Attention Horror Fans: Prime Just Quietly Added a Must-See 96% Rated Classic
“This is no dream! This is really happening!”
Summary:
- The 1968 cultish horror, revolving around a pregnant woman in the epicenter of an occult group menacing her baby, is now available on Prime.
- It set the bar high for the subsequent horror movies, exploring the topics of women’s liberation, Satanism and the religion as a whole.
The 1960s appeared as the times of not only the Hollywood Renaissance, but also the emergence of modern horror, following the legacy of Alfred Hitchcock, but adapting the genre to the new realities and respective problems. The given 1968 movie serves as a great example of American New Wave’s horror film, which has gained the golden status.
It follows the two newlyweds, who move into an old apartment building in New York City. The woman then becomes pregnant and stays in the house, while her husband struggles to set up his acting career. Quick enough it turns out that the residents of the new house are not so simple as it may seem.
As the main heroine becomes more involved in their lives, she starts worrying that the father of her future child is involved in their neighbors’ Satanic cult, convincing herself they want to use her baby for rituals.
The movie works both as a supernatural horror, with its hallucinatory dream sequence of an anxious woman being tortured by Satan himself, and as a psychological thriller. Telling the story about a pregnant woman, who becomes paranoid of imagining she’s in the center of a conspiracy, it greatly depicts her inner conflicts and delusions.
Based on the 1967 novel by Ira Levin, the movie turns out to be strongly tied to the era of the 1960s and the early 1970s, addressing a number of back-then socially important issues, which, however, still remain relevant in today’s realities. It explored mental struggles of pregnancy, distribution of duties in marriage and, eventually, Christianity.
The most experienced horror lovers can recognize here the synopsis of Roman Polanski’s timeless masterpiece titled Rosemary's Baby. It was a massive commercial success at the time, grossing $33 million with a budget of only $3 million, but, moreover, it was a critical sensation that has been holding its iconic status for a half of the century.
Starring the accomplished Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes, the movie offered its audience a contemporary and highly intelligent take on Satanism, which would be then developed in lots of horror movies. For example, these include The Omen and The Conjuring franchises, Suspiria, Keanu Reeves ’ The Devil's Advocate and Constantine.
Stream Rosemary’s Baby on Prime to return to the roots of horror.