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Film: Look What’s Happened to Rosemary’s Baby
Year: 1976
Director: Sam O’Steen
Writer: Anthony Wilson
Starring: Stephen McHattie, Patty Duke and Broderick Crawford
Review:
This film starts off showing us a room where there is a knife stuck in the floor and a baby’s bassinette. We overhear the final conversation from the previous film to fill us in. Rosemary had her baby and it is the son of the Satan. We start off with a title stating we are in the Book of Rosemary and then see that she is played by Patty Duke in this film. Her son as a child is played by Philip Boyer. They are living in a compound with the cult. The leader is played by Ray Milland and his wife by Ruth Gordon.
Duke escapes with her son and we get voice-overs between Milland and Gordon. Gordon is upset as they were about to perform a ritual. Milland tells her that it work out how it is supposed to. They have some kind of psychic ability and are tracking where Duke goes. She flees to a synagogue where an experience happens. A cross is put on the boy’s chest, but it burns him.
The two of them go to a bus station. Before they can go anywhere, Boyer is being bullied by other kids. He uses some force to knock them down. This causes Duke to panic. She flees with him to a room where she meets Tina Louise. Duke was on the phone while Boyer was being bothered. First she called her husband, played by George Maharis, demanding his help. She still hasn’t forgiven him for his betrayal. She then called Milland stating what is going to happen. Louise offers Duke help for money and goes out to see what happened. When she does, she picks up the phone and there is chanting from the cult. She comes back and decides to get them a bus ticket. Duke gets on the bus, but the door closes. It is also driving by itself. Louise decides to raise the boy as her own with the help of the cult.
Boyer grows up to be played by Stephen McHattie. He is pulled over in a black car with his friend, played by David Huffman. They are in a band together. McHattie has a birthday coming up, one that is very important. It will decide if Satan will take over his body or if he isn’t right. Milland is not bothered either way, stating that if he isn’t the Antichrist, there are things they can still do.
Everyone comes to his party and a ritual is performed. Huffman tries to prevent it, but he is stopped by Maharis. McHattie sees this and passes out. The devil looked like he started to take him over, will he finish the job? Or does Huffman have too much Duke in him? He does meet a beautiful nurse that wants to help him, played by Donna Mills. Can Mills help him or will she get caught up in all of this as well?
Now I want to lead off stating that I love the original film. It is one of my favorites. It is great because you don’t know who is involved and the atmosphere of the house is so terrifying. This film does none of that. The story to the film doesn’t make a lot of sense. I will give this film credit that it did things that happen in The Omen series before they did, but this film failed. I did like the concept that McHattie needs to spill the blood of someone, but instead his music allows him to corrupt those around him. I don’t think what breaks him though makes a lot of sense. The ending had a twist that wasn’t good enough to save the film. It just moves too fast without making sense.
The acting in this film isn’t good either. Everyone turns in a flat performance and no one stands out. There just any emotion from anyone and it makes for a boring film. I think part of this was poor writing as well though. McHattie I have seen in the television show Haven and I thought he was good there. He is actually a bad guy and plays it well. This one he doesn’t have much personality so we don’t connect that he is having a crisis of good and evil within him. We also don’t get enough of the story through the characters for any of the twists to work as well.
There are some effects, but they are definitely cheap 1970s. Seeing McHatties’s face change to a mask wasn’t all that great. There is an electrocution scene that was realistic, so that was a perk. There is a scene Jesus through another character that was a little bit too cheesy. I liked the camera angle and effects during the opening sequence with Duke fleeing with Boyer as well. The music definitely has the feel of the era. It doesn’t stand out to me for most of the film, but the song of McHattie becoming Satan and having his crisis was good. The editing didn’t help the film, but I don’t think it was a problem. The scenes don’t build tension so it was just an overall problem.
Now with that said, I would avoid this film. This film tried to play off the success of the first one by making this sequel. The film does pick up where the last left off, but we get none of what made the original great. The story doesn’t make sense and is executed poorly. There really isn’t much good to say in the way of acting. No one stood out to me and it was bland. There were a couple good moments of effects. The music was good during one scene, other than that, it doesn’t stand out. The editing didn’t build tension, but I think that goes back to the writing of the film as well. I would not recommend seeing this film. I feel it is a waste of time.
My Rating: 3 out of 10