Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this classic horror film addresses occult themes throughout and isn't appropriate for children. Parents should be aware that this film deals frankly with pregnancy and adult sexuality. Characters practice satanic rituals, make bargains with the devil, drink alcohol, and have sex.
Sexual
Content
Talk of sex and having children, culminating in a dream/nightmare sequence in which Rosemary is drugged by her husband and raped by a barely-seen clawed monstrosity -- presumably Satan. Female back-side nudity and toplessness. Naked over-60 folks (only shown from the shoulders up, mostly) in an occult-ritual setting. Full male nudity, if you want to call it that, in the fresco of Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam."
Violence
Blood on cars and pavement and a wide-eyed corpse, as the victim of a suicide jumps from an upper floor and is found in the street. Rosemary is physically restrained and injected. She brandishes a knife but ends up not using it. Themes of rape and satanic rituals.
Language
Guy berates Rosemary and her friends at several points. God and Jesus' name in vain, "hell" and "bitch."
Social
Behavior
There's a strong sense of overwhelming evil (masquerading as nice, ordinary NYC types) against which the waiflike heroine literally doesn't have a prayer in the end. Some have interpreted the movie as being anti-religion -- or pro-Satan -- but the novel's author, Ira Levin, claimed no belief in the devil whatsoever; he just wanted to scare. What's undeniable is the feminist-nightmare vulnerability and victimization of a pregnant young bride, by "society" (embodied by smiling but malevolent and controlling older folks), the medical establishment, and her own careerist husband.
Consumerism
Mention of Yamaha motorcycles, the board game Scrabble, and Lipton tea.
Drugs / Tobacco /
Alcohol
Social drinking and toasting, talk of inebriation (sometimes used as a cover excuse for evildoing). Cigarette-smoking is prominent. A marijuana joint is glimpsed at a party of young people (meant as a sort of counterpoint to the oldsters in the witch coven, and their stodgy cocktails and highballs). Sedative pills and injections are administered, and Rosemary is served the demonic equivalent of a date-rape drug.
