Rosemary's Baby is a 1968 American psychological horror film written and directed by Roman Polanski, based on Ira Levin's 1967 novel. The film stars Mia Farrow as Rosemary, a newlywed living in Manhattan who becomes pregnant, and begins to suspect that her neighbors have sinister intentions regarding her and her baby. The film's supporting cast includes John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans, Ralph Bellamy, Patsy Kelly, Angela Dorian, and Charles Grodin in his feature film debut.
The film deals with themes related to paranoia, women's liberation, Catholicism, and the occult. While it is primarily set in New York City, the majority of principal photography for Rosemary's Baby took place in Los Angeles throughout late 1967. The film was released on June 12, 1968, by Paramount Pictures. It was a box office success, grossing over $30 million in the United States ($270 million in 2025), and received immense critical acclaim, ultimately placing second behind The Lion in Winter on the annual Film Daily year-end poll in 1968. The film was nominated for several accolades, including multiple Golden Globe Award nominations and two Academy Award nominations, winning Best Supporting Actress (for Ruth Gordon) and the Golden Globe in the same category. Since its release, Rosemary's Baby has been widely regarded as one of the greatest horror films of all time. In 2014, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
The film launched a franchise, which includes the 1976 sequel film Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby, the 2014 miniseries Rosemary's Baby, and the 2024 prequel film Apartment 7A.
Plot Guy and Rosemary Woodhouse rent a recently vacated apartment in the Bramford, a large Gothic building in New York City, after the previous tenant, an elderly woman, fell into a coma and died. Guy and Rosemary ignore their friend Hutch's warning about the Bramford's dark past involving witchcraft and murder.
Rosemary meets a young woman, Terry Gionoffrio, a recovering drug addict whom Minnie and Roman Castevet, the Woodhouses' elderly next-door neighbors, took in from the street. Rosemary admires a pendant necklace the Castevets gave to Terry but dislikes its pungent odor. One night, Terry apparently jumps to her death from the Castevets' seventh-floor apartment. Soon the Castevets befriend Guy and Rosemary. Guy grows increasingly fond of them, but Rosemary finds them annoying and meddlesome. Minnie gives Terry's "tannis root" pendant to Rosemary as a 'good luck charm'.
Guy lands an important role in a play after the original actor inexplicably goes blind. With his career on track, Guy wants to have a baby with Rosemary. On the night they plan to conceive, Minnie brings them individual cups of chocolate mousse. Guy chastises Rosemary for complaining hers has a chalky "under-taste". She eats only a small portion before secretly discarding the rest. She passes out and experiences a dreamlike vision in which a demonic presence rapes her as Guy, the Castevets, and other Bramford tenants—all nude—watch. The next morning, Rosemary's body is covered in scratches. Guy says they had sex while she was unconscious since he did not want to miss "baby night".
When Rosemary becomes pregnant, the Castevets insist she go to their close friend Dr. Abraham Sapirstein, a prominent obstetrician, rather than her own physician, Dr. Hill. During her first trimester, Rosemary suffers severe abdominal pains and loses weight, though Dr. Sapirstein attributes it to temporary stiff pelvic joints. Her gaunt appearance alarms Hutch, who later researches the Bramford's history and Roman Castevet after meeting him at Rosemary's apartment. Later, Hutch phones Rosemary and arranges to meet with her the next morning to share his findings. When Hutch doesn't show up the next day, she calls him from a phone booth, and a friend answers and tells Rosemary that Hutch fell into a mysterious coma the night before. At a Woodhouse party for their "old (young) friends", Rosemary is unable to conceal her severe pain from her girlfriends, and hears their opinions. She starts pouring Minnie's 'health drink' down the drain each day rather than drink it, and tells Guy she wants to see Dr. Hill for a 'second opinion'. Guy gets angry, worried that Dr. Sapirstein will be offended. As they argue, the pains suddenly stop and Rosemary feels the baby move for the first time, much to Rosemary's relief.
Three months later, Hutch's friend, Grace Cardiff, calls Rosemary to inform her Hutch is dead. Before dying, he briefly regained consciousness and told Grace to give Rosemary a book on witchcraft along with the cryptic message: "The name is an anagram". Rosemary studies the book and deduces that Roman Castevet is an anagram for Steven Marcato, the son of a former Bramford resident and a reputed Satanist. She suspects the Castevets belong to a Satanic coven and have sinister plans for her baby. She sees Dr. Sapirstein and shares her fears about the Castevets. He tells her they'll be going away on a trip, as Roman hasn't much longer to live, so she needn't worry about them harming the baby. Guy meanwhile, discounts her suspicions and throws the witchcraft book away, making her fear that Guy may be conspiring with the Castevets.
