Rosemary’s Baby – 55th Anniversary (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)
Celebrating 55 years of haunting audiences around the world, Rosemary’s Baby has finally made its way to 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray. Released as a standalone on October 10th and then as part of the Paramount Scares, Volume One boxed set on October 24th, the film updated its transfer and ported over the audio and extras from the standard Blu-ray released by Paramount back in 2021. If you purchase it in the Paramount Scares set, there are some bells and whistles physical extras that accompany Rosemary’s Baby as well. If you are interested in either the standalone release or the Paramount Scares, Volume One boxed set, you can order a copy using the link that goes with either at the bottom of this review.
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Film 
A young wife comes to believe that her offspring is not of this world. Waifish Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow) and her struggling actor husband Guy (John Cassavetes) move to a New York City apartment building with an ominous reputation and odd neighbors Roman and Minnie Castavet (Sidney Blackmer, Ruth Gordon). When Rosemary becomes pregnant she becomes increasingly isolated, and the diabolical truth is revealed only after Rosemary gives birth.
A pinnacle horror film in any journey of film studies always lands one on 1968’s Roman Polanski film Rosemary’s Baby. The film based on the popular book both spooked audiences worldwide and paved the way a film like The Exorcist which would inflate the 1970s with religious/paranormal horror. This one also put Roman Polanski on the map and turned him into a household name and the hottest director in town.
Polanski provides, perhaps, the ultimate exercise in the execution of slow burn horror. Between he and Mia Farrow’s ability to cultivate such a engaging performance, we watch time tick and the paranoia settle in. The old neighbors really bring a fantastic element of weird to play as well to continue to make everything feel just a hair off. You believe Rosemary, but there’s a little part of you that thinks that the film itself may be wanting you to for the sake of pulling out the rug for cinematic shock. And every turn of comfort that you buy into, hits you in the gut with a bag full of red bricks.
While the film does delve into an acid trip of a dream-like sequence during its impregnation sequence, most of the film remains admirably grounded. Its not a film that even really thinks about shock value or jumps. Polanski and company aren’t gleefully licking their chops to scare. They all want you to buy into this. They want it to discomfort you. And in the end, the final scene really just disturbs in the highest order. Said final scene has also been considered one of the most memorable movie endings of all time for a reason.
Rosemary’s Baby is early in his career, but it still remains one of Roman Polanski’s finest hours. Its incredible to me that while he’s (rightfully) dragged through the mud as a person, pretty much all his films have seen the mud slang at their mention with the exception of this one. I’m not sure why that is other than maybe it predates both his wife’s murder and the crime with which he committed. Perhaps the film is one that is too powerful as its own thing to turn one’s back on. And that does show, as at age 55, the film plays just as well today as it did then as opposed to when they even attempted to remake it…which was instantly forgotten.
Video
Disclaimer: Screen captures used in the review are from studio promotional images of the film, not the 4K UHD Blu-ray disc.
Encoding: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: 4K (2160p)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Layers: BD-66
Clarity/Detail: Paramount updates their 2021 Blu-ray release of Rosemary’s Baby with this new 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray transfer. Which, now has the film in the proper 1.85:1 framing. And to be honest, its quite deeper looking with a nice film grain retained to add depth and finer details. This crisp image is one that serves the film very fine and gives the right texture and appeal to something of its age, but also being showcased in good shape.
Depth: Depth of field is quite strong here as this transfer really showcases the film’s cinematography quite well and gives the scale of the spaces film a nice breathing area. Movements are filmic and natural.
Black Levels: Blacks are deep and natural, sometimes carrying a little more grain. Information like hair follicles, patterns, textures and fine information on darker surfaces or areas still show through swimmingly. No crushing witnessed.
Color Reproduction: Colors have a really nice, fine and modern “of its time” look to it. There’s a nice, natural 60s look to the marriage of the rustic normal stuff and the more out there oranges and greens in the image or whatever flashier fabrics appear. HDR helps out in some spots for some little glows as well as helping some pieces of the image to pop appropriately.
Flesh Tones: Skin tones are natural and consistent from start to finish of the film. Facial features and textures are discernible from any given distance in the frame with wrinkles, freckles, make-up strokes, make-up effects and more holding up and looking clear to the touch.
Noise/Artifacts: Clean
Audio 
Audio Format(s): English 2.0 Mono Dolby TrueHD, English Descriptive Audio, French 2.0 Mono Dolby Digital, German 2.0 Mono Dolby Digital, Italian 2.0 Mono Dolby Digital
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Dutch
Dynamics: Rosemary’s Baby has the same audio it did on the Paramount standard Blu-ray release from 2 years ago. Nonetheless, its a very nice track that both features some solid clarity as well as nostalgically feeling of its era. There is some good balance and depth on display and best of all, it has a feel that definitely adds to the eerie nature of the material depicted onscreen.
Height: N/A
Low Frequency Extension: N/A
Surround Sound Presentation: N/A
Dialogue Reproduction: Vocals are crisp and clear.
Extras
Rosemary’s Baby – 55th Anniversary comes with the standard Blu-ray edition and a redeemable digital code. All bonus material is found on the standard Blu-ray disc, which is identical to the one Paramount released in 2021.
If you purchase the Paramount Scares, Volume One set, there is an article in the collectible Fangoria magazine for the film as well as some stickers that pertain to it as well.
Rosemary’s Baby – A Retrospective (SD, 16:49)
Mia and Roman (SD, 23:04)
Theatrical Trailer (SD, 2:50)
50th Anniversary Red Band Trailer (HD, :36)
Summary
55 years and counting, Rosemary’s Baby remains one of the staple features in paranormal/religious horror and absolutely royalty in the art of “slow burn”. Paramount’s 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray upgrade to the film has it in a proper framing presentation and looking terrific. Lots of carryover here in terms of audio and extras (Sadly, the Criterion stuff remains with that OOP release), but overall this is a very solid package for the movie and as part of the Paramount Scares, Volume One set it is the crown jewel film.
Rosemary’s Baby on 4K UHD Blu-ray is available individually and as part of the Paramount Scares, Volume 1 box set.
