[00:00:17] Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the final Girl on 6th Avenue podcast. My name is Carolyn Smith Helmer, and I am 6th Avenue's very own final girl, and I'm very excited to be back with you today.
[00:00:31] Two weeks ago, when we normally would have had an episode, obviously we didn't because it was 4 July, so it's holiday. And here at the final girl on 6th Ave. We take holidays off. And you should too, of course, if you can, you know, and your job permits, but I think everybody deserves that much needed time off. So, that being said, I'm very excited today to be talking to you about a film that honestly scares the fuck out of me. I can't sit here and act like it doesn't.
[00:01:03] It is.
[00:01:08] Even though you can look at it and say, bill, maybe this is. You know, this film is slightly dated, which is a common argument that people use when talking about films that were not made within the last six months.
[00:01:26] It still to this day, is a story that will never not be frightening.
[00:01:34] And for that reason, we're going to be talking about Rosemary's baby today.
[00:01:39] So if I'm sure you're all relatively familiar with Rosemary's baby, if you're not, I'm very excited to be introducing it to you.
[00:01:50] Looking at our Bible, IMDb, this film came out in 1968. Rated are 2 hours and 17 minutes. Excuse me. And it's written and directed by none other than mister Roman Polanski.
[00:02:05] We will not be getting into controversies today while talking about Roman Polanski. That is not what my podcast is for.
[00:02:14] You may do that on your own time, and you may choose simply to not take part in this episode because you don't appreciate Roman Polanski as a person and things in his history. And I understand that. However, I personally still love this film, and I think it's impossible to recognize, or, excuse me, it would be impossible not to recognize the phenomenal performances of Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes. Of course, I love John Cassavetes. I loved seeing him in this role. And Mia Farrow, of course, is just absolutely stunning.
[00:02:58] There were other women that they had in mind for the role of Rosemary Woodhouse, but ultimately, I think it was just the innocence that Mia Farrow possessed in her appearance. And of course, her relationship at the time with Frank Sinatra did not hurt. So I don't think that anyone else could have played this role. I think she was perfect for it.
[00:03:28] A young couple trying for a baby moves into an aging, ornate apartment building on Central Park west, where they find themselves surrounded by peculiar neighbors.
[00:03:41] It's a tale as old as time. And in New York, I don't know if you folks outside of New York can really appreciate this, but maybe you can. Us folks in New York have a really, really deep connection, I suppose, with our apartments.
[00:03:59] Our apartments are extraordinarily important to us, mainly because they're so hard to get and they're difficult to afford.
[00:04:11] And so, you know, having the luxury of being able to easily find an apartment is something that, yeah, all of us New Yorkers can absolutely appreciate. So let's dive in. This is going to be kind of a long one, but I'm gonna try to go through it quickly with you because, you know, why not? You've been waiting for an extra two weeks since I didn't put out an episode for the holiday. So I appreciate that.
[00:04:44] So let's start it off.
[00:04:47] So we get this sort of, like, panoramic intro shot of, like, New York City skyline, apartment buildings, XYZ. It's aerial, it's beautiful.
[00:04:58] And Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse are a married couple touring an apartment building.
[00:05:04] The tour guide asks guy what he does for work, and guy reveals that he's an actor, but he's been in commercials and plays because, you know, that's the work he's been getting. And the guy that, you know, the realtor who's working for this apartment is kind of like, oh, well, you know, commercials are where the money is, you know, blah, blah, blah. But really, guy is just in things that no one has ever heard of. And he's getting commercial roles because he's not getting lead roles and anything major that can make him a breakout star.
[00:05:37] So they're touring a unit that was previously occupied by an elderly woman that died.
[00:05:44] And Rosemary makes sure to clarify that the woman died in the hospital and not at the apartment, which is correct.
[00:05:53] She was a lawyer and a gardener. She was like, one of the first female lawyers they make sure to mention. And I have to say, this is the biggest New York City apartment I've ever seen in a movie from, like, pre 1990. And I wish that I so desperately could afford an apartment like that.
[00:06:14] The previous tenant had moved, like, a large, super tall dresser in front of a linen closet door, but it hadn't been there very long because Rosemary looks at the floor and there's like a stain on the floor that shows where the dresser used to sit. So she's like, wow, she moved it there pretty recently, but it's just a linen closet with some cleaning products in it and towels and the realtor makes sure to comment that she must not have needed all five closets in the apartment because there was barely anything in this one.
[00:06:46] So Rosemary begs guy to take the apartment. She loves it. And guy is like, well, you know, I can walk to the theaters easily from it. It's in a great location. Like I say, we do it. And it's in Central Park west, which, if you know anything about, is obviously a prestigious neighborhood. And I know what you're thinking.
[00:07:05] Same thing I was thinking, which is how can a man who work, who's done work in two plays that no one's ever heard of and some commercials, be able to afford an apartment like that with a wife that doesn't work?
[00:07:22] I have no idea.
[00:07:24] Rosemary doesn't really seem to have any idea either, because that credit card just swipes.
[00:07:30] So if you're wondering, just let your mind be at ease, because I have no idea either.
[00:07:40] So over dinner, they sit down with their mutual friend named Hutch. But Hutch is really more Rosemary's friend than guy's friend.
[00:07:50] In any event, they're talking to Hutch about the apartment building, and it is called the Bramford. And Hutch is like, what the hell? What do you mean you're moving into that building? First of all, it's supposed to be, like, an iconic building. Um, but second of all, he's like, there is dark history in the Branford, and he basically is like, there was once a man that claimed to know the devil that lived there. And Rosemary's like, well, all places have a dark history. Like, all bad things happen in all apartment buildings when you think about it, because it's people's lives, so it doesn't really matter.
[00:08:26] But Hutch makes a point, you know, to say, well, this one is particularly bad because there was a dead baby wrapped in newspaper found in the basement once, so.
[00:08:41] But despite all the fuss from Hutch, Rosemary and Guy decide to move in anyway.
[00:08:47] And, you know, on the first night, they have dinner on the floor of their new empty apartment. They turn off the light and undress, and they start to get busy when they start to hear a creaky noise. And guy makes a joke about the building being haunted because of the conversation that they had previously had with Hutch.
[00:09:08] They hire painters, they buy new furniture. They make the apartment their own, and it's absolutely stunning. They have in building laundry like me, not in units. So I don't feel so jealous anymore because it sucks so bad to have to do your laundry in another room rather than your unit to share machines and to pay for it.
[00:09:30] Why am I paying to do laundry in a place that I live?
[00:09:35] Like, I don't. I don't have another option other than to send my laundry out, so.
[00:09:42] Seems predatory to me. But anyways, they have it, too, so I don't really feel so jealous anymore.
[00:09:49] And while Rosemary is doing her laundry, she meets a woman in the laundry room named Terry, who's staying in an apartment with the castavettes. They are the next door neighbors to Rosemary and Guy, and Terry has been staying with them, and their apartment touches the back of Rosemary's apartment.
