SPOILER
I just don't get it when people tell me that the movie was scary but the ending sucked. You completely missed the point. Rosemary's Baby has an ever-so-subtle Satanic Mindfuck that only those "in the know" can appreciate. But there's a contextual thing that younger viewers tend to miss. I missed it, and had to have it pointed out to me.
Throughout the movie, you're supposed to suspect more and more that Rosemary's elderly neighbours are witches, and want to kill the baby. And Rosemary, too, while they're at it. After all, if they were just a couple of crazy old folks who don't do anything particularly malicious, well, what would be the harm of that? But if they want to kill a mother and a baby, well, then they're evil and must be stopped.
It never occured to me that anyone would jump to conclusions and assume that the witches wanted to kill the baby.
At the end of the movie, you find out that no, the witches don't want to kill the baby. Nor do they want to kill Rosemary. They want to stop Rosemary (simple, reactionary Rosemary) from hurting the baby. They want to celebrate the baby's life. The baby's going to be perfectly safe, and oh hey, by the way, he's the Antichrist, but that's quite beside the point. He's still just an innocent baby.
I burst out laughing at the sight of a bunch of old folks, sitting around screaming "Hail Satan!" like a southern Baptist shouts out "Hallelujah." But apparently, in 1968 some audiences had serious problems with the idea that the old people weren't going to harm the baby. They stomped their feet and booed. Satanic witches are supposed to be baby-killers. And here they are, being portrayed in a positive light. I mean, hey, they win in the end, and Rosemary's husband gets to keep all the benefits of his pact with the Devil, and Rosemary's completely recovered from her arduous devil-pregnancy. It's almost pro-Satanic!
Almost?
Roman Polanski's most recent film, The Ninth Gate, has more overt pro-Satanic themes. Draw whatever conclusions about Polanski you wish based on this evidence.
According to legend, Anton Szandor LaVey had a cameo, donning the fluffy green suit and humping Rosemary. The Church of Satan is proud of touting this fact, but I've also heard ex-CoS critics maintain that LaVey was far too large of a man to fit into the small suit. (I've also heard from different critics that LaVey was actually short.) I'm not able to corroborate this one way or the other. (IMDB says it was one "Clay Tanner".)
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