This is a movie based on the book by the same name that was written by no other than mister horror master himself Stephen King.

Carrie (Sissy Spacek) is a shy teenage girl who lives with her extremely religious mother Margaret (Piper Laurie) who keeps pressuring her constantly. In Margaret’s eyes almost every teenage act is a sin. Carrie is forced to live under oppression and made to feel guilty even for her existence because after all it is the result of a sexual act.

She has the misfortune of having her first period at the school showers in front of her so called classmates who don’t hesitate to ridicule her. Her mother hadn’t inform her about this ordinary and inevitable occurrence so she is scared out of her mind to see blood running down her legs and the trauma of being laughed at while she is in such a state intensifies the situation and she discovers her telekinetic powers for the first time; she doesn’t turn into a monster, not just yet anyway, but from that moment on she becomes someone who is not to be messed with. Do her friends realize that? Too bad for them, they don’t…

This was Stephen King’s breakthrough book. He had written the story about a school friend who led quite a similar life to that of Carrie character in the book except for the telekinetic powers, of course. When he wrote the first draft he figured nobody would be interested in this kind of a story and threw it in the trash bin. Out of great luck his wife found and read it and told him there was something there and he should not give up on the story; it turned out to be a huge success and made him a household name around the world, not to mention pulled him and his family out of skid row.

The director Brian De Palma’s touch is apparent in every scene. The colors, the dream like flow, etc. Although De Palma wasn’t very pleased with the infamous party part of the film, and he is probably right it probably could’ve been done better had he had the budget and more time, it is still a remarkable piece of cinema history.

Sissy Spacek was nominated for "best actress in a leading role" for her part in “Carrie” an Oscar title she won for her role in the movie “Coal Miner’s Daughter” (1980) a few years later.

Carrie also stars John Travolta, Amy Irwing and Brian De Palma’s wife Nancy Allen all of whom were to work with the director again in other impressive movies in the future.

When this movie came out I was too little to watch it by myself and nobody would take me to see it. I would see its ads on papers with Sissy Spacek’s face, that crazy look, eyes wide open, blood lines on her face. I was scared just by that image alone but I wanted to see it anyway because in those days there was something magical and mysterious about being in a movie theater; and if the movie was a scary one it was ten fold for crying out loud.

A friend of mine had seen it with his older brother and he wouldn’t stop talking about it which made me want to see it even more knowing that I’d probably shit my pants. One day I waited outside the movie theater; I didn’t have the money and for I was too young they wouldn’t let me in anyway but I knew people behind that door were watching the very movie I was dying to see that very moment. I didn’t even know why I was standing there; maybe if someone I knew saw me there I could brag like my friend did “oh yeah I was just in there watching "Carrie"(and I’m out to get a clean pair of underpants)”. Then suddenly the doors opened. The movie wasn’t over yet but the theater people usually opened the doors a few minutes early to prevent the last minute rush to the door. I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t seen the movie yet but there is a final scare in “Carrie” and through the wide open door I got to watch it. I was so excited and happy. I didn’t get to see the whole film for another 3 years but anytime the title came up I got to pretend to have seen it by saying “What about that closing scene? Pretty scary huh?” And the best part? I wasn’t even lying. I had seen it.

When I finally saw the whole movie I didn’t get scared as much as I hoped; actually I wasn’t scared at all but I still liked it and found it interesting. In those days I didn’t follow directors and I didn’t know who Brian De Palma was but that style had an imprint on me. Because I didn’t know at the time but for some reason our local movie theaters showed a lot of movies by Brian De Palma, John Cassavetes, Francis Ford Coppola, Oliver Stone, etc.; inevitably this made me associate that era with their vision.

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Young friends on their way to visit a relative’s grave come to a town. First they pick up a weird hitch-hiker near a slaughter house (uh-oh!). Then visit an eerie gas station and an old house that seems deserted at first; is it really? Nope.

A family of cannibals occupy the place and the most aggressive and the deadliest one of them is a nutcase called “Leatherface” (Gunnar Hansen); he is called that because he doesn’t have a face, at least we never see it, so he puts on masks he had created out of human skin. Oh yes… and by the way… he has a noisy toy (!) that he can’t do without: a chainsaw sound of which gives you the chills.

