Polanski's Evil

I've seen four Polanksi films and the common thread I've noticed is a deep fascination with evil. Rosemary's Baby, The Ghost, Chinatown and to some extent The Pianist all feature an essentially decent person unwittingly ensnared in a pervasive, powerful evil force. The evil is nearly always hidden and, once uncovered, it's too late. The claws are in, and our hero(ine) is consumed by it, killed or left with deep scars to the soul.

In Rosemary's Baby, the evil is skin crawling in its power and invisibility. A host of smiling, charming characters have drugged a young woman so that she can be raped by Satan, host his evil spawn through an agonisingly painful pregnancy, and then take the child from her while telling her it's dead. Along the way, they maim and kill people who threaten their plan, and exploit Ro's good nature, naivety and maternal instincts. Polanksi's genius is having his coven of witches resemble a group of people you might find at a dinner party - friendly, trustworthy folk.

Special evil points must go to her husband, played with puppy-dog sociopathy by the brilliant John Cassavetes. The closest person in her life is happy to secretly throw her to the wolves and have his friends permanently blinded or killed in order to gain fame and success. As the extent of his deceit, cruelty and cowardice dawns on the viewer, his twinkling grins and jolly quips become sickening to endure. We slowly realise Polankski has created one of cinema's great monsters.

The ending leaves you haunted, depressed and horrified. Not only do the Satanists achieve their evil ends and create a demon who will presumably bring about hell on earth, they even seduce our heroine into joining their devilish machinations when head Satanist Castevet, with calm confidence, bids Rosemary rock her child to sleep, knowing she can't resist. The sweet lullaby we heard at the beginning is repeated, with a truly terrifying new undertone.

We see the familiar apartment block again, with new eyes, and we walk out into the world wondering what putrid evil may lurk behind the familiar smiles and handshakes we encounter every day.