roman polanski's horror film of sorts is notable for containing what is considered by many to be the archetypal performance from actor john cassavetes. a personal favourite of mine, cassavetes worked within the hollywood studio system as an actor in order to fund his independent directorial efforts. rosemary's baby sees cassavetes playing guy woodhouse, a struggling actor, not much of a stretch theoretically, but in this reality our actor makes a pact with satanists in order to see his career flourish.
the film is told largely from the point of view of woodhouse's wife, the rosemary of the title, played by mia farrow. as a result of guy's selfishness she bears the brunt of the effects by giving birth to the spawn of satan himself, which on paper sounds absolutely ridiculous, but is played out beautifully and is incredibly effective. the subtlety of the pacing, and the emphasis on family-based paranoia combine to create a film that is more metaphor than direct assault. its with this in mind that it goes without saying when i claim that modern horror films like the saw series, or this years my bloody valentine 3D pale in comparison in terms of effectively scaring an audience. stylistically the film owes much to polanski's european origins. character, subtlety and symbolism are key when it comes to truly involving an audience, a fact that seems all but lost in modern american horror films.
No comments:
Post a Comment