{"id":179,"date":"2017-01-25T20:52:37","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T20:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/?p=179"},"modified":"2017-01-25T20:52:37","modified_gmt":"2017-01-25T20:52:37","slug":"rosemarys-baby-as-postmodern-horror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/2017\/01\/25\/rosemarys-baby-as-postmodern-horror\/","title":{"rendered":"Rosemary’s Baby as Postmodern Horror"},"content":{"rendered":"

In one of the opening paragraphs of the article, Pinedo defines contemporary horror films as those produced after 1968, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that\u00a0Rosemary’s Baby\u00a0<\/em>was released June 12 of that very year. \u00a0I watched the film last semester with a friend who’s an avid horror fan, and as I was reading the article, I was struck by how many qualities of postmodern horror the film embodies.<\/p>\n

Pinedo claims that postmodern horror often supplants the male expert protagonist with “an ordinary victim who is subjected to high levels of explicit, sexualized violence, especially if the victim is female” (20). \u00a0Rosemary is that victim. \u00a0She is an ordinary, sweet housewife who is drugged and restrained by her neighbors and husband and raped and impregnated by the devil. \u00a0The scene is not necessarily explicit – it occurs in a half-drugged dream sequence – but the violence is blatantly sexual.<\/p>\n

Embodying another aspect of postmodern female horror protagonists, Rosemary relies on intuition as opposed to facts and expert opinions. \u00a0While her husband, neighbors, and doctor assure her nothing is wrong, she instinctually knows that her pregnancy is not a normal one. \u00a0At a dinner party, female friends hear about the symptoms she is experiencing and immediately agree that something is amiss. \u00a0As Pinedo explains, the Cartesian philosophy suggests that rationality is male and intuition is female. \u00a0It is her intuitive female friends rather than male doctors who see through the facade.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, I believe\u00a0Rosemary’s Baby\u00a0<\/em>most strongly embodies Pinedo’s category of “Lack of Narrative Closure” (24). \u00a0 Below is the final scene of\u00a0Rosemary’s Baby. \u00a0<\/em>Rosemary finally lays eyes upon her child, realizes he is the antichrist, and\u00a0is left with the decision either to reject or accept him. \u00a0Initially she rejects the child, claiming that it isn’t her baby. \u00a0However, the final sequence of the film involves her soothing the crying baby, staring contemplatively into the distance while eerie music begins to play. \u00a0It is unclear whether Rosemary accepts her child or not at the end of the film. \u00a0The conclusion is left ambiguous and the antichrist remains in the world.<\/p>\n