Rosemary Woodhouse: A Horror Film

Based on the popular 1966 novel by Ira Levin, the movie stars Mia Farrow as Rosemary Woodhouse, the mother-to-be wrought with paranoia that a coven of witches living in her apartment building are plotting to steal her unborn baby for a human sacrifice. All at once, Polanski creates belief and disbelief in Rosemary, our protagonist and her situation through uncomfortable sound design, muffled sounds heard through the walls, unsure if it is dream or reality, and characters – that are just “a little too friendly and helpful” – that leave the audience second-guessing who can and cannot be trusted. The film feels all too real to even be considered a horror film, which may be why it is one of the most effective horror films ever made.
1. Angles (high,
low, eye level, bird’s eye view, oblique/Dutch tilt)
The mood of the film is first established by a drawn out, left to right pan shot across the New York City skyline, almost as if from the perspective of an unknown predator. The camera suddenly changes direction, panning down focusing on a dark, foreboding Victorian apartment building’s rooftop.
From a bird's-eye-view, the camera watches Rosemary and her husband enter the Victoria building. The use of the bird’s eye view echoes the feeling of being watched or hunted from the opening scene.
There are also multiple low-angled shot focusing in on Rosemary as she’s bent and constricted in a pain which she’s been feeling for several months. In once instance, the shot frames Rosemary on both sides with a somber, dark blue, window running with rain and by the TV playing a musical number, where the jovial smiling dancers look as if that are mocking Rosemary’s insufferable pain.
The film consists of a lot of wide-angle shots. Frequently we see the depth-of-field used to surround Rosemary. Characters confine and trap Rosemary on either side of her and in background and foreground. This emphasis of Rosemary’s isolation, confinement, and vulnerability resonates throughout the rest of the film.
2. Lighting (low key, high key, high contrast, natural, available)
The film primarily consists of low key and available lighting.
This statement comes with the exception of scenes involving Rosemary’s good friend Hutch and her first obstetrician Dr. Hill. Scenes with these two characters are often high key in lighting. This bright, shadow-less lighting makes the entire scene bright, clear, and transparent, paralleling these characters, as they are the only honest, trustworthy allies to Rosemary in the entire film. Contrastingly, the film’s antagonists – Rosemary and Guy’s nosy, elderly neighbors, Minnie and Roman – are almost always shrouded in shadows. Rosemary and Guy’s first meeting with Minnie and Roman take place at night with nothing but a street lamp and police lights casting red shadows over the elderly couple. Shadowy, dark, low key lighting is also heavily used when Rosemary and her husband Guy first tour their future apartment, The Bramford. The camera follows the couple through the vacant apartment where Rosemary stumbles upon a mysterious note that reads, "I can no longer associate myself…” but is left incomplete. The mood is eerie and the apartment’s tall black curtains and heavy wooden furniture add to the darkness of the
room.
Low key lighting continues to play a role after Rosemary becomes pregnant, and the theme of isolation consumes the mise-en-scene. On the morning after Rosemary’s hellish nightmare/hallucination, a shot of a dark, long hallway with the small doorway in the distance framing Rosemary as she sits alone. The darkness fills most of the shot, leaving us to focus on an alone, vulnerable Rosemary. These kinds of shots continue throughout the film as her pregnancy progresses, showcasing her agonizing, and isolating pain.
Proxemics
The proxemics in Rosemary’s Baby are consistently personal and intimate, as we the audience are to sympathize and relate to this story through Rosemary herself. Even when she is in large groups and parties, the camera stays close to Rosemary and who she encounters with as she expresses her joys, fears, and insecurities with other characters.
4. Framing (position in frame, tight and loose framing, open and closed form)
Isolation and entrapment are emphasized throughout the second half of the film. As Rosemary comes to the realization that her own obstetrician, Dr Sapirstein is a part of the “plot against [her] and [her] baby,” she leaves the doctor’s dark furniture, shadwy waiting room and tries phoning Dr Hill, her original doctor. A lengthy scene of her inside a glass phone booth ensues, and we can see she is visibly confined to this booth, overheated and sweating in a panic in this closed space.
