A Critical View of Rosemary's Baby by Ernest Hardy:

A Summary

by Michael Robertson

[Rosemary’s Baby] is, arguably, one of the finest horror films ever made” (Hardy qtd. in Schneider 492).     

           

                                                                        --Ernest Hardy

        Ernest Hardy, a Sundance Fellow and film critic, argues that Rosemary's Baby (1968) is a classic film because of director Roman Polanski's use of disturbing and bizarre images (such as the rape and hallucination sequence, Rosemary eating raw meat, and Rosemary holding a knife in from of her baby's cradle) that paradoxically touch on universal themes (such as betrayal, corruption, the boundaries of sanity, the mysteries of woman) (492). The film disturbs the audience with its quietly growing terror, and Polanski adds to this by his masterful sense of suspense and dread, Hardy asserts (492). Hardy adds that the terror of the film endures despite the passage of time, and the unintentional off-screen humor actress Mia Farrow elicits (492). (This is a film about bearing children, and Farrow famously has adopted many children.) 

"Polanski's masterful manipulation of... existential fears gives the film its power" (492).

                                                                                    --Ernest Hardy

All of the elements of evil come together, for Hardy, in the scene where the baby's kicking legs reassure Rosemary that the child is alive, but her husband recoils from touching her womb because he knows she is carrying the Devil's baby (Hardy qtd. in Schneider 492). The evil inside of Rosemary's womb is symbolic of the more universal fear of being unable to trust other people and one self, Hardy comments (492). The audience identifies with Rosemary's claustrophobic isolation and her loss (whether by betrayal or death) of loved ones, her husband, Hutch, and the baby (492).  Evil is outside, around, and finally inside Rosemary and her baby, Hardy concludes (492).    

Work Cited

Hardy, Ernest. "Rosemary's Baby." 1001 Movies: You Must See Before You Die. Ed. Steven 

        Schneider. Hauppage, New York: Barron Educational Series, 2002. Print.