One of the most unique prospects for making a sequel to a beloved horror flick: a *made-for-TV* horror flick??? "Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby" was delivered in the middle of the doomy 70s, when TV movies were actually considered scary. Just ask anybody who watched Karen Black fall to the ferocious attack of an ugly wooden doll. Just like its predecessor, "LWHTRB" attempts to leave most of the supernatural happenings hinted at rather than brought out into the light. By now you've heard all about this movie's bad rep, and indeed, look at that low rating here on IMDb. It's hard to deny that the film suffers from a number of chronic illnesses, like a small-screen budget, a number of lazy performances, and a lack of special effects.
But expectations for the sequel to "Rosemary's Baby" could be the real reason this movie does not succeed. Instead of a clockwork Ira Levin plot, which was so effectively dramatized by Roman Polanski and his brilliant cast, Sam O'Steen's sequel is a full blooded 70s freak-out, complete with hallucinogenic images, an untraditional narrative, and a downbeat tone that never lets up. At times it's ludicrous and amateurish, and other times it can be engaging in spite of itself.
Divided into three chapters, the first segment deals with Rosemary and her attempts to instill a sense of good in her son, Adrian. She insists his name is Andrew, something she tells him in private, and she tells him he is good and that he should not believe the evil things the coven tells him. Although she lives with the coven and bides her time, she makes a break when they decide it's time to indoctrinate the boy by performing a ritual with him. Rosemary escapes with him and gets him away from the coven, only to wind up stranded in a desert town. A hooker named Marjean takes her in, but Marjean winds up controlled by the coven, who see fit to dispatch with Rosemary by luring her onto a driverless bus. As she's carried away, pounding in panic at the windows, the film's most compelling moment takes place, a child separated from his mother and left in the care of a stranger.
From there, the final two segments deal with Adrian as an adult, and the coven is out to activate his evil side in any way they can. Adrian feels the good qualities that Rosemary instilled in him, however, pulling him in the other direction. An attempt to endow him with the spirit of Satan fails when Adrian's friend foils the ceremony, and Adrian sees his dead body in a Christlike hallucination. Following the incident, Adrian is confined to an institution, awakening from an undetermined period of catatonia to find that he's been blamed for his friends death and locked up. A seemingly sympathetic nurse helps him to escape, but of course she has motivations of her own.
This is not a great film, but it's definitely an unusual one. I can't think of many other hit films that were sequelized on television, although I'm sure it's been done before. But the real reason I love "Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby" are the doomy elements and the intriguing story, which really comes from left field. It avoids being obvious by being absolutely nuts.
But expectations for the sequel to "Rosemary's Baby" could be the real reason this movie does not succeed. Instead of a clockwork Ira Levin plot, which was so effectively dramatized by Roman Polanski and his brilliant cast, Sam O'Steen's sequel is a full blooded 70s freak-out, complete with hallucinogenic images, an untraditional narrative, and a downbeat tone that never lets up. At times it's ludicrous and amateurish, and other times it can be engaging in spite of itself.
Divided into three chapters, the first segment deals with Rosemary and her attempts to instill a sense of good in her son, Adrian. She insists his name is Andrew, something she tells him in private, and she tells him he is good and that he should not believe the evil things the coven tells him. Although she lives with the coven and bides her time, she makes a break when they decide it's time to indoctrinate the boy by performing a ritual with him. Rosemary escapes with him and gets him away from the coven, only to wind up stranded in a desert town. A hooker named Marjean takes her in, but Marjean winds up controlled by the coven, who see fit to dispatch with Rosemary by luring her onto a driverless bus. As she's carried away, pounding in panic at the windows, the film's most compelling moment takes place, a child separated from his mother and left in the care of a stranger.
From there, the final two segments deal with Adrian as an adult, and the coven is out to activate his evil side in any way they can. Adrian feels the good qualities that Rosemary instilled in him, however, pulling him in the other direction. An attempt to endow him with the spirit of Satan fails when Adrian's friend foils the ceremony, and Adrian sees his dead body in a Christlike hallucination. Following the incident, Adrian is confined to an institution, awakening from an undetermined period of catatonia to find that he's been blamed for his friends death and locked up. A seemingly sympathetic nurse helps him to escape, but of course she has motivations of her own.
This is not a great film, but it's definitely an unusual one. I can't think of many other hit films that were sequelized on television, although I'm sure it's been done before. But the real reason I love "Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby" are the doomy elements and the intriguing story, which really comes from left field. It avoids being obvious by being absolutely nuts.