Rosemary’s Baby is still terrifying. Some fifty-five years on, Roman Polanski’s film, starring Mia Farrow, still packs a wallop, and what better way to celebrate its enduring legacy than a new 4k release of the film from Paramount Pictures?

It’s been the better part of a decade since I last watched this film, and I was eager to settle in to see it again. The picture is nicely cleaned up, and the images are sharp and clear, almost as if they had been shot yesterday.

Rosemary’s Baby is horrifying, there’s gaslighting, domestic abuse, pregnancy worries, and a brush with the supernatural that may not overshadow a mother’s love.

Rosemary (Farrow) and her actor husband, Guy (John Cassavetes) move into the gorgeous Bramford apartment building. They are planning on starting a family, Guy is chasing roles, and Rosemary is trying to settle into her new life in the building, including dealing with some nosy neighbours in the form of Minnie (Ruth Gordon) and Roman (Sidney Blackmer).

A couple of strange deaths put Rosemary and the audience on edge and the way Guy’s relationship with Minnie and Roman escalates starts to set off minor alarms, but what could possibly go wrong? Is it possible that Minnie and Roman are witches? Ro’s friend Hutch (Maurice Evans) certainly thinks so. And is Guy involved with them? Suddenly he’s getting all manner of roles!

Partially drugged one night, a conception does take place, but is it Guy, or is it some Thing else?

Minnie, Roman and Guy take over all manner of caring for Rosemary, finding her their own doctor, Sapirstein (Ralph Bellamy), separating her from friends, and making her concoctions to be ingested.

The viewer knows that all of these things are actually happening, we see Guy gaslighting her, and his demeanour around her changing in regards to the pregnancy. Polanski runs a level of tension through the entire film that leaves you on edge, even if you’ve seen it more than once.

And it never prepares you for the final scene, Rosemary’s reactions, leaving viewers as the credits roll, gutted and terrified.

The 4K looks gorgeous, bringing the ’60s back to vibrant life, and highlighting the beautiful details of the set, the fabrics and the styles of the day.

There are no new extras added to the disc, just previously released content, though it rounds out the disc nicely. Included on the accompanying Blu-ray is the 50th-anniversary redband trailer, the original theatrical trailer (I really dig this one), a quick featurette about Mia Farrow and Roman Polanski, as well a twenty-minute retrospective on the film.

The film was officially entered into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2014, recognizing its endurance, and this one still works. It’s still scary because the abuse and gaslighting are grounded in reality, and the supernatural aspects are kept to a minimum, that last scene is all played off Farrow’s reactions and it’s chilling.

The film is a must-have for horror fans and cinephiles, and it looks gorgeous on 4K. Rosemary’s Baby is delivered by Paramount Canada on 4K today.