A horror film’s sole purpose is to scare the living daylights out of its viewers. Since the first horror film Le Manoir du Diable (1896), demons, witches, and ghosts would be the subjects of supernatural horror. Filmmakers have used tried and true techniques, as well as innovative and new technology that have been frightening audiences for hundreds of years.
Although many horror films focus on gore, some horror films are more psychological, such as Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby (1968). This film is significant for elevating the horror film genre to a whole new stature, as well as serving as the precursor to future films, with even Rosemary's Baby's author Ira Levin stating: “The success of Rosemary’s Baby inspired Exorcists and Omens and lots of et ceteras.” A film that is not often looked at as inspiration is Luca Gudagnino’s 2018 Suspiria, a remake of Dario Argento's 1977 classic. Besides the obvious fact that these films have plots involving witchcraft, they actually have a lot more in common as well.
Rosemary’s Baby is about a young couple, Rosemary and Guy, who move into a new apartment and begin trying to get pregnant. They become incredibly close to their elderly neighbors, who quickly enforce themselves into the couple’s lives. As Rosemary gets closer to giving birth, she becomes wary of her neighbors, which slowly throws her into full-blown paranoia. When Rosemary gives birth, it is revealed that her neighbors used witchcraft on Guy to coax him into sacrificing Rosemary to Satan in trade for a successful acting career, and her baby is the son of Satan. In Suspiria, a young girl named Suzy travels to Germany to attend a prestigious ballet school, which she ultimately learns is owned by an evil coven of witches.
Aside from both films having withcraft subtext, both Suspiria and Rosemary’s Baby can also be classified into a subgenre of supernatural horror, as well as further denominating into the body horror subgenre. The acquisition of both women’s bodies by the covens in each film is to give life. In Rosemary’s Baby, the female body is groomed to bring a new life into the world through the uterus; in the other, the woman’s youthful body is needed to rejuvenate the life of an older witch.
Although Suspiria is easily recognized as a body horror subgenre, so is Rosemary’s Baby, as they both transform the human body into a vessel for evil. Suspiria uses the woman’s body through dance. The viewer can witness the external body horror as they see the contortions of the dancer and hear the cracking and snapping of bones while the body serves to transform itself. In Rosemary’s Baby, the body horror is internal as it takes place within the woman’s reproductive organs. The body horror may not be as obvious in this film as in Suspiria; however, it is prevalent. The viewer witnesses the body horror with Rosemary during a dream sequence as she becomes impregnated by the devil. The body horror continues while she writhes in pain as the demon baby grows inside her.
The settings of both horror films are similar and consistent with the supernatural horror film genre: Rosemary’s Baby is located in an old gothic apartment building, and Suspiria is set in an old gothic theater. Tall ceilings with olden dark wood support the rooms, spooky pictures adorn the walls, and lots of dark rooms with forbidden closets, leading to secret passageways, are shared by both films. The lighting is all darkened, and shadows follow every movement. The closets in these two films serving as the physical portal to evil are quite prevalent throughout the horror film genre: the basement that the viewer screams at the character from entering, secret rooms throughout the house, and the attic that houses all the dark secrets fill the setting of many horror films.
Both films involve characters searching for stardom, and it is this quest that the witches can manipulate. In Rosemary's Baby, Guy gets his chance at stardom when the lead actor in the play goes blind, just as in Suspiria when Suzy gets the starring role in the dance recital because the other dancer falls ill. Of course, the covens are responsible for these movements. Dream sequences in both films reveal the hidden truth of the evilness inside. In each film, there is an anticipation of an event, and the similarities between the final party scene in Rosemary’s Baby and the final dance scene in Suspiria, where all the witches gather, are quite alike in the rituals that take place.
Whereas Rosemary’s Baby has little gore, the same cannot be said about Suspiria, which is loaded with blood and violence. Also, a difference in the presentation of appalling creatures separates these films. Suspiria has many images of such monstrous creatures as the old witch introduced at the end of the movie. Rosemary's Baby presents only limited images of such a creature when she is having sex with the devil; the viewer sees the hands and fingernails and just brief images of the devil’s face, but no more.
The audience may feel a bit cheated by the film's end when the baby is about to be presented. The anticipation of what this creature looks like is quite palpable, yet the baby is never seen. When Rosemary screams, “What have you done to him, what have you done to his eyes?” the viewer is expecting to see what she sees. This is a transgression of the assumed generic component of a horror movie where the monster's appearance is inevitable; this time, the spectator is scared without gore or violence. The vision of the creature is left to the imagination of the audience.
Both films are meant to frighten the viewer, and they succeed in differing ways. Both films are about witchcraft and devils, a theme requiring a lot of belief suspension, yet Suspiria is more fathomable than the other. Because of a lack of special effects and the absence of appalling characters, Rosemary's Baby lends more of a sense of acceptability. This film also integrates religious icons and ideas into the storyline, which makes the storyline easier to digest because of their familiarity with the viewer. In the end, Rosemary's Baby influenced an influx of body horror and supernatural films, and it deserves all the recognition it gets