This is one of those movies that set a new tone in the history of horror/thriller genre. There were many sequels and some prequels and what not afterwards some of which were crap some of which were okay but none of them could achieve the success of creating such level of intensity and disturbance as this one did.

He director Tobe Hooper was a documentary cameraman before he made this movie and in my opinion that’s what separated this movie from the others at the time. It has a very realistic feeling to it right from the start. You know it’s not a documentary but it doesn’t seem manufactured either and you can’t help but stay at the edge of your seat, not to mention what you’re seeing is young people stuck in a van in Texas heat, you almost feel as uncomfortable as they seem to be. The flow of the movie is perfect and the transition to the fright part of it is so sudden, when Leatherface appears for the first time, that you can’t help but go

“What the hell just happened? This is not how it is built in the movies!”

and you’re right but that’s one of the reasons it will give you nightmares if you keep watching.

The gore in the movie is not one would expect in a movie that is called “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”. As some of the sequels proved to be true it’s not about what you do see, it’s more about the suspense that what you don’t quite see creates.

From the beginning there were budget problems because not many people were too keen on producing such a film and believed that it could succeed; so Tobe Hooper used amateurs who were excited to be a part of it and it is my understanding the financing was achieved through unclear and kind of shady ways as a result of which the makers and especially the actors didn’t get paid what they deserved although the movie was a huge success.

Some critics loved it some hated it but public didn’t care. They accepted it as a classic right from the beginning.

Gunnar Hansen is very impressive even though we never see his real face and Marilyn Burns adds chunks to the terror you feel by playing the perfect victim. Unfortunately both of these legends died not so long ago: Marilyn Burns (2014), Gunnar Hansen (2015).

I was stunned the first time I saw this film and the times after that didn’t change much. It’s definitely not for everyone. One of my memories about this movie is this:

About a decade ago some friends of mine called me up and said they had a visitor over from Sweden for the weekend and they wanted to have movie night. They said they wanted to see something a really scary not just an ordinary crap you’d rent and would turn out to be a disappointment. Knowing that I was a horror and thriller fan they wanted to know what I would recommend. "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" was the first name came to my mind at that moment. But I warned them this is really intense and not for the fainted hearted; just hearing that made them want to see it right away; it was almost like they took pride in watching something unwatchable. The next day they called

“What the hell did you make us watch? Our friend asked ‘how can you be friends with someone who watches movies like this?”

Hey I had warned you.

I hate violence and I couldn’t harm a spider or a bee, etc. Sometimes I have no choice, but I feel awfully guilty about it so I try my best to avoid harming even an insect.

What people who don’t like horror/thriller/slasher movies don’t understand is just because someone watches extreme movies like these it doesn’t mean that they like seeing violence or sporting it in real life. Most of the time it’s about being scared, finding yourself in the shoes of the potential victim in the movie and trying to get out of a sticky situation with him/her. It’s almost like being on a Roller-coaster: you’re falling but you’re not; but that survival sensation kicks in and scares the hell out of you; it makes you forget your everyday problems and takes you away for a while; that excitement wakes you up and makes you feel alive.

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Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) is an actress who lives with her daughter Regan (Linda Blair). She notices that Regan is going through some unpleasant changes and begins to act bizarre. Situation gets worse, not to mention frightening. Burke (Jack MacGowran of “Fearless Vampire Killers” fame), the movie director whom Chris was working with ends up dead outside on the stairs and Chris finds out that her daughter had something to do with it in a very scary way. Regan seems to have been possessed by an entity. Chris is desperate. Detectives, doctors and psychiatrists are no good. Who can help her?

Father Karras (Jason Miller) is a young priest. His mother is very ill and that makes him question his faith. Chris asks him to help his daughter but he is not very keen on practicing an exorcism on her; it is almost as if he doesn’t believe any of this. But soon realizes that he is way out of his depth on this one and that’s when Father Merrin (Max von Sydow) comes in.

This is the mother of all possession movies. Since this is an idea that’s been done to death one may not understand what all the fuss is about. But just imagine watching a movie like this in 1973. It caused quite a stir at its time and scared a lot of audiences some of which couldn’t even watch it until the end; this wasn’t even due to the hype in most of the cases. People had to wait in ticket queues for hours only to be informed it was sold out so they could simply head to the next queue that was already built by the others.