Rosemary flees to take shelter in Dr. Hill’s office, and is relieved to find that Dr. Hill actually believes her. The office is filled with high key lighting with the loud sound of a refreshing air conditioner blaring in the backroud. Rosemary finally catches a break; with the high key light there is nothing and no one to hide in the shadows; after being confined in the summer heat in a phone booth, she is cooling off and feeling hope and rest; and although Dr. Hill is skeptical about the validity of witches and satanic rituals, he believes that there “are plenty of crazy people in this world,” and promises to care for her without the fear of him contacting her husband or Dr. Saperstein.
Unfortunately, this relief is short lived and the sense of confinement returns after Guy and Dr Sapirstein have found her and forced her to leave the safety of Dr Hill’s office, as Rosemary is squeezed between Guy and Sapirstein in the back of a car.
6. Editing
The editing is very natural, and “invisible,” with incredibly long take lengths. There are no transitions as the film consistently utilizes cutting to continuity. The film is also shown entirely in chronological order with no cross cutting, as if the film is entirely from Rosemary’s first person perspective. These editing techniques add to the realism as we only know as much as Rosemary does.
7. Shot lengths (extreme close, close, medium, long, extreme long/establishing)
The majority of the film consists of my medium shots with only a handful establishing shots and extreme close ups. The film is dialogue heavy and follows the characters from a medium framing most of the time, giving the audience a sense of reliability and feeling that they could fit in the scene as
well.
We see only handful long/establishing shots in the entire film. Although there are only two extreme zooming close ups – a zoom in on the Devil’s eyes when he is attacking Rosemary, and again when she notices her stoic, elderly neighbor, Roman has pierced ears – both are used to show a realization that Rosemary is having. When she is having her hallucination/nightmare, she sees that he is making love to her husband Guy, when suddenly the camera zooms in to an extreme close up to Guy’s burning red eyes, and then to her eyes, filled with panic. She then cries out, “This is no dream, this is really happening!” The extreme close ups put the audience in Rosemary’s position, as we see and feel the panic that’s consuming her. Again we see a zoon in as Rosemary notices her elderly neighbor Roman has pierced ears; this is the first instance that casts a shadow over Roman, in Rosemary’s eyes. She is bewildered and concerned, especially given the following gossip she shares with her friend Hutch, who is skeptical of Roman’s attentiveness to Rosemary and her pregnancy, and the pierced ears are the firs hint that something is off. Although it is not mentioned in the outline, sound is incredibly important to Rosemary’s story, and is an aspect on this particular film that is often overlooked. The soundtrack is full of shrill, uncomfortable strings and horn instruments; very synonymous with the horror genre. The scene with the greatest use of sound – in my opinion – is the scene is which Rosemary escapes her husband Guy and Dr. Saperstein. Rosemary has just been forced to leave Dr. Hill’s safe office and is in the elevator with the two deceitful men. As the three exit the elevator, Rosemary intentionally drops her purse, spilling its contents. The men kneel to pick up the items for her and in that moment the –due-any-day, pregnant Rosemary runs to the elevator and shuts the doors. The scene instantly becomes high intensity and a horrible high-pitched horn plays to no rhyme or reason. As Rosemary takes the elevator higher and higher up the floors, the horn’s pitch gets higher and higher. This makes the scene incredibly stressful and we feel Rosemary’s anxiety as it heightens and heightens. She runs out of the elevator once reaching her floor and falls, stimulating her water to break. She is full of panic and stress as we see the second elevator light approaching her floor, all the while the horns and strings continue screeching and getting higher and higher in pitch. This all comes to an abrupt halt, and the music goes silence right as she makes into her apartment and slams the door in Guy’s face.
5. Realist-formalist continuum (RFC): how does each technique listed here relate to
Mise-en-scene and the numerous film techniques in Rosemary’s Baby nudge it just a bit past the center of the continuum onto to the realist side. Although low key lighting is frequent through-out, it is not extreme and feels natural to the scene. A majority of the decisions Polanski made in the film feel incredibly natural and the plot is just outside the realm of plausible – perhaps this all was in fact the delusions of woman grieving a lost pregnancy, as the antagonists try to force her to believe. Long takes, personal proxemics, available lighting, and natural relatable dialogue all make the film feel realistic and believable. This realism, and plausible cause for paranoia is what makes this film that is so full of doubt and fear, so effective as a horror film.