Rosemary's Baby Pt 3: All of Them Witches

50th Anniversary Three-Part Mini-Series
Occasionally we'll take a movie and baton pass it around the team.

In Part One Seán McGovern sang the praises of Oscar winning Ruth Gordon as nosey neighbor Minnie to Mia Farrow's iconic Rosemary. The apartment is a find for Rosemary and her husband Guy (sleazy John Cassavettes) but the Bramford sure has sinister tenants.

In Part Two Jason Adams eyed fascinating visual details as the perversions mount and Rosemary becomes emaciated and pale -- aren't pregnancies supposed to make you fill out and glow? As we pick back up Rosemary has just left the funeral of Hutch. He left her a book and a cryptic message "the name is an anagram." 

Part 3 by Nathaniel R

1:26:00 Rosemary never gets a moment to herself. Home from the funeral she barely has time to hang up her hat and throw off her shoes and the doorbell is wringing. I'll give you one guess as to who it is. 

Minnie, yup. Notice how chalky that drink is *wretches* and how much Ruth Gordon is doing in every scene including this brief one, conveying just how watchful, manipulative, and blasphemous Minnie is  -- "Grace, one of my favorite names" -- underneath all the old-lady eccentricity, flashy clothing, and innocuous chatter. 

1:27:00 Hutch wrapped the book up tightly like a gift, but it's not a pleasant one...

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Rosemary's Baby Pt 2: This is Really Happening!

Rosemary's Baby print by Jonathan Burton. For sale here.50th Anniversary Three-Part Mini-Series
Occasionally we'll take a movie and baton pass it around the team and really dive in. 

Rosemary's Baby (1968) is 50 years old now but it feels both ancient and fresh. It's always alive when you watch it. Having seeped into the very DNA of both the movies and our nightmares, it deserves a deep dive. In Part One by Seán McGovern we watched as Rosemary (Mia Farrow) and Guy Woodhouse (John Cassavettes) moved into a strange new apartment building, saw a neighbor mysteriously die, and become socially entangled with an intrusive neighbor couple Minnie and Roman Castavet (Ruth Gordon and Sydney Blackmer), who are both eccentrically endearing and very possibly sinister. 44 minutes into the film we can scratch out "very possibly" and just make that sinister. Full stop. We return to Rosemary just as we realize she's been drugged by Minnie's chocolate mousse "mouse" and has begun to dream... - Editor

Part 2 by Jason Adams

44:21 It seems appropriate to jump right in in the middle of a dream about to turn nightmare, for what else is Rosemary's Baby but that?

44:21 So much of this sequence will come back to haunt us later when Rosemary makes her final horrific discovery...

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Review: "Hereditary"

by Chris Feil

Hereditary gives so much: a bold lead performance from Toni Collette, genuine skin-crawling scares, and a stream of ominously manicured imagery to obsess over on multiple viewings. And yet its mightiest power is how and when it withholds. Layers revealed in its central family mystery only yield more questions and terrifying unreconciled implications on its descent into madness. You think at first the film is keeping you at arm’s length, when really it is picking you up by the shoulders and placing you down precisely where it knows it will unnerve you most. Letting it get its sadistic claws on you is simply one of the year’s essential cinematic experiences.

The feature debut of writer/director Ari Aster, Hereditary is uncommonly patient in delivering on its horrific promises. The film is less of a slow burn than an enticing bear trap, meditatively luring the audience with all of its pieces before suddenly closing its jaws on us with furious velocity. But that’s the thing about nightmares: rarely do they announce their punishment immediately. Hereditary is as wise and calculating as a demon ready to pounce.

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Prime & Hulu: Wonder Wheel, I Tonya, Bull Durham, Etc.

Time to play Streaming Roulette. Each month, to survey new streaming titles on the various services, we freeze frame the films at random places and whatever comes up, that's what we share, no cheating!  Today, we're looking at Prime and Hulu (which often have the same titles for some reason). Which of these will you be streaming this month for the first time or as a rewatch? Which would you most to see covered at TFE? Please do tell us in the comments. 

Ready? Let's go...

I am NOT obsessed with it!

Burnt Offerings (1976) on Prime and Hulu
Karen Black alert! We were just talking about her. I think this movie is famous but I'm not sure why exactly. It's of the supernatural horror genre but horror is one of my weakest genres in terms of knowledge.

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"Suspiria" First Look is Dakota Looking

by Chris Feil.

We've steadily been getting tidbits of late for Luca Guadagnino's Suspiria remake (or reimagining, as the director would prefer) - stories of the filming sending Dakota Johnson to therapy, Cinema Con attendees losing their lunch over the first body-breaking footage, and a reported sprawling 2.5 hour running time. What once sounded like a potentially dubious project is sounding more and more like something worthy of standing next to Dario Argento's original masterwork...

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