Its effect was similar to the one of “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968) by Roman Polanski, however “Rosemary’s Baby” kept you guessing whether or not something paranormal going on or was it just the imagination of the main character Rosemary (Mia Farrow). Here, quite early in the movie the viewer is made known that this is no game of pretense; there is an entity, a demonic force, the devil about. It may not be "the scariest movie ever made" as claimed but there are many impressive scenes nevertheless and the tone of the movie as the other horror classics set perfectly:

Washington DC, old buildings, quiet atmosphere (calm before the storm, so to speak), fantastic music ("Tubular Bells" by Mike Oldfield), unprecedented obscenity, etc.

Actors and actresses are all brilliant at their parts. The director William Friedkin had also had great success with crime/action “French Connection” (1971) starring Gene Hackman.

My memory of this film is:

As I mentioned before I was too young to see movies like these at the time they came out. But I lived in places where movie theaters weren’t limited by only the latest releases. And “The Exorcist” too showed up one day. I managed to get in with some friends although were no more than 9 years old; yes somebody actually sold ticket to little kids to see “the scariest movie in history”(at the time, that is). We sat in the dark not believing our luck that we were actually going to see it; giggling, making fake horror noises. But to our surprise, this was not the original that we were expecting to see; instead it was the “perfect” copy of it called “Sheytan” (stands for “Devil” in Turkish). We had no choice, we watched it until the end; we were disappointed a bit (!) but hey, it was better than nothing (did I mention we were only 9 years old?). That movie is so bad that it is good if you know what I mean; some collectors go after that kind of stuff, believe you me!

When I did watch it for the very first time several years later, I did like it but only for the scary parts. I was still too young to appreciate what the movie was about and how successfully the characters were portrayed in an interesting story that wasn’t just an excuse to startle people. The movies in late 60s, 70s and early 80s took their time, introduced us the characters, made us care for them; once we were there only then the directors threw us into the storm.

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A young American dancer named Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper of "Stardust Memories" by Woody Allen fame) comes to an academy which is not an easy place to get in. It is a weird school and it is not what it seems; for one thing weird murders take place. The girl Suzy saw at the door on her arrival and another girl get killed in very bizarre, supernatural way. The instructors, the super, a blind piano player everyone seems odd and in on something. Some more strange stuff happens like "maggot rain" from the infested ceiling (yak!). Suzy decides to find out what is going on.

If you haven’t already seen the movie all that mentioned above may seem silly and not much of a story and you may be right in a way but the visuals of this movie is so overwhelming that it makes up for all that. Actually it is almost as if the story didn’t matter all that much to the legendary Italian director Dario Agento. It feels like

“There is a fragile girl who finds herself in a mysterious atmosphere; there is some sort of diabolic conspiracy going on, yada yada yada… We’ve got the basics down. Now, let’s get the party started!”

The party, so to speak is neon colors, eerie conditions, darkness, storm, light contrast, the edgy noise and music; speaking of music this movie is like a music composition for a huge orchestra, only done by colors and light.

Suspiria is claimed to be Dario Agento’s best work. The style is so unique and if you don’t like it for some reason, you won’t like this or any of his movies for that matter. But it is definitely worth checking out this extremely artistic horror classic.

I’ve never been a fan of dubbed movies especially when the actors don’t actually speak the same language; something done very often in the 70s European movies. I don’t know if the reason for that was commercial concern (if the movie is in English it is obviously going to be more sellable) or simply the main actress didn’t speak Italian or something else; but as I said in the beginning, that’s not the main point of this movie, so let it go.

My memory of Suspiria is:

I saw this one in early 80s. The movie theater was showing 2 movies for the same ticket back to back and I was in for the second movie; it was an action movie name of which I can’t recall now, however... there was some nudity, machine guns and some martial arts (THAT I remember!). So “Suspiria” was the opening movie. I was very young I didn’t understand anything and got a bit scared; in short, I felt uneasy about it, not to mention kind of bored. If I remember correctly I went to toilet and didn’t even come back until it was over. I watched it again only a few months ago after seeing its review somewhere and going

“Wait a minute, I think I saw this one… or did I?”