[00:10:10] So Terry's friends were close with the previous tenant that lived in Rosemary's apartment.
[00:10:18] And while they're down there, they hear, like, a loud sound of glass shattering. It startles them both, but quickly they move past that, and Terry allows Rosemary to inspect a necklace that she's wearing that is filled with something and smells weird.
[00:10:34] The castavettes took Terry in to take care of her when she was homeless and addicted to drugs and starving. And at first she thought it was, like, a weird sex thing, but actually, they've been really good to her, and they're just close friends.
[00:10:49] So Rosemary and Guy are getting ready for bed later, and they hear the neighbors arguing, and, you know, there's, like, one woman's voice and she's yelling, and she's like, well, why don't you ask her opinion if they care so much? And blah, blah, blah, they're fighting.
[00:11:06] On a walk home one night, Rosemary and guy find Terry dead on the sidewalk.
[00:11:11] She wrote a suicide note and left it on the windowsill.
[00:11:15] The castavettes soon arrive home after them and are stopped by police, who tell them that Terry jumped out the window and is dead. So they take a look at the body. They confirm it's her. Mister Castavet says that he's not surprised because she got randomly depressed every three weeks or so and misses Castavetz defends her and says that maybe she didn't kill herself.
[00:11:38] Rosemary says that Terry had a brother in the navy, but she doesn't know where he's stationed. And she shares with the castovettes that she agrees with misses castavettes because she met Terry in the laundry room and she seemed so happy because, you know, at the time, I guess suicide wasn't something that people talked about that often. But, uh, yeah, you can be happy for a brief interaction and still want to kill yourself. So that's. I always found that line kind of, kind of weird to say, but I digress.
[00:12:10] So that night, Rosemary lays awake and has vision of Terry's dead body because it's obviously traumatic to see a dead body, especially one that's bloody.
[00:12:19] And then she has a vision of a nun holding a Bible who says, sometimes I wonder how come you're the leader of anything?
[00:12:30] Rosemary then recalls a memory where she and her other classmates at a catholic school are being scolded by a nun. And she admits to someone in the school that she told Veronica about the window and that's why they got eliminated from the competition. Now, I've never read Rosemary's baby, the book by Ira Levin. So maybe there's something I'm missing there. But if anybody wants to write to me and shed some light, you know where to find me because I was always very confused by that.
[00:13:01] Misses Castavetz, who we find out is named Minnie, comes over to say hi and lets Rosemary know that Terry was cremated. And now she and her husband will be lonely because they have no kids.
[00:13:15] She's very, like, dismissive of this. She doesn't really seem that beat up. And Rosemary admits that she doesn't have kids yet, but she would like to have three.
[00:13:25] So Minnie invites herself in and just immediately starts to inspect the furniture and ask how much things cost, which at the time was certainly a faux pas. Now, I think people are a lot more willing to divulge that type of information.
[00:13:42] But then Minnie invites Rosemary and guy over for dinner. So Rosemary resists at first, but then kind of gets guilted into it, saying that they'll come over. And on her way out, she hands Rosemary the mail. So Guy comes home that night, sad because someone else got the part in a play that he auditioned for. And Rosemary brings him a beer and some, you know, a snack and mentions that Minnie is the nosiest person that she's ever met in her life. But by the way, they're invited over for dinner, and Guy doesn't really want to go. But then Rosemary sounds kind of disappointed because she already said that they would be there. And so then guy finally agrees to go as his, like, one good deed for the day.
[00:14:23] So the castevettes serve Rosemary and guy a drink upon arrival called a vodka blush, which is apparently very popular in Australia, according to Mister Castavetz, who we find out is named Roman.
[00:14:39] So naturally, Rosemary is like, well, did you grow up in Australia? Like, did you spend a lot of time there? And Roman says, you know, no, but you can ask me about all of my travels. If you name a place, I've been there. We all know somebody like that. And we all kind of hate those people deep down, but we also kind of admire those people because, I mean, that's a pretty big commitment to just, like, spend your whole life traveling. I would love to do the same. Not in the budget right now, but hopefully in the future.
[00:15:12] So over dinner, they talk about religion, and Rosemary gets uncomfortable because she grew up Catholic. And so Roman talks about how, you know, just because someone is the pope doesn't mean he has to be respected, which, like, totally agree with that.
[00:15:26] So then they start talking about guy's acting career, and Roman tells Guy that he believes that he's gonna get the parts that he's lined up to audition for because there's something, you know, special about him that comes through on the screen and, like, you know, he can see it.
[00:15:44] So they leave dinner, and now guy is apparently infatuated with the cast of Etz and wants to hear more stories from Roman and is planning to go over there again tomorrow.
[00:15:55] So Rosemary is like, well, I'm gonna stay home and you can go over there. And Rosemary comments on how weird it is that inside the cast of vet's apartment, she could see spots on the wall where previously pictures had been hung up. And, like, the nails were still on the wall, but there was no pictures there anymore, and the wall space was empty. And she just thought it was kind of strange.
[00:16:16] So then she, you know, next time we see her, she's laying on the couch to read and listen to a record. And of course, Minnie comes over because that's a very common theme throughout the rest of the film. And she is there to introduce another neighbor named Laura Louise to Rosemary and invites themselves in. And so Rosemary admits she's feeling, like, a little down today. It's the first day of her period, and so she's, like, kind of crampy and just, like, not feeling great.
[00:16:43] And Minnie and Linda Louise immediately sit down and start to knit on the couch.
[00:16:50] Talk about inviting somebody in, like, what the fuck?
[00:16:56] So Minnie gives Rosemary the necklace that she had seen Terry wearing inside of the laundry room. And the inside of the necklace is this root called tannis root, and it's supposed to give her good luck.
[00:17:15] So Rosemary says she can't accept it at first, but then reluctantly kind of puts it on. And then she shows it to guy when he gets home from visiting with Roman.
[00:17:26] And he says it's pretty, but she takes it off because it smells bad. And she puts it in her jewelry box. And guy is like, well, if you took it, then you should wear it.
[00:17:37] So then the next day, the phone rings, and it's for Guydev.
[00:17:42] The man that got the part that guy had previously auditioned for is blind all of a sudden.
[00:17:51] And so now the part is being offered to Guy, which is, I guess, nice. And he tells Rosemary he has to go out and go for a walk after such shocking news. And so Rosemary goes to the store and comes home to flowers all over the apartment because apparently now guy is very hot and popular in the acting scene with his flourishing career and is in a bit of a rush to have a baby. So Rosemary's excited. They, you know, light a fire, have dinner and drinks together when the doorbell rings.
