NOTE FROM THE EDITORS: ROSEMARY’S BABY

by PARACHUTE

There are a number of reasons that we chose Rosemary’s Baby for this week’s movie. Based on the impressive credits alone, Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth – mother fucking – Gordon, Charles Grodin, Roman Polanski, legends like William Castle, William Fraker, and Dick Sylbert to name a few, it stands out as one of the most important movies of all time. It employs the best parts of horror film techniques to control and create suspense without any of the gore. But beyond that, it captures the quintessential themes of Halloween as a perfectly calibrated piece of work that plays with anxieties and human insecurity on every level.

On top of the age old Faustian tale of making a deal with the devil, and the personification this devil if s/he does in fact exist.  Practical, primal themes of human nature, a mother’s relationship to her child and the meaning of being a wife. The film also touches on the realities of how a woman was treated in the 1960‘s, not really having a voice, men casually dismissing her concerns. Farrow’s Rosemary Woodhouse is rarely taken seriously, and at times, we don’t know whether to take her seriously either. Sure the neighbors are off, but so is she.  The most obvious of these anxieties lies in the psychological fear of not knowing what’s real and what isn’t, what separates truth from reality.

There was also a lot weighing on this film. Farrow’s career was riding on her decision to take the leading role, which unfairly cost her, her marriage to Frank Sinatra. And most notably, how the recently widowed Polanski’s personal connection to evil, having recently lost his 8 month pregnant wife, to the hand of the still notorious Manson Family, would affect the picture as a whole. The world was waiting to see what would happen.

This week we selected a menu that combines literal references to the movie with some of our own inspired spins on them.

So if you don’t have any plans for Halloween invite a friend over, turn off the lights and watch Rosemary’s Baby. Even if it’s “not your thing” it won’t disappoint.

Trick or treat…

- FYC