I was pleasantly surprised because I really enjoyed it this time. It’s definitely not for every horror fan but I’d say give it a chance you and you might like it; especially if this is your sort of thing. Be open minded in other words:

Don’t eat fish expecting it to taste like chicken and you’ll be alright!

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This movie is like a dark romantic/erotic painting; full of shadows and steam. It's a masterpiece by the legendary director Francis Ford Coppola whereby his son Roman Coppola was also on board as the visual effects director. The story remains faithful to the one in the book by the same name that was written by Bram Stoker. In my opinion it does justice to the whole vampire genre; nothing embarrassing here.

A young lawyer Jonathan Harper (Keanu Reeves), living his fiancé Mina Murray (Winona Ryder) at home goes on an assignment to a castle in Transylvania to meet a very strange man Count Dracula (Gary Oldman) who in fact is an immortal blood thirsty vampire and he lives among beautiful erotic creatures in this scary place. Jonathan carries a photograph of Mina with him which the scary host notices; she is a dead ringer for Dracula's wife Elisabeta from ages ago; he must find her. His romance is deadly for those who may stand in the way. He may be romantic but he is still a blood sucking vampire. Can he be stopped and who would even dare? Perhaps Professor Abraham Van Helsing (Anthony Hopkins).

Editing is good; there are no weird gaps and inconsistencies that mess with the general flow of the movie.

Actors and actresses are doing a good job. In those days, as much as I liked Winona Ryder, I always found the characters she portrayed, or perhaps her acting style, a bit too fragile. But in this movie it works perfectly. Same can be said for Keanu Reeves; he always had this confused but honest young man thing going on which is exactly what this movie was calling for.

There are some short appearances in this movie to look out for as well; by the likes of Tom Waits, Sadie Frost, Monica Bellucci.

Compared to his earlier movies, Dracula was something quite different for the director Francis Ford Coppola and apparently the huge success that it brought helped him pay his debt that was due to his previous artistic adventures.

My memory of this movie is:

I remember sitting in the dark of movie theater not knowing exactly what to expect. I liked Vampire movies in general but they didn't quite go beyond beyond being quick scare vehicles and means to drench my Gothic thirst. I liked Winona Ryder a lot and I always trusted Anthony Hopkins with any role after seeing his performance in chilling "Silence of the Lambs"(1991) and romantic "84 Charing Cross Road" (1987) movies. When Dracula started, I knew I was watching something special. There are movies that make you feel like a history is being written right before your eyes. Yes, it's true, you are there to watch the current release, but you know that this movie is going to be remembered even several decades later from now, like "Pulp Fiction"(1994) for example, if for nothing else for being such a huge entity of visuals. Then again, who remembers "Water World" (1995), right?

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Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is a secretary who is unhappy with the way her life is going. One day she is given some money to deposit to the bank. It's $ 40.000, a lot of money in those days. She figures what if she takes the money and run and start over again? So she does. After a while she stops the car and sleeps but a patrol officer wakes her up; lets her go but follows her. She gets nervous and gets a new car. After having trouble driving in stormy weather she decides to spend the night at the motel that she comes across. It is a place that is run by a young man named Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) who seems to be living with his domineering mother. She joins him for some sandwiches and milk. Norman is a jumpy, strange man whose hobby is taxidermy. When Marion goes back to his room she hears Norman and her mother arguing. It sounds like Norman's mother doesn't care for young women being around the place. She goes to shower to relax after a stressful day but things are about to take a horrific turn.

What I love about this movie is how well the story is told and how suddenly things change and you as the viewer are left dangling in the air going

"What? Where are we going now?"

It's almost like halfway through a card game, say Baccarat someone comes along, picks up all the cards, shuffles them, deals them again and forces you to play Poker now, without even missing a beat.

This is the classic of all classics. It's probably the most famous masterpiece of horror and suspense master Alfred Hitchcock. He had a detailed plan for this movie. He shot it in black and white which gave it the B-movie kind of feel but it was way better in quality in many ways: the story, actors, camera work. Hitchcock wanted the audience to experience this movie the right way: his way. At the theaters during the openings, the start time of the movie had to be exactly on the schedule and no one would be allowed in afterwards. There had to be extreme secrecy. Because the movie had a twist, a revealing ending that could easily diminished the impact on the audiences had it have been let out of the bag before they saw it.

