Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby

Sam O'Steen, the film editor on the superlative suspense flick "Rosemary's Baby" from 1968, here directs a quickie TV-made sequel, one in which Rosemary Woodhouse (Patty Duke Astin, in for Mia Farrow) is shunted off early--and inexplicably--presumably to help flesh out the more ghoulish aspects of this flaccid story about Satan's son on Earth. Most interesting is the return of Ruth Gordon to her Oscar-winning role as Minnie Castevet (with Ray Milland well-cast as her husband, Roman), but she isn't given much to do--and looks terribly uncomfortable at being involved anyway. This script is strictly low-rent goods, and must have shamed original author Ira Levin (who went on to write his own sequel). Fairly dim and pallid, with poor photography and no suspense or scares whatsoever.

You might want to see this tepid movie of the week out of morbid curiosity, but please, don't go out of your way. First off, Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby didn't need a sequel--the haunting, ambiguous ending is supremely creepy and leaves you with something to think about. And if it did need a sequel, it certainly didn't need one as poor as this. Note the numerous inconsistencies with the original: If Adrian/Andrew was born in 1966, why is he in his twenties by 1976? Why is the Manhattan apartment building now sitting on a huge lawn? Minnie and Roman are present, but where are the other members of the original coven? And why have they now decided to refer to the coven as "the tribe"?

And of course, a talented cast is entirely wasted. Ruth Gordon, who won an Oscar as Minnie in the original, is reduced to a braying cartoon character. A semi-recreation of the Satainic rape scene is really lame. This may have been made to cash in on The Omen, as it bears more resemblance to that film than it does to Rosemary's Baby. If you want to see better execution of a similar theme, see The Devil's Daughter (1972). Cult film reviewer Michael Weldon summed up this disaster with the sarcastic question, "How about a TV sequel to Repulsion, too?" Indeed.

I saw this long ago and wanna see it again!I need to find a video.Anyway,this movie was a hoot!Ruth Gordon worshipping the devil again and plotting domination or something.Another terrible Patty Duke TV movie that works for me.

This belated sequel to the original hit film has been widely condemned by reviewers and fans of the original since it was first released back in 1976. I think they're being a little unfair, because this is certainly acceptable viewing and it works well in places as an atmospheric and subtle little thriller. It probably would have worked better had it not been a sequel to ROSEMARY'S BABY, a film it feels nothing like despite the return of Ruth Gordon in her skin-crawling role.

The film pulls the trick of swapping Patty Duke for a missing Mia Farrow, although it's a switch that you never really buy. The emphasis now is on the baby as a young man, with most of the running time occupied by Adrian feeling conflicted over the good and evil within him and struggling to battle the forces of evil, led by an enjoyably polite and genteel Ray Milland. Adrian is played by Stephen McHattie, who I know as an actor from the likes of 300 and A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (he was one of the coffee shop robbers in the latter) but didn't realise was acting as far back as the 1970s.

LOOK WHAT'S HAPPENED TO ROSEMARY'S BABY is episodic in places and the early sequences feel rather disjointed, although it all plays out better from the mid section onward. The ending is more than a little predictable. Overall, this feels more like an OMEN film than a sequel to ROSEMARY'S BABY, and there's no doubt that the success of THE OMEN saw it hastily written and released. As black magic thrillers from the 1970s go, though, it's a very middling genre instalment.

I usually seek to find good in movies, even the bad ones.Unfortunately this movie is one where I fail miserably-and the fact that there's barely one positive review on this board shows many IMDb reviewers share my pain.

I don't usually watch sequels but I just had to see this since I love "Rosemary's Baby" so much. What a mistake that was. It simply reaffirms my belief in the fact that most sequels are lousy-though thankfully, very few are as bad as this. In fact in my mind this isn't even really a sequel, it's a satire on how bad a sequel can be. Movie recommended very highly for not viewing-at any time-ever.