NO WAY

NO WAY

“I don’t know what my goals are, no. Thanks for asking.”

petition to rename the usa ‘south canada’

Halloween Film Frightstival Day 7: Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

To preface I was ridiculously tired yesterday and I never posted which film I watched, so this is yesterday’s, I’m still going to watch something today and post about it later

OKAY moving on

I have seen Rosemary’s Baby before but it’s been a while and I legitimately love this movie. Obviously having seen it before, I have fewer thoughts on plot revelations because I knew what was coming but I do have thoughts on some deeper stuff

One surface level thing that’s maybe too silly to mention but I’ve never looked very closely at the movie poster and only just realized I’ve been seeing it wrong this whole time. I’ve only ever seen it small at a distance on the tv screen, and until now I guess I didn’t notice that it was her face in profile because I thought the shadow of her nose and eyes was her in her nightgown reaching down towards the pram. I feel a little silly now

Rosemary’s dream (should that be in air quotes? “dream”?) sequence is honestly an amazing piece of the movie, it’s unsettling but you’re not exactly sure why until towards the end of it, some of it still doesn’t make sense even when you’ve seen the whole film and it really messes with the viewer’s sense of reality as far as is she dreaming and what’s part of the dream or what is she seeing for real. The first time I saw the film I remember struggling to determine if it was one of those films where it turns out the horror is that it’s all in the main character’s head (I won’t spoil if you haven’t seen it which way it goes, but also go watch it right now)

That last paragraph was long, but it’s not even what I wanted to mention the most. This film is incredibly feminist, obviously it’s a horror movie and not a realistic one at that but if you watch it from a lens of feminism, it draws some parallels to real life that make it scarier than the plot itself.

I’m trying not to spoil because I legitimately think everyone should watch this movie, but it touches (albeit in a supernatural way and sometimes only briefly) so much on bodily autonomy, medical autonomy, the concept of “hysteria”, mental illness (especially if you think about societal views of psychosis), the right to educate yourself and informed consent, toxic politeness/advocating for yourself, stalking, isolation (as an abuse tactic), and even marital rape.

The world has a really fucked up history concerning women’s health, obstetrics and gynecology of course being one of the centers of that, and obviously Rosemary’s Baby isn’t a documentary and centers on the unrealistic, but watching it, especially in today’s political climate, definitely feels like watching the collective trauma of anyone and everyone who’s ever been mistreated by the medical industrial complex.

Mia Farrow’s acting is wonderful too, which certainly makes the terror feel even more real. I occasionally felt like I’m missing some nuance from not being personally familiar with the 1960s since it’s actually a film from the 60s and not a period piece but it’s easy to ignore because of how much I like her costuming, the pixie cut is sublime

Okay I think that’s all I have to say. Really good movie, I still like it 👍 I also think you should go watch it