Anthony Perkins is sensational in the role of Norman Bates; he has that spooky look in this part; you don't know if you should feel sorry for him or you should be frightened by him. Janet Leigh is also very good and played her role so believable that apparently even she herself had problems after watching the character Marion on the screen.

Many years later some sequels were made. "Psycho 2" was okay I suppose, but did any of them come even close to this one? No. I could live with the sequels though; because after all they all featured Anthony Perkins the original "Psycho" himself however bad they could be. But when the re-make came out I couldn't believe it. I want to be fair there are a few remakes of old classics that are quite decent but a movie like "Psycho" is an entity you don't mess with. I respect every effort good or bad but I just couldn't watch it after a few minutes into it and I left it at that.

My memory of this film is:

Obviously I didn't get to watch it at a movie theater; I'm not that old. But I was so intrigued by anything that was done by Alfred Hitchcock. I had seen "Birds" (1963) and "Trouble with Harry" (1955) and some episodes of "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" on TV. Also there were short comic story series in a children's magazine that I had subscribed to.

When I watched for the very first time on TV with my parents beside me. I think I was 11 or 12. It was a school night too. My sister wasn't keen on it; she is 3 years younger than I am so I don't know if my parents would've allowed it anyway. For some reason no one thought I could be scared or badly affected by it; it wasn't bad parenthood, it was just that they knew I could handle it; at least my father did and he knew I was crazy about Hitchcock after seeing "Birds". My mother was bored and before too long she went to sleep. I wasn't scared per se, but I'd be lying if I said the scene where the detective is investigating in the house and the final scene didn't startle me. It did stay in my mind for a long time too. Do I even have to mention the infamous shower scene and the eerie violin noises? Genius!

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Two American college students David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunne) backpacking in England get attacked by an animal on a field at night. Jack is mutilated by the beast and dies but David survives with minor injuries. Towners that they had met in a pub earlier show up and shoot the animal; it turns into an old man in front of their eyes; David who is in shock watches the transformation in disbelief. He is taken to a hospital where he meets Dr. Hirsh (John Woodvine) and Nurse Alex (Jenny Agutter). David starts seeing strange but very realistic dreams. Then his friend Jack shows up and warns him that David is going to turn into a monster and he should kill himself before that happens. David thinks he is just seeing hallucination or possibly losing his mind. After a while nurse Alex and David get friendlier and ultimately become lovers. He starts staying at her place. One day, when Alex is at work, an unbearable pain usurps his body. David is about to realize that what his ‘pale friend’ had warned him about was not just a silly nightmare.

In terms of special effects this movie is one of the most groundbreaking ones in history. Jack with his torn out throat and skin getting paler everytime he shows up and the moment David turns into a wolf in Alex’s apartment is still somewhat impressive especially if you consider that all was done manually without the help of any computers. This was no easy process for neither the special effects unit nor the actors. Only the wolf transformation scene alone had taken months to prepare and a whole week to shoot.

Legendary special effects artist Rick Baker had been talking about a werewolf movie with John Landis for years but by the time Landis finally got the finance, Baker had already started working on a werewolf movie called “The Howling” (1981) which made Landis furious because “werewolf” idea was his thing and he felt betrayed by his friend. However Rick Baker found a way to transfer his duties on “The Howling” to his assistant and start working on “An American Werewolf in London” in the end and the rest is history.

By the way watch out for the “Nazi demons massacre” scene; weird beyond belief and funny in a cringing kind of way.

John Landis was a part of the film crew that worked on the movie “Kelly’s Heroes” (1970) which was filmed in what was then Yugoslavia. A strange gypsy funeral ritual that he witnessed gave him the idea for a monster story. But he wasn’t at any position to realize such an idea yet. After he became a director and had huge success with movies like "Kentucky Fried Movie" (1977),  “Animal House” (1978)  and “Blues Brothers” (1980), he figured it was time to bring his dream to life. However regardless of his success the studios he talked to weren’t all that keen to finance him for a werewolf movie that seemed risky. Britain had a system to encourage outside filmmakers to come film on their soil at the time; they would finance the movie as long as the majority of the crew was British, it was filmed in Britain and the profit was shared; this was the opportunity John Landis was looking for.

