one!
- Author Ira Levin stated that he was inspired by films such as The Haunting (1963) in which the monster is only revealed late in the film or not at all. He was tickled at the thought of a story in which the monster's true form is hidden for nine months and is growing inside the heroine.
- Rosemary's predicament a few days before going into labour: She is being manipulated and conspired against by everyone around her, realizes it, and is powerless to stop it all.
- Rosemary being held down by Guy and the satanic cult as they force a sedative into her arm and muffle her cries with a towel. Then she goes into labor.
- Imagine having a baby, only to be told that it died in the childbirth, then to find out that the child actually survived and was taken by crazy people.
- Once Rosemary discovers the satanic cult. Even at knifepoint, they still remain calm, charming and frightening to the new mother. As Rosemary makes her way to her baby's crib, the cult members just stand around, motionless and eerie.
- The ambiguity over what the baby looks like. It is never shown on-screen, only vague descriptions of its appearance are given, thus fueling the dark side of the audience's imaginations.Rosemary: What have you done to its eyes?!Roman: He has his father's eyes.Rosemary: What are you talking about? Guy’s eyes are normal! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HIM, YOU MANIACS?!Roman: Satan is his father, not Guy. He came up from Hell and begat a son of mortal woman.Elderly male cult member: Hail, Satan.Elderly female cult member: Hail, Satan.Roman: Satan is his father, and his name is Adrian. He shall overthrow the mighty and lay waste their temples. He shall redeem the despised and wreak vengeance in the name of the burned and the tortured! Hail, Adrian!Satanic cult members: Hail, Adrian!Roman: Hail, Satan! Hail, Satan!Satanic cult members: Hail, Satan!Minnie Castevet: He chose you out of all the world. Out of all the women in the whole world, he chose you. He arranged things because he wanted you to be the mother of his only living son.Roman: His power is stronger than stronger! His might shall last longer than longer!Satanic cult member: Hail, Satan!Rosemary: NO!! IT CAN'T BE! NO!!!!Minnie: Go look at his hands.Laura-Louise: And his feet!Rosemary: Oh God!Roman: GOD IS DEAD! SATAN LIVES! THE YEAR IS ONE! The year is one and God is done! The year is one! Hail, Adrian! Hail, Satan!
- As Rosemary screams "Oh God!", a shot of the devil's face and red eyes can be seen zooming out.
- Rosemary and Guy are enjoying a romantic moment in their bedroom when they hear ominous chanting coming from the Castavets' apartment. It's the first real suspenseful moment in the film, and a foreboding omen of what's to come.
- In the remake, Margaux takes revenge on her husband's behalf by cursing the assailant to wake up during open chest surgery to treat his own gunshot wound. As the doctors say, there is no natural explanation for waking up under such large amounts of general anesthetic. Not only this, but it's clear that he's feeling the intense amounts of pain with no anaesthesia left in his system and his bloody innards wide open. He soon dies, and the viewer is left rather shocked that such levels of gorn were allowed on televised broadcast.note
- Just put yourself in Rosemary's shoes: You're a young girl from Nebraska in the big city, you meet a handsome and charming man and before you know it, you're married, in a luxury apartment and expecting a baby. It all sounds too good to be true, right? Then you gradually start to notice strange things, the neighbors next door seem just a bit too interested in your pregnancy and people around you keep dying and you eventually realize the full situation but are utterly helpless to escape.
