Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Every time somebody screamed out "Adrian!" in this, I wanted to scream it back in my Sylvester Stallone voice, finding it ironic that this came out the same year as "Rocky". There is nothing decent in this follow-up to the 1968 cult classic that surely warranted a sequel, but this was obviously rushed out to grab on the supernatural atmosphere taking over Hollywood with the same year's "The Omen". Even the worst of that series was better than this film, cast with care but written with crayon. Mia Farrow wisely passed on repeating her role as Rosemary, but poor Patty Duke gets really nothing noteworthy to do as she briefly takes on the role of the woman raped by Satan and the mother of his child. Ruth Gordon is the sole returnee from "Rosemary's Baby", but other than that distinctive voice, there is no resemblance in her character of Minnie Castavette. In the original film for which she deservedly won the Oscar, Gordon was deliciously passive/aggressive in her manipulations, charming even if the evil was obvious. Ray Milland steps into the role of her husband, while Tina Louise has a major supporting role as the woman who steps in to raise Andrew/Adrian (Stephen McHattie) when Rosemary is dealt with by the Satanic cult.So yes, if this has a curio factor for those who wanted to see what had happened to the baby with the evil eyes, it also has it for that cast. Gordon has been turned into an obnoxious shrew, heard more than seen, and I can't believe that even Satan would put up with her caterwauling even if she is the means to an evil end. Louise does have the most interesting role, aiding Duke in a time of crisis which means her taking over his growing up, but not enough time is given for her to really develop her character. McHattie, unlike the aging Damian in "The Omen" series, isn't really believable in his horror over his destiny, and is perhaps the weakest written character in this television film. Lots of time is spent on his bad boy image, voice-overs by Gordon and Milland calling out to him in Satan's name, and a few psychedelic moments where McHattie gets more sinister as a part of the counter-culture a major part of society in the 1970's. The script is horribly developed and nothing outside of some ridiculous dialog and idiotic situations is present to really keep interest. Coming here, I was not surprised to see the low rating: I just simply expected it to be even lower, even if the reviews of the film were exactly as expected.

I was always curious about this sequel and I finally saw it on YouTube. There is one very good asset to this movie: it contains 4 Oscar winners: Patty Duke (1962 winner for The Miracle Worker) playing Rosemary; Ray Milland (1945 winner for The Lost Weekend) playing Roman; Broderick Crawford (winner for All the king's men) playing a sheriff; and of course last but not least, Ruth Gordon (1968 best supporting actress for the original film, Rosemary's Baby). That's pretty much it. From what I saw it has very little to do with Ira Levin's original. He certainly doesn't receive any acknowledgment in the credits. The screenwriter seems to be speculating about what happened after the first film ended. It doesn't even pickup from New York like the original film. And for any Seinfeld fans out there: if you look closely, the guy who plays Adrian later portrayed Elaine's "Svengali" psychologist/boyfriend. I gave this film one star for each Oscar winner that was in this film. They are the only good things about it.

It was a foolish idea to make a sequel to a film which even today (mainly today) remains the best horror movie ever done.Patty Duke who was a wunderkind when she was a child (remember "the miracle worker")was given a poor part and she was sadly unsupported by the rest of the cast (if my memory serves me well,only Ruth Gordon remained from the original cast).In order to give this dud a "biblical" feel ,the story is divided into "books" (the book of Rosemary;the book of Adrian ;the book of Andrew).The flick begins with the impressive last lines of Polanski's work (You want me to be HIs mother?/Aren't you His mother?) You do not need anything else when you've seen the 1968 film.Ira Levin ,who had nothing to do with this made-for-TV sequel,wrote in 1999 "son of Rosemary" which was not as successful as his first novel:the conclusion ,they say,has an "hidden " meaning based on a pun.I've been trying to solve it for months ,to no avail..Anyway Levin should not have written it in the first place.I finally found it out:nothing to get hung about.

With its few touches of surrealism, LWHTRB works as low-grade horror, but as a major follow-up statement to the original, it flounders miserably. Things begin somewhat promising during the telefilm's opening credits... We see and hear several interesting shots and sounds: The Baby's black crib with the overhanging, inverted cross; the kitchen knife Rosemary carried into the Castevette's apartment and dropped in shock (the utensil is shown sticking out of the hardwood floor); and the emptiness of the Bramford itself, without tenants or furniture (voice-overs can be heard here from the previous film's dialog). Interesting too is the Easter Egg hunt the titular child participates in (the eggs and baskets are also black). Once the story gets rolling, it never really 'rolls'... And what happens to Rosemary when she boards that driverless bus, and is whisked away to God-knows-where? Patty Duke (a poor replacement for Mia Farrow), Ray Milland and Tina Louise (as the Southwestern Whore who raises the child, "Adrian/Andrew") head this almost-star cast, with Ruth Gordon reprising her "Minnie" role.Although not a total failure, this sequel-of-sorts should have been released in book form first, then maybe we all could have been a bit better informed... and not left totally in the dark. A fairly recent sequel novel "Son of Rosemary" (1999?) is the legitimate followup by Ira Levin himself.