[00:18:26] And guy goes to answer the door, and it is Minnie shocker. She's bringing over chocolate mousse for dessert for them, but she doesn't end up staying, which is very nice. And Rosemary initially tries it and says it's good, but then says it has an undertaste, like, a chalky undertaste.
[00:18:52] And so guy tells her that she's being crazy and gets at her for being ungrateful and, like, gets snippy, and he kind of gets mad at her about it. So she agrees to eat it. So they are sitting there together, and then he gets up, and she's like, hey, can you please go turn the record over? And she takes the mousse and pours it into her napkin, and then is like, see, guy? I finished it. I ate it. Like, are you happy?
[00:19:21] While cleaning up after dinner, though, she starts to get hot and dizzy, and Guy catches her and tries to walk with her to the bed, accusing her of drinking too much alcohol, but she falls anyway, and he has to carry her to bed upon laying down. Okay, this is where I'm gonna have a hard time explaining to you, like, what exactly is being depicted on screen, because it's coming in and out of reality. And then so, like, half of its reality and half of it's her dream. But I'm gonna try my best.
[00:19:55] So when she lays down, she gets the sensation that she's floating on water, and she's like, I can't sleep yet. We need to make a baby. And guy tells her that they're gonna make one. They're gonna make one. All right? So she says maybe just a nap.
[00:20:11] So she has a dream, and her dream starts out when she's on a boat, and guy starts to undress her so that she can, quote, be more comfortable, even though she says she's already very comfortable.
[00:20:27] So she's in and out of her dream on the boat, where once everyone was dressed, but now everyone's only wearing bikinis. And she asks the captain of the boat if Hutch is coming, but apparently he's not.
[00:20:39] So then she has a dream that she's painting the ceiling of the Sistine chapel.
[00:20:44] And then you can hear guy saying, easy, easy, you got her too high.
[00:20:53] In her dream, the boat captain tells her naked to go down below the ship. And there she finds a hellish sort of ritual room with only a mattress in it. And she lays down on it and naked men and women stand around her and chant while meddling with her naked body by painting something red on it. And someone in her actual bedroom makes a comment that she's awake and can see. But Minnie says as long as she ate the moose, she can't see anything.
[00:21:27] So they tie her down to the bed so she can't move while a devilish figure touches all over her and inserts himself into her.
[00:21:40] She shouts out that this is not a dream, this is actually happening. And someone puts a pillow over her head while she's getting raped.
[00:21:51] The pope in her dream comes to visit her and says that she is forgiven.
[00:21:57] The next morning she wakes up with scratches all over her body. And guy jokingly is like, oh, I already filed my nails. Please don't scream. Like I couldn't help myself.
[00:22:07] She says she had a dream that someone was raping her. And Guy says, oh, it was fun in a sort of necrophile type of way.
[00:22:19] He says he didn't want to miss baby night. And she says they could have done it this morning or later today, but thanks for the rape, guy.
[00:22:33] She showers. She tries to tidy herself up, but apparently it hasn't hit her yet that she was being raped. So anyhow, in the living room she says that they should talk about why Guy hasn't been looking at her at all. And he tells her he's sorry, he's just preoccupied with his current role and that things will get better soon. And over breakfast, Rosemary says that she's supposed to start her period soon.
[00:22:58] And Guy is like, well, you want to bet? So she goes to see her ob Gyn, doctor Hill, and later gets a call. She is pregnant. So Guy comes home to get the news from Rosemary and he insists that he loves her, but she reminds him that she wants a new start where they're very open and honest with each other. And he says almost immediately that he wants to tell the castavettes. And at first Rosemary is hesitant because, like, she just found out, but she gives the okay. So the cast of vets, of course, come over, they come in, they give Rosemary hugs and kisses and good wishes, but then immediately recommend that she go see Doctor Saperstein because he. He is one of the very best, and no one has ever heard of Doctor Hill, so he sucks.
[00:23:47] So Minnie picks up the phone and calls Doctor Saperstein's office to schedule an appointment for Rosemary, despite the absolute look of discomfort on her face and the fact that she simply does not have a problem with Doctor Hill.
[00:24:04] So later that night, Rosemary lays awake thinking of baby names while guy sleeps. And she gets up and puts on the tannisroot necklace.
[00:24:14] At doctor Saperstein's appointment, he tells Rosemary not to listen to her friends or read books, because no two pregnancies are the same. And he tells her no vitamins, but to drink some barium that she can get from Minnie. And so Minnie makes Rosemary a drink, but won't tell her exactly what all is in it.
[00:24:37] But apparently she's supposed to do this instead of taking vitamins like you would during, like, a normal pregnancy.
[00:24:44] So Rosemary comes home one day to show guy that she's been to Vidal Sassoon, and she chopped off all of her hair. And I must say, I think she looks lovely with short hair. But it becomes a point of contention, and he immediately says that he hopes that she didn't pay for that haircut.
[00:25:06] She lets it go, though, and she's like, you know, I'm having some pains and, like, cramps. And so she goes to doctor Saperstein, who tells her that everything's fine. And during a game of Scrabble between her and guy, she gets up to look in the mirror, and she says that she looks awful, but guy tells her she looks beautiful. It's actually the haircut, because the haircut is the worst mistake she's ever made.
[00:25:31] Wow.
[00:25:34] Rosemary receives a visit from Hutch, who, for some reason, also hates her hair. I don't know why everybody hates her hair. And he's like, you know, doctor Saperstein delivered two of my daughter's babies, and he's carrying on about Rosemary and how she looks because she's losing weight. And, like, he's like, you know, that's not normal. Blah, blah, blah.
[00:25:58] And, you know, actually, it is normal to start losing weight, like, at the beginning of your pregnancy. It's not normal to continue to, like, lose weight throughout the entire pregnancy. And, like, rosemary looks ill.
[00:26:11] Like, we're not talking, like, oh, she dropped five pounds. Like, no, she looks like shit.
[00:26:16] So Hutch is over Roman comes to the door and asks if guy is home. But since he's not and Hutch is there, he's curious and comes in to meet Hutch, and she truly looks like shit. Like, her eyes are sunken in. She looks like a skeleton. And she was already thin to begin with. And they explained to Hutch that, you know, Minnie makes this special drink for rosemary every day because there's too much controversy around commercial medicine. And Hutch inspects her necklace with the tannis root in it. It says it looks like a fungus or a mold instead of, like, a root.
[00:26:51] So Roman leaves Rosemary and Hutch to have coffee, and they chat. They start to chat anyway about the cast of vets. And guy quickly comes home, like, shortly thereafter, like, he's home. And he shares that he came into a large abundance of pall mall cigarettes. And quickly Hutch decides that he needs to leave. So guy gets him his jacket, and one of Hutch's gloves are missing. And, you know, Guy had previously been around in that closet, but he's like, no, I'm sorry. I don't know where your other glove is. Maybe you left it somewhere.
