Rosemary's Baby / YMMV

Alternative Character Interpretation: Most people take the ending at face value, but it's vague enough that there's room for speculation. Is Rosemary paranoid, with delusions brought on by a difficult pregnancy? Is that final scene just another nightmare? Or are the Castevets the delusional ones, spinning coincidental happenings as proof of their powers? Or maybe they're all feeding each other's delusions? Even the creators had differing views on this: Ira Levin insisted Rosemary's experience was genuine, while Roman Polański said he deliberately kept things open-ended.
Aluminum Christmas Trees: Younger viewers may be a little surprised to see that Rosemary has to see if she's pregnant by visiting the doctor and getting her blood drawn, and then wait to find out the results later.
Award Snub: Ruth Gordon won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and Roman Polański was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, but it wasn't up for Best Picture, Director or Actress. Critics praised Mia Farrow's performance, and she was convinced to stay on the project despite Frank Sinatra threatening to divorce her over it by being assured she'd certainly win an Academy Award for her performance; sadly, she didn't... and he did.
Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Minnie's catty sidekick Laura-Louise is only on-screen for about five minutes, but Patsy Kelly (who'd been a minor comedy star during The Golden Age of Hollywood playing Deadpan Snarker characters) gives a great performance in the role and is one of the most memorable things about the film.
- Judging from Google searches, the Trench sisters have captured some people's imaginations far beyond their brief mention by Hutch in the story.
- Based on a passing reference in Son of Rosemary to "Pearl Ames and her pets," someone at IMDB decided she was a Kindhearted Cat Lover and wrote a fake Wikipedia article about her; a gifted African American jazz composer-performer who was more sinned against than sinning.
Harsher in Hindsight:
- Rosemary is fed some type of roofie before getting raped. Roman Polański was later convicted of drugging and raping an underage girl.^note
- Roman Polański makes a film about a cult targeting a pregnant woman, and the following year the Manson Family kills his wife Sharon Tate, who was eight months pregnant. And there's the coincidental fact that the fictional cult is led by a man named Roman.
- The apartment building exterior used in the film is actually the Dakota, now best known as the site of John Lennon's murder. (The fact that the film was made there was repeatedly mentioned in the radio reports on that night.) The entryway where Lennon was shot to death is prominently featured. At the end of Son of Rosemary, Hutch excitedly tells Rosemary a rent-free house-sitting sublet is available in the Dakota and "one of the Beatles is dickering for the apartment right next door."
- The Satanic Panic, a witch-hunt that took place in the '80s and '90s in the US and UK (yes, that's the 1980s-90s), involved innocent people getting tried and imprisoned over some rather wild accusations that were in some cases awfully close to the story of this film. Ira Levin later expressed regret that the popularity of his novel and its movie adaptation helped to pave the way for similarly satanic-themed films and books, which may in turn have helped to spark the Satanic Panic.
- Mia Farrow's role is a mother whose husband controls her, betrays her, and is powerless to protect her child from him and others. This carries a lot of baggage given Farrow's tumultuous personal life, including her then-marriage to Frank Sinatra (who'd forced her to give up her budding career as a condition of marrying him and then divorced her when she took the role), her subsequent romantic partnership with Woody Allen (who left her to marry their adopted daughter), the premature deaths of several of her children, and the accusations of abuse and manipulation that have been leveled at both her and Allen by various children.
It Was His Sled: Ask anyone who's never seen the movie what they know about it. Chances are the baby's father being Satan (or at least a demon) will be the first thing they come up with.
Narm: This plus Nothing Is Scarier is the reason Rosemary's baby is not shown on screen. In the book, the baby has a tail, horn buds, clawed hands, and hooves, in addition to golden-yellow eyes. Roman Polański couldn't think of a way to present the image without making the baby look like a Li'l Devil, and instead decided to let Rosemary's horrified reaction inform the audience.
Nightmare Retardant:
