One-Sheet Wonders! – ROSEMARY’S BABY (1968)

I have conflicting emotions about Roman Polanski’s low-pitched, character-driven adaptation of Ira Levin’s genre bestseller, ROSEMARY’S BABY. One thing no self-respecting movie fan can deny is the film’s impact on the next decade of horror cinema. The original ‘satanic panic’ all started here folks, paving the way from everything from blockbusters such as THE EXORCIST (1973) and THE OMEN (1976), as well as veritable deluge of lesser genre efforts such as RACE WITH THE DEVIL (1975) and TO THE DEVIL…A DAUGHTER (1976).

Horror’s green motif for Old Scratch, whether it was Regan MacNeil’s pea-green vomit in THE EXORCIST or the emerald goop in the glass canister highlighting John Carpenter’s PRINCE OF DARKNESS (1987), possibly came from this very poster. It’s a striking jade-tinged image of a baby carriage perched precariously on a jagged precipice while a shorn Mia Farrow softly blends with the backing sky. Not often does a movie’s poster so fittingly telegraph the danger awaiting its audience. This is a masterpiece in simplicity, folks, and there isn’t much better praise than that.

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