[00:27:32] So later on, you know, we see Rosemary laying in bed. She's not feeling well when Hutch calls and asks her to meet him the next morning for an early lunch to talk, but he'd rather not talk about on the phone, and so they're going to talk about it the next day.
[00:27:48] So then Rosemary, the next day, goes to tell Minnie that she's going out, so she'll need to have her drink made later on in the day. And she goes to meet Hutch and then inevitably goes to, like, his place to see him, but he never shows. So she finds a phone to call his apartment. And a woman answers the phone to tell her that Hutch fell into a coma after he spoke with Rosemary the night before.
[00:28:13] So she walks around and, of course, Minnie runs into her on the street and she's apparently Christmas shopping. And Rosemary starts to feel more sick, so they agree to go home.
[00:28:25] Rosemary's pain has, at this point, become absolutely unbearable. And she's saying it feels like there's a wire inside of her that keeps twisting and, like, getting tighter and tighter.
[00:28:37] So at a New Year's Eve party with the cast oftz, she meets the man who made the tannis root charm on her necklace. And they ring in the new year, and they're calling it year one.
[00:28:51] Rosemary later plans a menu for a party that she wants to throw with her friends and tells Guy not to invite the cast Oftz so guy asks her to check in with Doctor Saperstein to make sure it's okay for her to have a party. And he says, well, what about your pain? And she says, haven't you heard it'll go away any day now?
[00:29:12] I think any person with a vagina has heard that before and knows how fucking disgusting it is to hear somebody say that to you. So, of course, Minnie comes over to bring Rosemary her drink, and Rosemary's like, oh, I'll drink it later. And when Minnie leaves, she pours it down the drain.
[00:29:34] So at her party that she throws, her friends shower her with congratulations and comment on her appearance and how famished and ill that she looks. And so her friend Elise asks her about Doctor Hill, and she admits that she's not seeing Doctor Hill anymore because she's seeing this other man, Doctor Saperstein. So guy inserts himself to get them to stop talking about Doctor Hill and asks for Elise to help him carry things out to the living room.
[00:30:02] And then later, Rosemary's in a lot of pain, so she decides to sit down in the kitchen, and her close friends are consoling her. And she's crying about her constant pain, and she's worried that the baby's gonna die. And she's like, you know, I will not have an abortion. Which is fine because it was illegal anyway at that time in every single state, but no worries. And so anyways, they lock guy out of the kitchen altogether because they want to talk to her alone, like they don't want him around. So they tell her that the pain, you know, that she's experiencing is obviously far from normal. And she's like, oh, but I have this great doctor. And they're like, just go see doctor Hillen, any other doctor other than the one that you've been seeing, because, like, clearly it's not working.
[00:30:48] And, you know, they're like, we don't want you to have an abortion, obviously, and we're not suggesting that you have one. We just want you to go see a different doctor.
[00:30:58] So after the party, they're cleaning up, and Rosemary tells guy that she's gonna go see doctor Hill, and she wants vitamins and pills just like everybody else. And guy tells her that her bitch friends convinced her of this and that she's not allowed to see anyone other than Doctor Saperstein. It doesn't matter if she's in pain anymore. I guess he tells her to tell doctor Saperstein. And he's like, I'm not paying for two doctors like if you're gonna go see somebody, go see doctor Saprstine. And she won't let it go. And so she starts to threaten guy with doing something, you know, to be able to see a new doctor, like, get a job or something.
[00:31:41] And they're fighting, and all of a sudden, her pain stops, and she is elated because her baby is moving, and she has, you know, this confirmation that she needed, that her baby is alive, and there's a baby there.
[00:31:56] So they get the nursery all set up, and she gets a phone call that her friend Hutch is dead.
[00:32:04] So obviously, you know, she's upset. And so Rosemary attends the funeral where she meets Grace. And Grace is the woman that called her to let her know that Hutch had passed.
[00:32:18] Hutch woke up briefly, apparently, before he died, and told Grace to make sure that Rosemary gets a book that he had on his desk. And he says to make sure to tell Rosemary that the name is an anagram.
[00:32:34] That's all the information.
[00:32:37] So when Minnie comes back home, or, excuse me, when Rosemary comes back home, of course Minnie is there because she's always there. And so she brings Rosemary, like, a glass of milk and some cake and recognizes the address on the front of the book, and she's like, oh, I've been there. So then, you know, Minnie leaves, and Rosemary opens up the book, and it's called all of them witches.
[00:33:01] So she gets out her scrabble board because she's like, I'm gonna figure out the name of this anagram. So she finds out that the anagram is Stephen Marcato.
[00:33:19] Excuse me. Roman Castavettes is an anagram for Stephen Marcato.
[00:33:25] And the person in the book that she's reading about is named Stephen Marcato. And Stephen Marcato is the son of a prominent satanist and resident of the apartment building. So she opens up the book. You know, she's slipping through it to a page with a large photo, and the name Steven is underlined in the caption. And so she obviously recognizes that this is the man who's been portraying himself as Roman castavet.
[00:33:51] Now Rosemary's finally waking up here. They're all part of a coven, and they want her baby.
[00:33:57] So guy comes home, and Rosemary had deadbolted the door. So she goes to the door, unlocks it. He brings her some flowers and asks her about the funeral. And he says that he got that shirt that he saw in the New Yorker.
[00:34:11] I don't know what that has to do with the funeral, but doesn't matter. So she tells Guy about the anagram she found and shows Guy the book that she got from Hutch.
[00:34:24] The date of birth listed for Steven is obviously consistent with Roman's age. And she tells Guy that Stephen's father was a martyr to the cause and they use blood in their rituals and baby blood is apparently the preferred.
[00:34:43] So even though, you know, guy is, like, super skeptical of all this and he's like, trying to convince Rosemary that this doesn't have any merit, she's like, look, the cast of vets are no longer allowed in this apartment or within 50ft of the baby. And she wants Guy to sublet their apartment and for them to move out immediately because she's uncomfortable.
[00:35:08] So she goes to see Doctor Saperstein and tells him all about what she's learned and tells her that, you know, or he, they're basically talking and he ends up telling her, you never have to see your lousy neighbors over again and that he's gonna write her a prescription for some pills. And apparently this fixes the problem that the cast of vets have too because Roman is very ill and is leaving to go to Europe for a final hurrah. So back at home, Guy says he threw away the book from Hutch. He had previously put it on the bookshelf and Rosemary saw where it was and when she goes to grab it, she, you know, sees that it's not there anymore. And obviously this greatly upsets Rosemary because why the fuck is Guy moderating what media she's allowed to consume? So she leaves and she walks, you know, into the street and she throws the necklace down a sewer and she goes to a bookstore and is like, well, fuck you. I can buy books anyway because even though I can't have credit card of my own, I can buy books. That is something women can do. So she buys books about witches and witchcraft and she calls Donald Baumgard, the one who went blind. And Guy got the part that Donald previously had.