He casted David Naughton and Griffin Dunne without even auditioning them. David’s love interest would be played by famous English actress Jenny Agutter (of “Logan’s Run” (1976) fame) and the wise man Dr. Hirsh would be played by John Woodvine.

This movie is not a very scary one; actually it is both a horror and a comedy film… well sort of. Don’t let my previous title deceive you it is definitely not one of those wacky unwatchable horror/comedy/waste of time and celluloid movies. It is very scary at times but its feet are on the ground; it is funny at times but the humor used here is subtle and well acted; perfect balance in my opinion.

My memory of this film is:
The day I saw “An American Werewolf in London” for the first time was a school day; I was in junior high school and probably 12 or 13; right after the last bell rang I hopped on my bike and rode like crazy to make it to the beginning of the movie. I had had breakfast but after the school there was not enough time for me to go home and have lunch. As usual I barely had the money for the ticket and there was nothing left for buying a snack during the break. Come to think of it, in those days, I never had more money than the price of a music cassette or a movie ticket. As soon as I got paid or I collected enough I spent it all on one or the other. When the character Jack kept appearing time and time again, with his skin dangling down his throat, it was a bit too much for my hungry stomach to take. I almost threw up; but my stomach was empty; there was nothing there to send up. I loved the movie. I remember liking the jackets David and Jack were wearing because it reminded me of the astronauts' clothes that I used to see in the science magazines that I bought; imagine my surprise when, years later, I read somewhere that they were dressed that way on purpose to give the effect of complete aliens in an old English town where everybody else wore more traditional clothes. Anyway, after the movie I was dying of hunger. I got home hoping for a warm meal; well, my mother was at it but dinner wasn’t ready yet. I couldn’t wait any longer so I prepared myself a simple sandwich with nothing but tomato and cottage cheese. As soon as I took a bite and faced the tomato soaked bread I couldn’t help but see Jack's shredded throat. I had to put my sandwich down. I knew there would come a day when I would get past all that and get to enjoy it again but right then it was way too soon to tell.

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A patient named Michael Myers (Tony Moran) escapes from a mental hospital which he was being kept at for stabbing her sisters 15 years ago. He comes back to Haddonfield on Halloween and starts stalking babysitters. It’s a small and quiet town. Because it’s Halloween, it’s hard to tell the fake monsters from the real one who is cold as ice behind his flat white mask. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence), the doctor who kept him under surveillance him at the hospital for years follows his trail to catch him or at least warn the people of Haddonfield about the seriousness of the situation. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is one of Michael’s potential victims but she is a tough cookie and not ready to give in yet.

Here’s another classic from legendary director John Carpenter whose body of work speaks for itself and it’s a definite must for every horror/thriller fan.

This is a pretty straight forward story but yet, without revealing much, it keeps the mystery going on and makes it even scarier. A lot of classic horror tricks that make audiences jump are used here too but it’s done sparingly. The the chemistry of anyone who worked on this movie had to have been so right to create such a “flawless flow” so to speak.

We never see Michael’s face but his presence is ever chilling. Jamie Lee Curtis is wonderful so is Donald Pleasence.

The idea for this film came from the executive producer Irwin Yablans who thought it would be a very scary idea for a film to have a cold blooded killer going after defenseless baby sitters demise of whom would also mean that now the kids they were looking after are in danger and that would make the story all the more disturbing. Everybody could relate to the baby sitter situation easily but if only there was a way to bring these events together under an umbrella… Then it occurred to him that that umbrella was 'Halloween' ; although he dismissed the idea quickly thinking that surely someone else out there had to have made a movie called “Halloween”. It was his lucky day because not only had no one ever thought of making a movie called “Halloween” but there hadn’t even been a single movie that included the word “Halloween” in its title before. Yablans had seen John Carpenter’s “Assault on Precinct 13” (1976) and he knew that he was the one to direct this movie. Carpenter needed the work and he liked the idea; he said he could make it for as little as $ 300, 000 if he was given total artistic control plus some percentage of the royalty from future showings. Irwin Yablans was more than happy to hear that.

John Carpenter worked on the screenplay with his collaborator Debra Hill for a few weeks and got right to it.

