I had watched this back in college and wasn't impressed. I didn't really see why it should be a classic. Nothing about it stuck except the positively ridiculous ending which ended up inspiring a chunk of my first screenplay. Reading "Cassavettes on Cassavettes" inspired me to give it another shot (in anything, I could see Cassavettes acting, I figured). This time around, I got a real kick out of this movie. The sense of paranoia. The dark comedy throughout. It managed to be pretty suspenseful while detailing what could be only a paranoid woman's troublesome pregnancy. Farrow is perfect as the fey, worried housewife. Cassavettes is great as the self-centered actor husband whose focus on his career knows no bounds. Perhaps the best touch are the neighbors played by Gordon and Blackmer, loud upper class urbanites. I can see why I didn't like the movie on my first viewing. There's little violence or actual scenes of danger throughout the film. It doesn't really resemble a horror film in many respects, especially for someone born in the mid-eighties. It really is like watching a woman's troubled pregnancy. It's snide insinuations of some deeper and more evil in the souls of the characters is where it really works. Also where a lot of comedy come from. I'll never really hear the phrase "Hail Satan!" without thinking about this movie. A must-see for anyone who loves their films seeped with paranoia.
Don't trust him, Mia! It's JOHN CASSAVETTES!
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