LOOK WHAT’S HAPPENED TO ROSEMARY’S BABY (1976) *

 

Look What’s Happened to Rosemary’s Baby is a Made for TV sequel to the Roman Polanski classic.  You’re pretty much setting yourself up for failure if you’re trying to continue a story that ended on such a perfect note.  That didn’t stop the filmmakers from trying to cash in on the film’s success.  The only returning cast member is Ruth Gordon, who won an Oscar for the original.  Even she is powerless to save this mess.

The film at least has a unique structure as it’s divided into three “Books”.  The first episode, “The Book of Rosemary”, finds Rosemary (a miscast Patty Duke, who nevertheless can scream just like Mia Farrow) trying to unsuccessfully protect her young son Adrian/Andrew from a pack of devil worshippers.  The second chapter is “The Book of Adrian”, which picks things up about a decade or so later with Adrian (Stephen McHattie) being looked after by a former hooker (Gilligan’s Island’s Tina Louise!), and coming to grips with the fact that he might not be the spawn of Satan after all.  Things wind down with “The Book of Andrew” as Andrew is confined to a mental institution while the cult members try to figure out what to do with him. 

McHattie is largely ineffectual as Adrian/Andrew, which makes the final two books something of a chore to sit through.  It’s an intriguing idea to suggest that Adrian is thoroughly mediocre and a disappointment to the devil worshippers who are grooming him to become the Antichrist.  However, McHattie is mostly a blank cypher, which makes the audience just as disappointed as the devil worshippers.  (The scenes where he’s painted up like a mime are particularly dire.) 

At least the supporting cast is kind of goofy.  I mean, as bad as this flick is, I can’t completely hate any movie that features both Tina Louise AND Donna Mills.  We also get Broderick. Crawford (who shows up for like a minute), Ray Milland, and George Maharis in the John Cassavetes role.  Despite the fact that Gordon returns, she’s pretty annoying throughout.

Even though it was directed by Sam O’Steen, the man who edited the original movie, Look What’s Happened to Rosemary’s Baby is sorely lacking energy or life.  The first one was a masterpiece of slow burn horror, but this flick just feels muddled and rushed.  It has too few ideas that are thinly spread out, and none of them really gels together.  The three “books” concept could’ve worked, but the overall effect is rather clunky. 

It’s funny because the ending of the first movie is so iconic.  The ambiguousness of Rosemary and the baby’s future was the scariest part.  Now we know, and frankly, I wished we never found out what happened to Rosemary’s Baby.

AKA:  Rosemary’s Baby 2.