- A scene in the book where a half-conscious Rosemary vaguely perceives herself surrounded by nude, chanting, elderly cultists comes off as grotesque and nightmarish. The same scene in the film—Rosemary surrounded by naked septuagenarian comedy legends of Hollywood's Golden Age—only evoked uncomfortable laughter, and critics then and now point to it as one of the film's least-effective moments. (Imagine if the cultists were played by the fully naked, completely serious cast of The Golden Girls and you might have some idea of the effect on the film's original audience.)
- The ending scene does not play out quite as horrifyingly as many viewers might have been expecting, given the film's reputation, with a tone that's more a mix of Mundane Horror and Black Comedy than a frightfest; the Satanists, who are almost all genial senior citizens, aren't any scarier when they start chanting "Hail Satan!" There are also several moments Played for Laughs even in the final moments, such as Patsy Kelly childishly sticking out her tongue at Rosemary, and the Japanese man who smiles and snaps photographs like a stereotypical tourist.
Retroactive Recognition: A party scene in the film fittingly features a nonspeaking extra who would go on to become a real cult leader, generally calling himself "Michel." His cult, Buddahfield, gained widespread attention as the subject of the 2016 documentary Holy Hell.
Sequelitis:
- Look Whats Happened To Rosemarys Baby, a 1976 Made-for-TV Movie about Rosemary's now-grown son Andrew/Adrian struggling to adjust to adult life and his role as the Antichrist. It was directed by Sam O'Steen, who'd edited the 1968 film, and Ruth Gordon was back as Minnie. But the rest of the main roles were filled by The Other Darrin: Ray Milland as Roman^note (out of necessity, since Sidney Blackmer died in 1973), Patty Duke (who'd auditioned for the role in 1968) as Rosemary, and George Maharis as Guy. It also had little else that made the original film worthwhile, but some modern reviewers feel its So Bad, It's Good.
- Ira Levin published a literary sequel, Son of Rosemary, in 1997. It was a critical and financial failure.
Values Dissonance:
- Smoking in front of pregnant women is considered perfectly all right. Hell, there are ashtrays in the obstetrician's waiting room!
- One Drink Will Kill the Baby is invoked only in the book when Rosemary makes her own drink to substitute for Minnie's, and puts a bit of sherry in it; when the pain suddenly stops, her first thought is that the sherry has killed it. In the film she just tells Guy her drink had "eggs, milk, sugar." At best, Rosemary is advised not to have more than one drink. She has a small glass of champagne with Minnie and Roman when they celebrate her announcement, but at her own party, when Guy says "careful of the booze," she reassures him it's just ginger ale.
- Guy's treatment of his wife is a lot more patriarchal than modern viewers would expect, though some of this is due to him taking the side of the Satanists. It's part of the characterization that Guy is an asshole, much more of one than Rosemary wants to admit, and when she does, she excuses it as him just being an actor. At one point, Rosemary wakes up with scratches and Guy explains that he was just so aroused in the night he couldn't help but assault her, and apologizes not for completely ignoring her consent, but for not being more careful. While this is definitely not portrayed as okay and Rosemary is upset with him, she treats it more as a slight and not as a serious crime—not to mention the fact Guy says this to her with absolutely no shame and considers it a good cover story for the fact the actual rapist is Satan. Of course, in 1967 when the book came out, it wasn't a crime. It would be another seven years before any US state made marital rape illegal (and it wasn't New York).
- People's overt criticisms of Rosemary's appearance (Guy telling her that her haircut is the "worst mistake she ever made" and her British friend commenting that she "looks like a piece of chalk") might be a case of old-fashioned values or simply on-the-nose dialogue from tactless characters. Granted, the "piece of chalk" guy was an old friend who was shocked at her sick, pale, washed-out appearance at the party; at the time, she was in agony and needed someone to notice how much she was suffering.
The Woobie: Rosemary would have been perfectly content being a mousy little homemaker with her handsome hubby, her pretty apartment, and her bundle of joy, but she just HAD to live next door to Satanists, and her husband just HAD to be a complete asshole that would hand Rosemary over to them all for a freaking part in a play.

YMMV / Rosemary's Baby

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