 Roman Polanski's 1968 film version of Ira Levin's novel Rosemary's Baby takes a clever little shaggy-dog tale type horror novel and turns it into an exercise in paranoia. Unsuccessful actor Guy Woodhouse and his wife Rosemary move into the Bramford, a large old apartment building based upon ( And filmed exteriorly at-)the Dakota in New York City, the same building outside of which John Lennon was killed decades later. The neigbors, all apparently elderly and way too friendly, work their way into the young couple's lives qickly, following the apparent suicide of the young woman living with the old couple in the next apartment: the Castavets (Ruth Gordon, who won an Oscar, and Sidney Blackmer). Weird events quickly follow, including a very realistic dream Rosemary has in which she is raped by an inhuman creature. Thereafter, she discovers she is pregnant, and comes to suspect.... The film is leisurely. It builds suspense through character development. The viewpoint is entirely subjective. The viewer is Rosemary, who is in every scene. We learn what is going on along with her, and her suspicions become ours. The film is about fear. The fear of being alone. The fear of violation. The unspecified but very real fear of abnormal pregnancy. It is also about faith. If Satan is real, after all, what place then must we make in our personal view of the universe for the notion of God? Polanski's clever direction makes all of this implicit, coming in at the very edge of a viewer's consciousness and catching hold. Notice the scene where the skeletal, tormented Rosemary, in the painful grip of a pregnancy she doesn't understand and has come to fear, pauses to look at a little Manger scene in the window of a department store. She sees, superimposed over the religious imagery, her own reflection, looking gaunt and horrible. We see realization in her face--she recognizes the true effect the situation is having on her. Suddenly, Minnie Castavet bursts into the scene and turns Rosemary awy from her contemplation. In a very real sense, the profane is turning the victim away from the sacred. Not a horror film in the popular sense of the word, the film relies on character and atmosphere, as well as style. It explores issues of faith, evil, and in it's ambiguous, open ending leaves room for reflection, speculation and yes, even hope. 