The mood of the film is first established by hearing a women’s voice singing a lull-a-by while there is a long open panning shot of downtown Manhattan. During the opening credits, the camera moves downward, changes direction, and tracks backward over an apartment building rooftop. From an aer

Foreshadowing is a primary resource to build suspense within a film. In the scene where Rosemary and her husband look to purchase an apartment, the camera glides along with them, as they are moving around the unoccupied, gothic apartment. Due to the eccentric characteristics of the apartment building and Mrs. Gardenia, the previous tenant who died while she was in a coma, the audience is able to gain a sense of foreshadowing for future possible events. Hutch, a friend of Rosemary, tells her that the apartment building has a history of bad luck and multiple stories of witchcraft. Furthermore, odd incidences surround the apartment itself. Mrs. Gardenia had a fascination with herbs and cryptic writings, such as “There are signs of the….” This is a prelude of what the audience is going to see at the end of the movie once Rosemary has figured out that her neighbors, the Casavet’s, practice witchcraft. One of the most evident pieces of foreshadowing lay in the opening scene when the audience hears a lull-a-by. This peculiar beginning does not make sense until the very end when the audience hears Rosemary singing the exact lull-a-by to the newborn child as the camera zooms out of the apartment and obtains a view of the rooftop exterior again, just as was seen at the very beginning of the film. It is the reverse of the opening and the audience should understand why they heard singing at the start of the film.

Although space provided a great sense of suspense within the film, it also added to the character storyline. For example, as Rosemary becomes pregnant she takes ill and is restricted from leaving the house, with exceptions from visiting the doctor. This isolation is evident due to Rosemary primarily being the only character in the frame during her pregnancy. It is as if the walls of the apartment are confining her. Moreover, this separation of Rosemary from other characters, specifically her husband, further emphasizes the isolation that she is facing. The space used in the scenes where she is alone represents extremely her loneliness. On another character, Mrs. Casta

Some topics in this essay:
Casavet Rosemary, Rosemary Woodhouse, Rosemary's Baby, Rosemary’s Baby, Roman Polanski, apartment building, rosemary’s baby, mood film, suspense film, horror films, camera moves, camera moves downward, build suspense film, audience hears, rosemary husband, dramatic sequences, apartment camera, tonal color compositions,