Rosemary's Baby (1968)

Rosemary's Baby was adapted from Ira Levin's novel of the same name and produced by William Castle - the low budget auteur behind gimmicky movies like the original House On Haunted Hill and 13 Ghosts. It is interesting to note that Castle brought the book to Paramount Pictures before the novel was officially released, and the studio bought the film rights with the stipulation that Castle could produce, but not direct, the movie. This is important because it led the way for director Roman Polanski to take the helm, kicking off his career in the United States with what could be his signature film. Had Castle directed, it would certainly have been a very different movie - likely a shlocky, forgettable bit of fluff rather than an icon of horror.

Rosemary's Baby is so well known and influential that even if you haven't seen the movie, you probably know the basic story. Rosemary Woodhouse and her struggling actor husband Guy move into a new apartment and get to know their elderly, overly friendly neighbors, Roman and Minnie Castevet. Before too long, Guy's career starts to pick up and they decide it's time to have a baby. The Castevets take a overbearing interest in Rosemary's pregnancy, insistently providing help she doesn't want, like hooking her up with a famous obstetrician and making her a fresh herb concoction that Minnie makes up every day (per the doctor's orders).

As her due date approaches, Rosemary becomes more and more convinced of their sinister motives and that her husband is in with the Castevets on a plot against her and the baby. She comes to believe that the Castevets, the doctor, her husband, and untold numbers of others are part if a coven of witches who want to sacrifice her baby to Satan in exchange for power in the world.

And --- SPOILER ALERT --- she is mostly right.

Rosemary's Baby takes the normal anxieties of pregnancy and turns them up to 11.  It is hard enough to know how you will handle having a child under the best of circumstances. But if your child is the offspring of the Devil and the object of worship for a coven of old, frumpy witches, that presents a whole unique set of problems.  The finale gives us a good look at two things: a mother's natural strength and, in showing the gathered coven's very ordinariness, the banality of evil. These witches aren't black-robed, red-eyed monsters tattooed with the number of the Beast - they are your next door neighbors.