it's satan, bitch (gimme, gimme more)

[intertribal]

Watched Rosemary's Baby. This is the movie that my mother had to walk out of, when she saw it in theaters around my age. I had no such reaction (and was more scared by re-watching The Others after that) - probably because I'm not generally scared by things that, in Clarkesworld's words, "depend on some vestigial belief in Judeo-Christian mythology in order to be frightening (i.e., Cain and Abel are vampires, the End Times are a' comin', Communion wine turns to Christ's literal blood and it's HIV positive, Satan's gonna getcha, etc.)."

When the baby's in a black bassinet and the mobile's an upside-down cross, Something is Wrong.

But I wish I could write about all the social issues this movie brings up.  It's kind of like a better-made Passion of the Christ in that it's controversial, but resolves all its controversies in socially conservative ways.  Briefly:

• Witchcraft - existent? Evil by nature?  Rosemary's Baby:  Existent, evil.  Bloody, child-killing.
• Women - pathetic?  Evil/weak by nature?  Rosemary's Baby: Pathetic, either evil or weak.  Stupid.  Slow.
• Abortion?  Rosemary's Baby: Totally out of the question, even when the child is the spawn of Satan.
• Hedonism/alternative medicine/"Unusual behavior"?  Rosemary's Baby: Sure sign of evil.  100% of the time.
• Are they out to get you?  Rosemary's Baby: Yes.

Still, Roman Polanski's obviously a good director, and Mia Farrow is very convincing, although I spent most of the movie wanting to shake some sense into her character.  There were some Fellini-esque dream sequences, which are always fun trips.  But God (so to speak), from the good Catholic heroine from Omaha (yes!) to the eccentric villainous neighbors who criticize organized religion, this whole movie is like a big hysterical exercise in social suppression of any alternatives to the mainstream.  You know, kind of like Reefer Madness, but with witches.  And of course, witches do not congregate naked in covens and paint themselves with baby's blood - nor do they go around screaming, "Hail Satan!" and "God is dead!"  Oh, exercises in fear.

Then again, this movie was released in 1968, the year my history professor called America's only serious crisis of legitimacy.  I'm sure the agents of cultural warfare were running full throttle.