Stream Wes Anderson’s Favorite Horror Movie For Free, Right Now, with a Library Card
Wes Anderson is not a filmmaker we often associate with horror cinema. The Oscar-winning writer/director behind films like The Royal Tenenbaums and Moonrise Kingdom is known for his elaborate production design, visual symmetry, and offbeat comedy, but not for his scares. He’s such a non-horror guy, in fact, that Saturday Night Live once made a fantastic parody of what an Anderson horror movie could look like.
But that doesn’t mean Anderson avoids horror movies altogether. In fact, one of his favorite films of all time is also a horror classic, and believe it or not, it’s easy to see the connection in his filmography. Plus, you can watch this movie for free right now; all you need is a library card.
The movie is Rosemary’s Baby, Roman Polanski’s 1968 film adaptation of Ira Levin’s bestselling novel of the same name. Starring Mia Farrow as Rosemary Woodhouse, the film remains one of the most significant horror releases of the 1960s, and arguably one of the greatest of all time. It’s been an influence on many directors, and in a 2012 interview with Rotten Tomatoes, Anderson counted himself among them.
“One movie that I often find myself going back to is Rosemary’s Baby,” Anderson said. “This has always been a big influence on me, or a source of ideas, and it’s always been one of my favorites. Mia Farrow gives a great, big performance in it, and I’ve read the script and it’s a terrific script.”
As Rosemary, Farrow is the young wife of a gifted, up-and-coming actor (John Cassavetes), and the couple has just moved into their dream apartment in New York City’s iconic Dakota building. Everything seems to be working out, particularly when Rosemary gets pregnant with their first child. But the more the pregnancy progresses, the more Rosemary starts to suspect that a dark bargain has been made, with her and her child at the center.
What does this mean in the context of Wes Anderson? Well, look at several of his films, but particularly The Royal Tenenbaums, and you’ll see the influence of Rosemary’s Baby, particularly in the way both films deal with drama and trauma beneath upper-crust New York society. The visual beauty of Polanski’s film is there to mask something deeply wrong. While Anderson’s characters don’t necessarily get pregnant with Satan’s spawn, they’re also always dealing with insecurities and fears, even when the rest of their lives seem to be sorted out.
Rosemary’s Baby has been a must-watch horror film for nearly six decades now, but if you’re getting into it for the first time, there’s an easy way to do that. If you have a library card and your local library subscribes to either Hoopla or Kanopy streaming services, you can borrow the film for free right now and watch it immediately. Which you should, because it’s one of the all-time greats. Just ask Wes Anderson.
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