Budget was low and the people who worked on this movie were very young. Everybody was passionate about it though and that created this phenomenal movie that’s turned into an everlasting franchise after a slow start and kept making money forever.

My memories of this film is:
I saw it at a movie theater but many years later than its original release year. I was already a big fan of two of John Carpenter’s movies called “The Fog” (1980) and “Escape from New York” (1981) although, to be honest, at the time I didn’t know that they were his work, because I was too young and I wasn’t a director screening movie goer yet. As far as the directors went, I only knew who Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were and that was about it.

The reason I wanted to see this movie desperately was the pumpkin on the poster. For some reason I’ve always been fascinated by pumpkins; the shape, the colors, if it was carved the evil face; to this day they are one of my favorite drawing subjects alongside sharks, spiders, sharp edges and mermaids; go figure! A knife, pumpkin shadow, this just HAD to be a good movie.

And I was already infatuated by Jamie Lee Curtis after seeing her in “The Fog” and “Terror Train” (1980) which were obviously made a few years later, but as I mentioned before, my local movie theater had more of a say in what movie I would get to watch and when it was going to happen than I did. Hey, I couldn’t complain! I was happy to see whatever I could and whenever I could.

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A young couple, Rosemary (Mia Farrow) and Guy Woodhouse (John Cassavetes) move into an old gloomy Manhattan apartment. They meet their friendly but kind of imposing, not to mention weird, new neighbors. At first everything seems to be fine but gradually Guy becomes a bit too fond of his new friends and the way he treats his wife begins to change. A woman Rosemary bumps into in the laundry room gives her a stinky neckless after they talk for a while. The woman ends up committing a suicide. Rosemary sees strange dreams. Then one day they learn that she is pregnant. Things keep getting darker and stranger.

There is something so gothic about this film; the tone, the music, the building, the colors; I can’t quite pinpoint but it is something that anybody who is familiar with Roman Polanski’s style, especially his early work, will know what I’m talking about. Although the film starts as a jolly sixties movie it smoothly turns into something else. The viewer is given clues and impressions constantly but never the absolute truth; he/she has to participate in a way to figure out what is going on in the story; are there only hallucinations or is there something evil and perhaps even supernatural that’s taking place? It’s slow but brilliant for a viewer who is not in too much of a hurry to appreciate a great piece of art.

This is Polanski’s first movie in United States. It is the second of his so called “Apartment Trilogy”; the others being “Repulsion” (1965) and “The Tenant” (1976). According to the interviews he gave throughout the years it was a shaky start. He was behind the schedule and didn’t know how that would be taken by the company executives; would his movie career in U.S. end before it even began? Lucky for him things turned out well and not only it turned out to be a hit but also had a groundbreaking effect. Yes there were horror movies made before but “Rosemary’s Baby” was very realistic in many ways; so much so that it was extremely disturbing although a younger film buff who has probably seen tens or even hundreds of movies that were influenced by this one and directors of which probably tried to raise the ante in terms of fright might not agree, if one would tried to judge it through the eyes of an ordinary movie goer or even a critic of its time he/she must admit that it must’ve been quiet a thriller.

Acting is brilliant; especially by Mia Farrow who apparently ended up breaking up her marriage with Frank Sinatra who was dead against her being in this movie. I’m a huge John Cassavetes fan; the man, even when he wasn’t doing much brought out some kind of an energy into every scene he was in; it’s almost as if he never acted, he just became the character; same goes for this one as well. But being a director himself apparently he hadn’t always seen eye to eye with Roman Polanski and they had some difficulties making this film.

The clothes and the way the building looks takes me back to my childhood; when I was 4 or 5 years old if you could believe it. I grew up in an old apartment building; the corridors were dark and the light buttons were so high that I couldn’t reach them. We lived on the 3rd floor. After playing outside with my friends when I needed to come home or just to visit the bathroom it was always a challenge. We didn’t have any elevator so I had to climb the stairs in the dark. There was a small window on the 2nd floor but that didn’t help much; if anything it made everything look even scarier. My only solutions were either wait until an adult or at least someone older, and taller, who would turn on the light or bite the bullet and run as fast as I could so I would be at our apartment door in no time. The latter sometimes ended up with me falling and hitting my forehead somewhere solid; luckily no blood was ever shed though.

G.R.Senn