Rosemary's Baby (film) - Plot

Plot

Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow), a bright but somewhat naive young housewife, and Guy (John Cassavetes), her husband and a struggling actor, move into the Bramford, an antiquated New York City apartment building. Their neighbors, Minnie and Roman Castevet (Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer), are an elderly and slightly eccentric couple who tend to be meddlesome but appear to be harmless.

While doing the laundry, Rosemary meets a young woman, Terry Gionoffrio (Victoria Vetri) who has been taken in and helped by the Castevets after living on the street. As Rosemary admires a pendant necklace the Castevets gave to Terry, she remarks on the strange smell which seems to be coming from the pendant; Terry tells her it is from some kind of root. Returning home one night, Guy and Rosemary see a commotion and police on the street outside the Bramford; Terry has thrown herself to her death from the window of the Castevets' seventh-floor apartment. Minnie and Roman arrive and are shocked by what has happened. Rosemary tries to console them by telling them how highly Terry had spoken of them when they'd met in the laundry room.

Shortly after Terry's death, Minnie invites the Woodhouses to dinner, which they reluctantly accept. Guy forms a bond with the Castevets, though Rosemary remains reluctant to become too friendly with them. Minnie gives Terry's pendant to Rosemary, telling her it is a good luck charm and the odd smell is from a plant called "tannis root." Later, Guy lands a role in a play when the actor who was originally cast suddenly and inexplicably goes blind. Soon afterward, Guy suggests that he and Rosemary have the child they had planned.

On the night they plan to conceive, Minnie brings them individual cups of chocolate mousse. Rosemary finds hers has a chalky undertaste and surreptitiously throws it away after a few mouthfuls. Shortly afterwards, she has a dizzy spell and passes out. Rosemary experiences what she perceives to be a strange dream in which she is raped by a demonic presence in front of Guy, the Castevets, and other Bramford tenants. When she wakes, she finds scratches on her body. Guy tells her that he had sex with her while she was unconscious because he did not want to pass up the moment for her to conceive.

A few weeks later, Rosemary learns that she is pregnant and is due on June 28, 1966. She plans to receive obstetric care from Dr. Hill (Charles Grodin), who is recommended to her by her friend Elise (Emmaline Henry), However, the Castevets insist she see their good friend, the famed obstetrician Dr. Abraham Sapirstein (Ralph Bellamy), who says that Minnie will make Rosemary a daily drink which is more healthy than the usual vitamin pills.

For the first three months of her pregnancy, Rosemary suffers severe abdominal pains, loses weight, becomes unusually pale, and craves raw meat and chicken liver. Dr. Sapirstein insists the pain will subside soon, and assures her she has nothing to worry about. When her old friend Hutch (Maurice Evans) sees Rosemary's gaunt appearance and hears that she is consuming the mysterious tannis root on a daily basis in Minnie's health drink, he is disturbed enough to do some research. On the day Hutch plans to share his findings with Rosemary, he mysteriously falls into a coma a few hours before their meeting. At the Castevets' New Year's Eve party, Roman raises a toast to 1966, "the Year One." When Rosemary can't bear her abdominal pains another minute, they suddenly disappear.

Three months later after he fell into a coma, Hutch dies. After briefly regaining consciousness before his death, he has instructed the doctor to give a book about witchcraft to Rosemary. Grace Cardiff, one of Hutch's friends, decides to have the book delivered to Rosemary at his funeral along with the cryptic message: "The name is an anagram." Later, she sees that Hutch has marked photographs and passages in the book. Using the clue given to her by Grace's message, Rosemary deduces that Roman Castevet is really Steven Marcato, the son of a former resident of the Bramford who was accused of being a Satan worshipper, dying as a martyr to the cause. Rosemary suspects her neighbors are part of a cult with sinister designs for her baby, and that Guy is cooperating with them in exchange for their help in advancing his career. She deduces that Dr. Sapirstein is also part of the conspiracy.

Rosemary becomes increasingly disturbed and shares her fears and suspicions with Dr. Hill, who, assuming she is delusional, calls Dr. Sapirstein and Guy. They tell her that if she cooperates, neither she nor the baby will be harmed. The two men bring Rosemary home, at which point she briefly escapes them by spilling the contents of her purse, then hijacking the elevator as they gather the contents from the floor. They pursue her to the apartment, where Rosemary locks the door. A few moments later, they enter the bedroom, having somehow gained access. Rosemary goes into labor and is sedated by Dr. Sapirstein. When she awakens, she is told the baby died; however, she hears an infant's cries somewhere in the building, and suspects he is still alive.

In the hall closet, Rosemary discovers a secret door leading into the Castevet apartment where the coven meets, and finds the congregation gathered around her newborn son. Seeing the disturbing appearance of her baby's eyes and demanding to know what had caused the deformity, Rosemary is then told that Guy is not the baby's father. The revelation that the baby, named Adrian, is actually the spawn of Satan. This horrifies Rosemary, who spits in Guy's face when he approaches her. Roman urges Rosemary to become a mother to her son, and tells her she does not have to join the coven if she does not want to. The film ends with her adjusting her son's blankets and gently rocking his cradle with a small smile on her face.