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The Story: A soon-to-be mother suspects a coven of witches is after her unborn baby.

Guy (John Cassavetes) and Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow) move into a New York apartment building with a notoriously bad history. They seem to be a happy couple; Guy is a struggling actor while Rosemary is a quaint housewife. When Rosemary tells her old friend Hutch (Maurice Evans) of their new apartment, Hutch tells her about the building's history. It seems that there have been several gruesome occurences there, including the Trench sisters eating the flesh of children.

One night while doing laundry in the buiding's basement, Rosemary meets Terry (Angela Dorian), a street hood who was taken in by the Woodhouse's neighbors, an elderly couple named the Castevets. Terry beams about how well the Castevets have treated her and shows Rosemary a good luck charm the couple made for her.

As it turns out, the charm must not have worked very well because the next night as they are coming home from a night out, Guy and Rosemary push through a crowd in front of their building and are shocked to see Terry splattered on the concrete. The cops call it a suicide.

With Terry gone, Minnie Castevet begins dedicating all her time to Rosemary. Rosemary finds her affable enough, though a bit nosey and pushy. Minnie invites Rosemary and Guy over to dinner soon after, and Rosemary, a lapsed Catholic, tries to hide her offense when Roman Castevet begins badmouthing organized religion. Rosemary is wary of Minnie a bit, but Guy and Roman seem to have hit it off very well.

Before long, Guy is spending a lot of time at the Castevets. He begins behaving strangely, acting distant, ignoring Rosemary. It turns out, Guy is up for a part against his main acting competition. Then one day, Guy receives a call that the part, which he had at first lost, was now available to him because his competition has suddenly and mysteriously gone blind.

Within weeks, Guy's acting career has picked up steam. He apologizes to Rosemary for his behavior by suggesting the two have a baby. Rosemary is ecstatic at the thought and the two have a romantic dinner. Next thing you know, Minnie is knocking at the door. She leaves a homemade pudding for the couple yet when Rosemary eats it, she finds it has a strange undertaste. Guy becomes almost defensive and practically connives her into eating the pudding anyway. Rosemary dumps it when he's not looking.

Later that night, Rosemary begins feeling weak and dizzy. Guy puts her to bed and she dreams that she's being raped by the Devil. So real does the dream seem to her that at one point she shrieks, "This is no dream, this is really happening!"

Before long, Rosemary is convinced that her new neighbors are actually members of a witch's coven, and that Guy promised the coven their baby in exchange for a successful acting career. Things go from bad to worse when Rosemary receives a book from her friend Hutch, who soon mysteriously lapses into a coma and eventually dies. Rosemary is terrified that the coven is going to get her baby...

And that's all I'm telling you about the story.

Needless to say, Rosemary's Baby is a modern classic. Adapted from the Ira Levin novel by director Roman Polanski, Rosemary's Baby is harrowing, suspenseful, claustrophobic and paranoid. Polanski did a brilliant job of adapting the novel into a film, and he makes it work on many levels, often at the same time. Is Rosemary's baby really the spawn of Satan? Or is Rosemary's paranoia simply the effect of her Catholic upbringing? Was Rosemary really raped by Satan in her dream, or was it really Guy who didn't want to miss the date they had made to try and conceive? Is that really Minnie's voice in the real world blending into Rosemary's dream world or is she imagining the whole thing? It's this fine line between "yes, it's really happening" and "no, she's just a loon" that Polanski walks so adeptly. It's not until the finale that you find out if there really was a coven or if Rosemary was simply being paranoid, and I'm not about to ruin the movie for you.

In this day of hip teen actors populating mass market genre movies, it's such a refreshing change of pace to see real, genuine thespians playing their trade. Farrow is letter perfect as the painfully awkward and fatally fragile Rosemary. Cassavetes, a great cult actor and screen writer, is also very effective as Guy. And Ruth Gordon was so good as the flaky and nosey Minnie Castevet that she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

The fact that the movie plays largely on the notion of coincidence is also fitting, as the production was chock full of odd occurrences. For instance, did you know that infamous Satanic cult leader Anton Lavey was not only the film's technical advisor (no, really!), but he also played Satan himself in the dream rape scene. Oddly enough, a follower of Lavey's was a member of the Manson Cult, who in turn were responsible for the sadistic murder of actress Sharon Tate, director Polanski's wife.

The building the Woodhouses move into is actually a well known structure in New York called the Dakota, which years later would serve as the location of John Lennon's assassination.

A quick in-joke is also to be found. Angela Dorian, who played Terry, is actually the alias of an actress named Victoria Vetri. Vetri adopted the alias when she posed for Playboy and was the Playmate of the Year in 1967. Vetri also used the name for her credit in this film. The joke comes when Rosemary first meets Terry in the laundry room. "I'm sorry, you look a lot like the actress Victoria Vetri," Rosemary notes. "I get that a lot," Terry responds.

One more little anecdote: Farrow was involved with Polanski during the shooting of this film. After it's completion, Polanski fled the country after being caught having sex with an underaged girl. Geez, first Polanksi, then Woody Allen. Farrow sure knows how to pick 'em, eh?

At any rate, Rosemary's Baby is a film that no horror fan should miss. It's considered by many to be one of the greatest horror films ever made (and some would say it's anti-horror, a point that makes more sense than one would think) and for good reason. It's an intelligent film made by an intelligent filmmaker for intelligent viewers, and not a weakness is to be found throughout.

One thing about Ira Levin. He also wrote the book The Stepford Wives, which was also turned into a film. After seeing each film, you can see that the males in each have a knack for selling out their wives for their own benefit, regardless of what happens to the wives. Let me just say that so far as these two films go, I agree with all you broads out there who say men are pigs. Oink oink.

Rosemary's Baby should be a part of every horror fan's permanent video collection. If you haven't seen it, what the hell are you waiting for? A true classic that rightfully deserves all the praise it's received.