[00:36:32] And so she's just chatting with him and he tells her that, you know, he's doing great because he only broke six glasses that day and, like, is just trying to make light of the situation. And she says, I have something of yours.
[00:36:50] And she kind of like, makes him guess what it is and he tells her it was his tie. And at first he tells her that he and guy traded ties, but then questions if Guy actually stole it because he's blind now, so he obviously doesn't know where it is. And so she quickly hangs up.
[00:37:10] So she packs her witch books and pills and some money and her suitcase that she had initially been packing for her, like, post birth hospital, you know, her, like, mommy bag. And she prepares to leave, and she goes to the doctor. So she goes to Doctor Saperstein, and she picks up a magazine while she's in the office. And it's the iconic time magazine cover that says, God is dead. And fun fact, if you don't know this, because this is a magazine cover, a real one. This is the one and only time that they're. Sorry, excuse me. This is the first time that Time magazine ever only put text on the front cover and no photo. So that's a nice fun fact for you.
[00:37:53] And the nurse tells Rosemary that she thinks she smells great, even though Rosemary is, like, super sweaty. Cause it's fucking hot as shit outside. And she's been running around with a suitcase. And the nurse is like, it's a big improvement, if I may say, from how you normally smell. And Rosemary was like, oh, it was his necklace. And I threw it away. And the nurse is like, well, maybe Doctor Snapperstein will follow your example because Doctor Saperstein is wearing the same fucking tannis root. He smells the same.
[00:38:27] So she quickly makes up a lie.
[00:38:29] That guy is outside waiting for her, and she needs to go tell him something, but she takes all of her stuff and leaves and goes to a phone booth where she calls doctor Hill's office, and his answering service picks up and she tells them, you know, to have Doctor Hill call her back. And so she waits in the phone booth, and then they call her back, but then they're like, are you actually a patient? And she was like, well, yeah, like, I've been there once, but, like, I'm not really a current patient, but, like, I have been there before and, like, it's an emergency. So, like, please, can. Can he please just call me? So then doctor l finally calls her, and she tells him about all of the crazy drinks and the pills and. And, you know, the tennis route and whatever, and that there's people out to kill her, but that her baby is due on Tuesday, so he agrees to meet her at his office later that night. And so I guess he's been in either the or he's been, you know, delivering babies all day because he's like, I'm gonna take a nap, and I'll meet you at night. So after hanging up, she notices a man standing in front of the phone booth and gets afraid, but he appears to just be, like, a random man who needs to use the phone.
[00:39:44] So when she gets to doctor Hill's office, she tells him everything. She's like, you know, guys started to sleep in pajamas all of a sudden when he never wrote, he never wore them before because he's probably hiding like a mark from that, from the coven, like, they share one. And that, you know, Donald Baumgart went blind. And, you know, she shows him the spell that they cast in one of her witch books that led to him being blind. And Guy had lied to doctor Hill that they moved to California, but really she was just seeing another doctor. And she tells him about how Guy came home one day when Hutch was over and he still had his makeup on from rehearsal, which means that the cast of ETS called and told Guy to come home and steal one of Hutch's belongings, which would have been the glove, so that they could cast a spell to put him into a coma. And so Donald Baumgart, actually, the tie is what they used to make him blind.
[00:40:41] So doctor Hill tells Rosemary that, you know, doctor Saperstein, maybe not somebody he would have wanted her to see. And he's like, look, do you want to go over to Mount Sinai right now? And tells her to lay down, you know, for 30 minutes while he calls the hospital to make arrangements?
[00:41:00] So she falls asleep while she's waiting. And doctor Hill calls none other than guy and doctor Saperstein to arrive to tell her that she's on a one way ticket to a mental hospital and insist that she put her shoes on and leave without making a fuss.
[00:41:16] So she does so quietly. They take her home, and when they get to the lobby of her apartment building, she drops everything out of her purse to create a distraction and runs and gets in the elevator while they're picking up her stuff. So she gets off the elevator and beats guy and doctor Saperstein to the apartment, but just barely, and she locks them both out. She goes to the phone. She's, like, rushing, and she calls Elise, but Elise's maid answers and tells her, you know, hey, I'm sorry. Elise is out at a movie, and Rosemary's like, okay, well, it's urgent, so have her call me back.
[00:41:53] Behind Rosemary in the doorframe, which is a really cool shot, everyone in the building, practically, is what it feels like, sneaks in, and doctor Snappersehn is holding a needle with a sedative to inject her with. And, like, it's so creepy. They're, you know, walking behind her in the door frame, and we see it and she doesn't. And when she sees the needle, she tries to hit guy to create some space but all of the people from the apartment building hold her down, and he forces the needle into her. And what do you know, it? She's in labor, so she wants to go to the hospital for a sterile, you know, clean environment. And while this commotion is going on, Elise calls back and guy answers and tells her that Rosemary is not home.
[00:42:42] What an asshole. Just don't pick up the phone.
[00:42:45] So Rosemary begs for forgiveness from her soon to be born child, and she goes to sleep.
[00:42:52] She wakes up to Guy, who tells her that the baby is fine and that it's a boy, but that was just a dream. When she actually wakes up, Guy and doctor Saperstein are there to tell her that after she keeps asking for her baby that there were some complications and that the baby was stillborn because it was in the wrong position and that this is all her fault because she didn't get to go to a hospital because she wouldn't calm down, whatever the fuck that is supposed to mean. So she screams at them that they're lying to her and that they're all witches and that they took her baby. So Guy tells her that they can try again when she's better and feeds her some sedatives.
[00:43:32] He wants her to tell him where the idea of him and doctor Saperstein are also Satan Satanists is coming from. And so.
[00:43:45] But she's like, what the fuck are you talking about? And so anyways, he tells her that she had prepartum hysteria and that now she needs to get over it and rest. And by the way, he has to run off and get famous. And on his way out, she asks if she can see his left shoulder to check for a mark. And there's nothing on it.
[00:44:10] So faintly she's hearing a baby while she's in bed resting, watching tv.
[00:44:17] And she's like, here's a baby crying and the woman has taken care of her, presumably. A neighbor says she can't hear anything and tells her it's time to get back in bed and to take her pill, you know, her sedative and reassures her to not turn off the air conditioning again. It's so hot outside that people are dying.
[00:44:41] So Laura Louise has Rosemary nurse and pump breast milk into a Pyrex cup. And Laura Louise says that they throw the milk away, but it's like, okay, well, they could have just done the bandage thing where they wrap up your boobs super tight so you don't, you know, produce any milk, but instead they want her to nurse.
[00:45:02] What the fuck? I would fuck with your head so bad. And Rosemary, like, wants. She's curious, and so she, like, tries to take a spoonful of the milk because she presumably wants to taste it. And Laura Louise tells her, no, not to do that because it's messy.
