Trick & Treat for October 8th:
ROSEMARY’S BABY (1968; Mia Farrow, John Cassavettes, Ruth Gordon; directed by Roman Polanski)
If you’ve ever asked yourself, “Am I paranoid… or are they all in it together?!?”, this unnerving film will most likely not help your condition. It begins when Mrs. Rosemary Woodhouse (Farrow) and her aspiring, talented stage actor husband, Guy (Cassavetes) sign a lease at Manhattan’s vintage Bramford Apartments (in reality the Dakota). In short order, the bright, young couple are greeted by their elderly neighbors, the eccentric Castevets, Minnie (Ruth Gordon) and Roman. Minnie’s a busy body, but seems harmless enough. Roman’s jolly but a bit stuffy. At first, Rosemary and Guy are amused. Soon though, Guy is spending more time with the ritualistic Roman and less with his now pregnant wife. The expectant Rosemary accepts the gift of a peculiar necklace from the intrusive Minnie, who sends Rosemary to an unusual sort of baby doctor (Ralph Bellamy). Strange (and deadly) things happen. Now very isolated and increasingly worried, Rosemary loses weight and begins to wonder whether she’s lost her mind. Chocolate mousse, as you will see, would be the devilish choice here. But since that’d be difficult to handle, we instead recommend R. Crumb’s Devil Girl Choco-Bar. “It’s BAD for you!”, says the label. If only Rosemary had gotten the same advice about socializing with Minnie and Roman.
Who wants to wait until the 31st to wallow in Halloween indulgences and scary movies?! Home Projectionist doesn’t! And so we’ll have pairings of 31 Frights and 31 Bites every one of October’s 31 nights: a scary, snack size movie “trick”, and a delicious “treat” to go along with it.