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A review by steveatwaywords
Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Why would I expect to love a 1960s story about a pregnant woman in New York, even if I already knew that it wouldn't go as planned? I didn't. I had seen the film, knew the story, thought (foolishly) that the book had nothing more to offer.
And it doesn't. Not really. Roman Polanski's film is almost a shot-for-shot, line-by-line recreation of the novel, highly effective but for its small changes . . . and the fact that Levin's words still resonate differently on the page than from the visual image.
Unlike most writers of horror, Levin--who really isn't one--offers us an anesthetized, almost objective style of description through much of the story. This is the modern world; people speak small talk; they do domestic chores; they hope for a job; they shop for apartments, even lie sometimes to get what they want. Levin relates all with equal detachment, a minimalist in connotation and metaphor. We are lulled, even when some neighborly eccentricities step just a bit further than comfort.
Levin's relating of Rosemary's dreams, too, are in a surreal detachment, often blending into the waking text in the non-sequiturs of image and givens that we all know. So when the dreams are also nightmare, we are forgiven for tossing these off along with Rosemary--just part of life.
Polanski's film delights a bit more in the nightmare, though, and because the dreams are offered as equivalent to the waking world under the camera lens, viewers see them as equally credible; the horror is revealed quite early as consequence. Finally, when in Levin's book we are offered--at last--the fruits of the horror, the build-up works so effectively that we are shocked by this clarity of evil. (In contrast, inexplicably, Polanski deviates from the book and shows us nothing at all but Rosemary's expressions, defusing the horror which he in practice spoiled earlier, anyway.)
And while I have spent too much time in comparison/contrast, this goes to demonstrate how effective is Levin's horror here, and while I knew the story going in, I was still delighted by more own sense of terror along the way.
And it doesn't. Not really. Roman Polanski's film is almost a shot-for-shot, line-by-line recreation of the novel, highly effective but for its small changes . . . and the fact that Levin's words still resonate differently on the page than from the visual image.
Unlike most writers of horror, Levin--who really isn't one--offers us an anesthetized, almost objective style of description through much of the story. This is the modern world; people speak small talk; they do domestic chores; they hope for a job; they shop for apartments, even lie sometimes to get what they want. Levin relates all with equal detachment, a minimalist in connotation and metaphor. We are lulled, even when some neighborly eccentricities step just a bit further than comfort.
Levin's relating of Rosemary's dreams, too, are in a surreal detachment, often blending into the waking text in the non-sequiturs of image and givens that we all know. So when the dreams are also nightmare, we are forgiven for tossing these off along with Rosemary--just part of life.
Polanski's film delights a bit more in the nightmare, though, and because the dreams are offered as equivalent to the waking world under the camera lens, viewers see them as equally credible; the horror is revealed quite early as consequence. Finally, when in Levin's book we are offered--at last--the fruits of the horror, the build-up works so effectively that we are shocked by this clarity of evil. (In contrast, inexplicably, Polanski deviates from the book and shows us nothing at all but Rosemary's expressions, defusing the horror which he in practice spoiled earlier, anyway.)
And while I have spent too much time in comparison/contrast, this goes to demonstrate how effective is Levin's horror here, and while I knew the story going in, I was still delighted by more own sense of terror along the way.