[00:45:21] That sounds like a really strange excuse, and I hope you all agree with me. So guy lets Rosemary know that the neighbors had a baby, right? Because the cast of vets are gone, or they're supposed to be gone.
[00:45:40] So that would be the baby that she heard crying. So in the linen closet, Rosemary, when guy's not home, takes everything out, including the shelves, and she finds a hidden door to the next door apartment and looks inside. So now we know why the last tenant had a dresser in front of that door.
[00:46:02] So she goes to grab a knife and go through the doorway when guy comes home. And so she hides in the nursery. Iconic scene.
[00:46:10] He leaves, and she hears the front door close, and so she goes back into the closet, opens the secret door to find a painting very similar to the fiery building she saw in her dream rape, and repeats to herself, got her too high.
[00:46:30] She walks into the castavette's living room with her knife and finds everyone there, like all of the castavettes friends and building tenants and her husband, Guy.
[00:46:44] Even the castavettes are there. But remember, they're supposed to be in Europe, and he mentioned that they might be going to Dubrovnik. So when Roman tries to talk to her, she says, shut up. You're in Dubrovnik. I don't hear you.
[00:47:00] She's a bad bitch.
[00:47:02] She sees a black bassinet in the living room and pulls the drapery around it back to find, you know, her baby.
[00:47:11] And she asks what was done to his eyes. And Roman says he has his father's eyes, but the eyes are black. And obviously Guy's eyes are not black. So they proceed to explain to her that Satan is the father and that the child's name is Adrian, and she should be honored, that out of all the women in the world, Satan chose her. And they chant, the year is one and God is done.
[00:47:40] So Roman asks her to be a mother to the baby, and she doesn't even have to join the cult if she doesn't want to.
[00:47:48] So Guy tries to tell her that they're getting so much in return for carrying Satan's son, and she spits in his face.
[00:47:57] Roman and Minnie are, like, you know, trying to entertain and trying to keep her calm. So Minnie gives her a cup of plain, ordinary Lipton tea, or so she says it is. And Rosemary won't drink it because she knows better. And Laura Louise is rocking the bassinet, like, hard. Like, I don't even have a baby, and I've not really been around hardly any babies in my life, but, like, you don't do it that hard. So it's making Adrienne cry. And so Rosemary tells her to stop and he'll stop crying. And Roman says, you know, to Laura Louise to go sit the fuck down and stop being so damn annoying because Laura Louise is like, shut up. Stop telling me what to do. Like, I'll kill you right here, right now, like, blah, blah, blah. And so then Rosemary goes over to rock her baby in the bassinet, and the coven gathers around in awe of her and the baby and, of course, the mother's touch. She gets him to stop crying.
[00:48:54] She looks at her baby blankly, really, and the credits roll, and that is Rosemary's baby.
[00:49:08] So now we have to ask ourselves, what does it all mean? And I know this is already kind of a long episode, so I'll try to keep my. My thoughts brief with you. And as per usual, there's going to be some information I'd like to share with you.
[00:49:26] And so my thoughts are this.
[00:49:29] There is very little, if anything, in this film that is, like, visually frightening, other than the absolutely horrific rape scene.
[00:49:40] But, like, there's no gore or anything. Like, Rosemary loses absolutely everything about her ability to make decisions and the agency over her own life. As soon as they moved into the apartment building and it appeared before moving there for a short time right after, Rosemary is still able to have some autonomy, right? Like, her day to day, she can pick what she eats, how she speaks, what she wants, etcetera.
[00:50:08] So obviously, loss of autonomy is a huge, huge theme here. And one of the greatest other themes here is that Rosemary's kind of being forced to join a collective that she literally has no interest in being a part of. So she, like, pushes and represses all of her feelings that she's associated, you know, with it, and she wants to continue to live her life the way she wants to live it without everything being predetermined by someone or something else. And I love the parallel here about her faith and the common belief that God is in control if you simply, you know, trust and believe. But I think this goes to show that God is actually not in control, especially here, because Satan and his followers are in control. So it also seems that she would not. She would be willing to sacrifice control over her life in the name of, like, divine intervention, but is not willing to do so for any dark or what she perceives to be evil matters.
[00:51:19] But one thing that we can all agree on is that this film came out at an incredibly interesting time in us history.
[00:51:28] Oral contraceptives were, you know, introduced to the public in, like, the fifties and sixties.
[00:51:36] So the ability to have an oral contraceptive available for use gives women the power that they need and deserve to protect themselves against unwanted pregnancy and, you know, menstrual regulation and things like that.
[00:51:52] And oral contraceptives give women the opportunity to control when and how a pregnancy occurs, which is something that was not previously available. Right. And was in the hands of men, because you can't just sit there and be like, oh, I'm gonna pray really hard, and then, like, hopefully, like, I won't get pregnant. Like, it doesn't work that way.
[00:52:19] So she sort of falls into this unfortunate space where she, like, has enough control over her body to carry a life inside of it, but not enough control to determine what to do with that life or how it got there or how it grows even.
[00:52:42] And what we really, really have on our hands here is, unfortunately, a case of coercive control.
[00:52:54] Healthline has a really helpful article on this that I will link in the show notes, but coercive control is an abuse tactic that involves a certain set of characteristics or signs, and I will elaborate on those for you now.
[00:53:13] So the first one is isolation from your support system.
[00:53:17] The woodhouses, Rosemary and guy, they move into a new building where they don't know anybody.
[00:53:23] Hutch is the only person, you know, Rosemary really has on her team. And, you know, the coven puts Hutch into a coma and is responsible for Hutch's rather sudden death. And so that removes him from her support system altogether. And she's constantly being bombarded with people that live in the building. And so there's really no opportunity for her to, like, have an outside network.
[00:53:51] Number two, monitoring activity throughout the day. Yeah, this is. This is overt. I mean, everybody in the building is constantly monitoring Rosemary and her daily activities. They spy on her. They call guy to come over unexpectedly when Hutch visits Rosemary to get him to leave. They control when and what she eats and drinks and the vitamins that she takes and the medicines that she takes. And, like, they are always around. Right. Like, she makes a call from a phone booth. There's somebody there watching her. She can't go to the ob GyN without it being somebody who's in on it.
[00:54:31] She can't go out and meet Hutch for lunch because you know, Minnie's there following her around so like she's always being monitored by everybody.
[00:54:41] Number three, denying freedom and autonomy.
[00:54:46] And I think this one's like pretty obvious.
[00:54:51] Like she's not even allowed to see the doctor that she wants to see or even decide how she becomes impregnated because she was drugged and raped. Instead there's the manipulation of, you know, guy and everyone else around her like making decisions for her. Like they basically just do it and expect her to follow along.
