Streaming Availability: N/A, but nobody seems to care about this movie, so You can find it on certain Tubes.
This was never going to work. Attempting a sequel to one of the greatest horror movies ever made is a thankless task in the first place. But in the case of Rosemary's Baby, it isn't very obvious where you go with a sequel. Horror sequels usually operate on the principle of "just do the same plot again". That won't work here. What is Rosemary now carrying some other fallen angel's baby? Shemhazai or Samael's kid? Worse, I do not think many audience members were all that curious about what happens next to Rosemary or her demon baby. I never was all that curious. If you were actually were going to follow up on the Apocalyptic promises of the first movie, you'd need a much bigger budget than Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby had. This was merely an ABC Friday Night Movie from 1976.
And no, it did not work.
The reputation of this movie has always scared me away, largely because Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby, in fact, has no reputation. This is not a despised sequel, nor is it a cult classic. It is merely random obscure trivia. 'Did you know Rosemary's Baby had a sequel? And one with a ridiculous title?' Not many people have seen Look What's Happened, nor have many people have even heard of it. The vast majority of this film's viewership over the decades have been horror bloggers looking for weird content to cover.
Now does Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby deserve better? ...Kinda. It is far from the movie ever made. I cannot say I'm out here thinking this is any kind of secret gem. But there are interesting elements. And well, guess it's my turn.
First off, if you're going to watch this movie, my advice is remove all comparisons from Rosemary's Baby from your mind. Do not consider style, tone, production quality, or message, the sequel will fail all those tests. Only two major parts of the original movie return here: Ruth Gordon as the shrill Minnie Castevet, and editor Sam O'Steen, who has gradated to director. Most of the cast has been replaced by inferiors. The most damning replacement would be Patty Duke as Rosemary, following up Mia Farrow. Of all jobs in this sequel, Patty Duke has the most hopeless, but also performance in this movie is really bad. She is not given much to do except scream and shout, and there is very little of her in the film. George Maharis is the replacement John Cassavetes, filling in as Guy, and he mostly works here. Guy is now a much sadder and more pathetic character, wracked with guilt and still finding himself dragged back into this Satanic nonsense over and over.
Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby takes place over three acts with three "Books" which are mini-plots. The plot should take place over the course of thirty years but seemingly no time ever passes, most characters do not age. But perhaps Look What's Happened imagines a horrifying Nineties which is still trapped in the fashions of the mid-Seventies. The Book of Rosemary is about Rosemary's aborted attempt to escape with her Antichrist baby, Adrian (though mom insists he go by "Andrew"). They find themselves in the desert, where Andrew's powers kill some children, and in the confusion, Andrew is stolen by a prostitute named Marjean (Tine Louise). In one of the film's best scares, Rosemary is tricked onto a bus, which she discovers is completely empty, without a driver. Thus trapped in the dark vehicle, she is dragged out of the movie to oblivion.
In The Book of Adrian, a now adult Antichrist (Stephen McHattie) is nearing 30 but has not yet begun any war against God. Instead he's just kind of a dirtbag casino barfly with vague ambitions to start a rock band with his best friend Peter Simon (David Huffman). Peter Simon? Get it? Reverse the name and you get Jesus's favored rock apostle. The symbolism around Peter never gets more subtle than that, he's always filmed in light. He ends up symbolically crucified after getting electrocuted. There's something homoerotic going on between this holy young man and our unholy protagonist, which would make a great movie if Look What's Happened followed up on it. We have the foundations for an Antichrist answer to Jesus Christ Superstar. But the movie chugs along.
For reasons that are unclear, the Satanic cult has given up on their anti-savior remarkably quickly. By the final act, The Book of Andrew, they're already plotting to replace him with a Rosemary's Granddaughter, a true Antichrist. So as mother was raped by Satan, son finds himself raped by a semi-demonic, possible harpy woman named Ellen (Donna Mills). Then Guy kills himself trying to run his estranged son down and the movie very abruptly ends.
Clearly Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby was rushed together. The edit is horrible, which is ironic since the movie was directed by an editor. Whole scenes have been clearly cut out and they're replaced by exposition in voice over. The Satanists have to work very hard in the voice booth to explain what is happening, and even then you'll probably be confused. Why did Adrian fail? What actually is Ellen? They say Marjean has died by the third act, but I don't think that happened on camera. They left in a flub where Ruth Gordon calls her husband Roman (now played by Ray Milland) "Sidney", which was the name of the character's original actor, Sidney Blackmer. Or maybe that was a joke, Ruth Gordon's lines all feel like adlibbed kvetching.
There's actually a lot I like about this movie despite everything. There's potential in changing the setting from Manhattan to the sleazy world of small time Nevada casinos. The mid-Seventies has as much fascinating retro style as the Sixties. I dig a vibe of acid rock and muscle cars and women in tight shirts without bras. Stephen McHattie is a great character actor and has a very angular face, he's a convincing devil. He brings more to the role of Adrian/Andrew than is in the script. There's multiple points where very interesting plotlines could develop. But none of them do because the plot races around unfocused, trying to be three movies in 100 minutes.
I guess we could have more disappointing Antichrist stories. I'll have to talk about The Omen III later this month. Trust me, Antichrist franchises can fail much worse than Look What's Happened. If you think this apocalypse was a sad wet fart, you've seen nothing yet.
We do at least get to see Guy face some justice since he dies at the end. Speaking of Guy, he has a great quote that describes the Seventies Satanism craze well. "There's a big market for the supernatural now. You have to understand that audience out there...they don't know to believe in anymore! They want to be turned on by the far-out, the mystical. They've had generations of those bible pics and now they're really going big for the flip side." And well, we'll see all that very soon.
Next Time! Hammer Horror stages a battle of Bond Villains, Christopher Lee vs. Charles Gray in The Devil Rides Out.
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