Rosemary buys new witchcraft books, and learns that a coven needs an item that belongs to their intended victim in order to perform their harmful spells. Rosemary calls the blinded actor, and confirms that Guy visited him and took one of his neckties. Alarmed, she packs some clothes and cash and leaves the apartment. Intending to see Dr Sapirstein, a casual comment from his receptionist about his occasional tannis root odour makes Rosemary realise that Dr Sapirstein is part of the coven. She hurriedly leaves and goes to Dr. Hill instead. Assuming she is delusional, he calls Dr. Sapirstein, who arrives with Guy to take Rosemary home. They assure her that neither she nor the baby will be harmed. Rosemary locks herself in the apartment, but coven members infiltrate and restrain her. Dr. Sapirstein sedates a hysterical Rosemary, who goes into labor and gives birth. When she awakens, she is told the baby was stillborn. As Rosemary recovers, she hears an infant crying that Guy claims belongs to new tenants.
Believing her baby is alive, Rosemary examines a linen closet that shares a wall with the Castevets' apartment and discovers a hidden door leading into the apartment. In the living room, the Castevets, Guy, Dr. Sapirstein and other coven members are gathered around a cradle as if celebrating. Peering inside, Rosemary is horrified to see that the child has eyes that recall the demonic figure she saw in her vision when she and Guy conceived. She demands to know what is wrong with her baby. Roman tells her the baby "has his father's eyes," that he is not Guy's son but Satan's son. He reveals that her experience the night the child was conceived was not a vision but reality, and that the child that resulted is destined to lead the Satanists in a revolt against all who oppose their beliefs. When Guy tries to calm Rosemary by claiming they will be generously rewarded and can conceive their own child, Rosemary spits in his face. Roman gently urges her to be a mother to the child, saying that the women in the coven are "too old" to do this. Rosemary appears stunned by all she has been told, but after hearing the infant's cries, she tenderly begins to rock the cradle.
Cast
Production Development In Rosemary's Baby: A Retrospective, a featurette on the DVD release of the film, screenwriter/director Roman Polanski, Paramount Pictures executive Robert Evans, and production designer Richard Sylbert reminisce at length about the production. Evans recalled William Castle brought him the galley proofs of the book and asked him to purchase the film rights even before Random House published the book in April 1967. The studio head recognized the commercial potential of the project and agreed with the stipulation that Castle, who had a reputation for low-budget horror films, could produce but not direct the film adaptation. He makes a cameo appearance as the man at the phone booth waiting for Mia Farrow's character to finish her call.
François Truffaut said that Alfred Hitchcock was first offered the chance to direct the film but declined. Evans admired Polanski's European films and hoped he could convince him to make his American debut with Rosemary's Baby. He knew the director was a ski buff who was anxious to make a film with the sport as its basis, so he sent him the script for Downhill Racer along with the galleys for Rosemary's Baby. Polanski read the latter book non-stop through the night and called Evans the following morning to tell him he thought Rosemary's Baby was the more interesting project, and would like the opportunity to write as well as direct it. After negotiations, Paramount agreed to hire Polanski for the project, with a tentative budget of $1.9 million, $150,000 of which would go to Polanski.
Polanski completed the 272-page screenplay for the film in approximately three weeks. Polanski closely modeled it on the original 1967 novel by Ira Levin and incorporated large sections of the novel's dialogue and details, with much of it being lifted directly from the source text.
Casting
Casting for Rosemary's Baby began in the summer of 1967 in Los Angeles. Polanski originally envisioned Rosemary as a robust, full-figured, girl-next-door type, and wanted Tuesday Weld or his own fiancée Sharon Tate to play the role. Jane Fonda, Patty Duke and Goldie Hawn were also reportedly considered for the role.
Since the book had not yet reached bestseller status, Evans was unsure the title alone would guarantee an audience for the film, and he believed that a bigger name was needed for the lead. Farrow, with a supporting role in Guns at Batasi (1964) and the yet-unreleased A Dandy in Aspic (1968) as her only feature film credits, had an unproven box office track record; however, she had gained wider notice with her role as Allison MacKenzie in the popular television series Peyton Place, and her unexpected marriage to singer Frank Sinatra. Despite her waif-like appearance, Polanski agreed to cast her. Her acceptance incensed Sinatra, who had demanded she forgo her career when they wed. In a publicity event, hairdresser Vidal Sassoon was flown in from London to give Farrow the pixie cut featured in the film, although Farrow later recounted that she had already cut her hair short prior to the event.https://www.newspapers.com/article/enterprise-record-mia-farrow-gets-haircu/207420668/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/mia-farrow-tweets-her-vidal-sassoon-rosemarys-baby-haircut-was-a-prank-323143/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/lifestyle-news/vidal-sassoon-mia-farrow-pixie-cut-1236429520/
Robert Redford was the first choice for the role of Guy Woodhouse, but he turned it down. Jack Nicholson was considered briefly before Polanski suggested John Cassavetes, whom he had met in London. In casting the film's secondary actors, Polanski drew sketches of what he imagined the characters would look like, which were then used by Paramount casting directors to match with potential actors. In the roles of Roman and Minnie Castevet, Polanski cast veteran stage and film actors Sidney Blackmer and Ruth Gordon. Veteran actor Ralph Bellamy was cast as Dr. Sapirstein. (Many years earlier, Bellamy and Blackmer had appeared in the pre-Code 1934 film This Man Is Mine.)