[00:55:16] And then this one is also interesting because, right, whenever she and Guy have the fight about the doctor that she wants to see and she's like, no, I want to go see Doctor Hill. And he's like, well I'm not paying for two doctors. And she's like, well that's fine because I'll do something, insert whatever to make money to go see that doctor. So like he's trying to keep her trapped in a way that she can only go to this doctor.
[00:55:43] Gaslighting. Yeah, that's another obvious one. Rosemary is constantly gaslit throughout, literally the entire film in almost every single interaction she has, particularly with her husband who continues to, you know, tell her things, tell her that she's not really experiencing the things that she is or that the reality that he lives in is not the same one that she lives in to get her to a point to where she starts like questioning herself.
[00:56:19] And this is a super common tactic that I think people often misidentify because it's not what a lot of people think it is. It's, it's a, it's a manipulation tactic to distort your sense of reality.
[00:56:38] Name calling or putting you down.
[00:56:41] I don't really necessarily remember, you know, guy calling Rosemary a specific name or anything, but you get the overall sense that he feels he's superior in some way to her and that she must remain beneath him and as a service to him rather than a partner to him.
[00:57:01] Limiting your access to money, this one is not demonstrated explicitly, but we do see two incidents of Guy limiting Rosemary's access to money.
[00:57:15] One is after the party they throw and she throws the fit about wanting to see Doctor Hill and he's like, I'm not paying for two doctors, that's one.
[00:57:23] Number two is when she's planning her escape and she has a like stash of cash that she hid and she wouldn't need to hide cash unless guy was controlling their finances and she didn't want him to know.
[00:57:38] And like I touched on already, we are, we see very little interaction between Guy and Rosemary discussing money. So she just seems to spend, you know, and that's it. She doesn't seem to be intimately aware of their financial situation or status, even though guy is at first a struggling actor, and we have no fucking idea how he's coming up with the money for the apartment or the furniture.
[00:58:02] Reinforcing traditional gender roles.
[00:58:07] Rosemary doesn't work. Gaia is her provider. She is expected to sit at home literally all the time and do nothing else while guy runs around doing God knows what. And she's expected to cook and clean and to be a mother, even to a baby that is not necessarily her own.
[00:58:25] And the coven still expects her to take on the role of raising the baby after they illustrate to her what she gave birth to and the significance of such births, so they still want her to do it.
[00:58:40] Turning your children against you. This one's a little different. Cause there's no kids to turn against Rosemary, but because the coven stole the baby after it was born.
[00:58:51] If the child had grown up with the idea that his mother had abandoned him at birth, this could result in conflict, you know, even if it's not explicit conflict, but, like, the child might grow up thinking that they hate their mother because, you know, all these people in this coven paint a picture of her that's not necessarily accurate and blah, blah, blah, controlling aspects of your health and body.
[00:59:20] This is perhaps the most explicit one we see, and we can see in Guy and everybody else, as a matter of fact, they won't allow her to see Doctor Hillen. Her neighbors are giving her weird foods and vitamins that she knows nothing about.
[00:59:35] She trusts them blindly to have her best interest in mind and to take care of her. And Guy makes a comment about how he will refuse to pay for any services that Rosemary receives from doctor Hill to persuade her to continue only seeing their satanic doctor. And, you know, has her give birth at home. And, like, literally everything about her and her medical treatment is not being decided by her.
[01:00:05] All right? And the next one, because it keeps going, making jealous accusations.
[01:00:10] Again, I don't think that this one is as explicit or in our faces, but Guy does seem to be pretty peeved that Rosemary has confided in her girlfriends during the party and the issues and pain that she'd been having. You know, she discussed that with them. And Guy lashes out at Rosemary by calling all the girls bitches. And he constantly puts Hutch down as Rosemary's friend and seems, like, kind of jealous of the time that they spend together and her contact with the outside world is just extraordinarily limited. And it's hard to tell if he's doing that because he wants to control the information that she receives to keep her in this state of, you know, sort of confusion or if it's truly because he's jealous or it could be both.
[01:01:03] Particularly when it comes to the fact that in my opinion, Guy sees nothing. Guy sees Rosemary as nothing more than simply a vessel to get what he wants in this life, which is, you know, he wanted to have Satan impregnate his wife in order to be famous.
[01:01:28] Regulating your sexual relationship.
[01:01:31] Huge one right here. Guy is in control of their sexual relationship almost entirely.
[01:01:38] For example, when it comes to the conception, it's obviously done via rape. So she's drugged, she's raped. It's orchestrated by her husband and their neighbors in their building. And the next morning when he admits to it, she lets it go as if it's nothing to worry about and that it is perfectly normal for you to be asleep and for your husband to have sex with you while you're under the influence, which that is simply not okay.
[01:02:06] And they don't have sex again at any point in time after that, like when she's pregnant. They don't even discuss it. Like, it never happens again.
[01:02:16] He's also increasingly busy with his acting work and like, he's not paying attention to Rosemary really anymore because he claims he's so busy, but really he just sees her as an object and not a person carrying his child that's worthy of love and affection, which is really sad.
[01:02:36] And the final one, threatening children or pets.
[01:02:41] They don't have any pets that we know about and they don't have children for the majority of the film, obviously. But after she gives birth, guy assists and or orchestrates a kidnapping of their child and removes Rosemary from accessing her child entirely. And I think that that, although is not like a threat made directly to Rosemary of like, well, I'm gonna, once that thing is born, like, I'm gonna kill it. Like, no, that's not necessarily what we're saying here. But I do think you could say that obviously any time a kidnapping occurs, like, that's not okay. So he's still limiting her access via children.
[01:03:29] And I think we can agree that guy exhibits almost all of these behaviors throughout the entire film. And maybe that's why this film shakes me to my absolute core. Everything happening to Rosemary is something that she is aware of, and yet everyone around her conspires against her to keep her in a state of false security. The amount of doubt that she has created within herself surrounding her suspicions is truly horrific.
[01:03:59] Another key area of focus here that I'd like to touch on for you is reproductive coercion, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. And women's law has a great article about this that I'm happy to be linking for you so you can reference it yourself if you're interested in learning more.
[01:04:21] Reproductive coercion is when another person tries to control your reproductive choices in an effort to control your life. So abusive actions related to reproductive coercion include sexually coercive behaviors such as pressuring or forcing a sexual partner to have sex when they don't want to, threatening to end the relationship if the other person does not have sex. Forcing a sexual partner to not use birth control of any method, intentionally exposing a sexual partner to an STI or STD retaliation against a sexual partner when told about a positive STI or STD birth control sabotage. This includes things like hiding, withholding, destroying contraceptive pills, replacing or tampering with birth control pills without knowledge, consent, breaking holes into condoms on purpose, removing condoms during sex without telling your partner, refusing to withdraw even if previously agreeing to do so, or pulling out a partner's vaginal contraceptive ring or tearing off a contraceptive patch.
