Synopsis of Rosemary’s Baby

Michael Robertson

Professor Cecilia Solis-Sublette

English 1302

March 25, 2013

Synopsis of Rosemary’s Baby

            In Roman Polanski’s 1968 movie, Rosemary’s Baby, the audience witnesses a young couple (Mia Farrow as Rosemary Woodhouse, a housewife, and John Cassavetes as her husband Guy Woodhouse, an out of work actor) come under the influence and then dominion of the devil. The audience first sees this young couple, they are both newly married and new to New York City, go house hunting, but the apartment they choose is infamous according to their former landlord, Hutch (played by Maurice Evans) because it has a disturbing history of cannibalism, murder, and Satanism. Just a few days into their tenancy of the apartment, the apparent suicide of their neighbor, Terry Gionoffrio (played by Victoria Vetri), brings them into the orbit of an elderly and intrusive couple, Minnie and Roman Castevet (played by Ruth Gordon, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for this performance, and Sidney Blakmer); furthermore, this elderly couple comes to dominate the Woodhouses’ marriage because they are agents of the devil. Unbeknownst to Rosemary and unseen by the audience, John and the Castevet’s strike a deal with the devil: John will get his big break as an actor (the devil blinds another actor, so John will be cast for the role), and in return John will let his wife, Rosemary, bear the child of the devil, and, when the devil collects on this contract, both Rosemary and the audience witness the devil rape and impregnate her, as the cult chants and watches. As the repression from her husband and the Castevets grows during her demonic pregnancy, so the sense of isolation and paranoia intensifies for both Rosemary and the audience. The isolation is complete with two events: the Castevets manipulate Rosemary into becoming a patient of Dr. Sapirstein (a fellow devil worshipper played by Ralph Bellamy) rather than her own obstetrician Dr. Hill (played by Charles Grodin), and Hutch's coma and death (later she discovers that the devil is responsible for his death). At Hutch’s funeral Rosemary receives a book that confirms her worst suspicions of the Castevets and leads her to a desperate attempt to escape the clutches of these devil worshipers: though she goes to Dr. Hill for help, he turns her back over to the cult, and her husband and Dr. Sapirstein take her back to the haunted apartment as a pregnant prisoner holding precious cargo. Though she gives birth to a healthy (if demonic) baby, her husband and doctor tell her the baby died; however, Rosemary, after recovering from the birth, discovers that the entrance to chambers of the cult is hidden in her linen closet, and  behind the door she finds a cradle containing her devil baby, Adrian. As the film closes, Rosemary rocks the evil cradle because she loses every illusion: her husband betrays her to the devil for success, and her body gave birth to the devil’s baby.    

 Work Cited

Rosemary’s Baby. Dir. Roman Polanski. Perf. Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, and Sidney               

      Blackmer. Paramount, 1968. DVD.