[01:05:35] And the final category of these behaviors is pregnancy pressure, which is like, I think, the one that we see the most blatantly, getting pregnant when you don't want to be pregnant. As an example, continuing a pregnancy if you'd rather have an abortion, ending a pregnancy that you wanted to continue, having your partner essentially tell you that if you don't have this child with them, that they're going to leave you. Like, all of these things, right?
[01:06:07] And the ultimate goal, reproductive coercion, is to minimize and dehumanize the other partner in order to gain or maintain control. And there is a really good article that I want to share with you guys that touches on this really, really well.
[01:06:24] It's titled Guy Rosemary's Baby and coercive control from publicbooks.org. and I'll be linking that for you.
[01:06:34] But this is a pretty large discussion during that, right?
[01:06:38] During that article, marital rape didn't become illegal until 1984. Birth control pills had just become widely available. Abortion was illegal in all states. Becoming pregnant essentially meant that you were trapped in your specific situation, which is exactly what Guy wanted. Like, imagine being so sick in the head that you would be willing to drug and have your wife raped in front of a fucking audience of people, no less, just to be successful and I'm sure he was still a shitty fucking actor anyway. And I should make one point of clarification here. Guy, again, is not the one who actually raped rosemary. I feel like that's a misconception. She was raped by Satan. Guy was simply a vessel, and the coven summoned Satan to rape and impregnate rosemary. So the next morning when she wakes up, Guy plays it off like he's the one who simply could not help himself and had to ravage his clearly intoxicated wife and makes a joke about his fingernails to justify the scratches that she has all over her body.
[01:07:40] Guy is so inferior to Rosemary in every single way. He's flattered by their neighbor, Mister Castavets, when he tells Guy that he sees something very special in him and it shows through his commercials, even though Guy's not getting any big parts in anything at all, but his male ego simply cannot accept that he is not getting the roles that he wants and that his own wife openly admits to the fact that he's only getting small parts and performing in things that no one's ever heard of, which clearly is blowing his confidence and making him appear as, I don't know, less masculine.
[01:08:21] He wants revenge. He doesn't want his wife to speak about him in this way. There's a sort of undertone of wrath against his own wife. Wrath, one of the seven deadly sins, allows Guy to open his mind, his body, to this new world of satanism and accepts that Satan has already entered his body by allowing him to exemplify this wrath. So it's a very easy jump for Guy to make to agree to have his wife raped.
[01:08:50] Only natural for Guy.
[01:08:55] If we choose to take a different approach, we could view this film as a study on postpartum psychosis, but that doesn't seem to be accurate and also makes me feel a bit misogynistic because Rosemary's absolutely not crazy. And anyone that has this take, I would absolutely love to, I don't know, put you in a chair and tape you to it and, like, use the things that they use in a clockwork orange to keep your eyes wide open so that you can watch the movie because you seriously don't fucking get it if that's what you think about this movie, all of the things that she knew and suspected were true. So how in the fuck can that be an example of psychosis? Like, please get over yourselves.
[01:09:46] It is interesting, although I will say at the time, at a time in history when satanic panic was rampant, that this is not the central theme of the film, or what is the most frightening. But one thing I do want to share with you all before I wrap things up for today in final summary, right, is there is a book written by Erin Harrington. And shout out to my mother for buying me this book. Book for Christmas. I had been wanting to purchase this book for quite some time. It is called women monstrosity and horror film Gyna horror, which is exactly what it sounds like, but it's essentially an in depth analysis of women in horror films and includes large discussions based around reproduction, reproductive health, sexual hygiene, xyz.
[01:10:39] And so in Erin Harrington's book, she makes sure to mention something that I want to pinpoint here. Motion picture production code, right, that was dissolved, that was previously, like, a rating system or a system to determine, like, what could or could not be shown on screen. And it was incredibly, incredibly strict. I mean, you could show almost nothing. So we would not have films that we have today if this was still in place. I highly encourage you all to take a deeper look inside of the motion picture production code. Very interesting, and might rile you up a little bit.
[01:11:24] But that was replaced by the Motion Picture association of America, which is essentially like a sort of voluntary rating system. I mean, there's still certain guidelines in place, but. But it's not, like, nearly as strict as the motion picture production code. So thank God for that. 1968, obviously, is the same year that Rosemary's baby came out. So I think that that says a lot about, you know, the film and Roman Polanski and what he wanted to communicate and allowed for these films to show things and express topics like pregnancy, birth, abortion, sexual hygiene, etcetera.
[01:12:06] I also want to touch on the home. There's. There's so much discussion in the, like, in and surrounding the apartment and, like, where they live and how it's decorated. And, like, I want you to really take home with you the point that your home is supposed to be your sanctuary, right? Your home is supposed to be safe. We've talked about this before when we talked about french film inside, right, where the woman is being hunted, essentially, by another woman who wants to steal her child, and she's doing it all within the confines of the pregnant woman's home. It's so frightening. Home horror is frightening because you are supposed to be safe there.
[01:12:51] And they kind of see the home as a place of domestic entrapment, right. Rosemary has an estranged husband. Home is supposed to be tended to by the wife and quote unquote, having a bad. Right. House as a representation can show the fears and thoughts of the people that are living there. So Rosemary's home is not safe. She cannot do anything on her own. Everything in her life is being done for her, orchestrated for her, done behind her back, done on her behalf without her consent. Like, she's not safe there. And it's also interesting because like I've talked about before, when if you've listened to my episode on Inside of Home as a sanctuary body, as a sanctuary, right, your body is you. It is your choice what you should and should not allow or what you will and will not allow inside of your body. And so looking at the body as a sacred vessel, right, and the home as a sanctuary, both things have people living in them, and both are unsafe.
[01:14:11] So you can look at Rosemary's body and also look at Rosemary's apartment and realize that they are the same thing.
[01:14:21] The baby is living inside of her, she's living inside the apartment. Everybody's unsafe, right? So that's one final thing I wanted to touch on and just some food for thought for you guys.
[01:14:36] I really hope that you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. I'm happy to be back after, you know, taking July 4 off because like I said, we take holidays off on this show and I will have everything linked for you, obviously, in the show notes, as I always do.
[01:14:53] Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, concerns, anything you'd like to discuss regarding the film, you can email
[email protected]. you can also message me on Instagram iinalgirlonsix.
[01:15:10] I also want to implore you all to take a moment to head on over to morbidlybeautiful.com because morbidly beautiful is your home for horror and there is horror for everyone there on morbidlybeautiful.com. and I hope that you guys take some time to check it out. There are many podcasts on it just like mine. There's articles, there's quizzes, there's fun games, there's merch. Please take some time to check that out. Thank you so much for listening. You can find this podcast on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon music, and pocket casts. If you enjoyed the show, it would mean the world to me if you left me a five star review and subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you so much for listening today, guys. I will be back with you very, very soon. And never forget that I am 6th Avenue's very own final girl.
