November 2014

Imprinted on Rosemary’s Baby
by Mike Connell

Imprinting was first described in the 19th century by Douglas Spalding, who observed it in chickens. It’s a common phenomenon. When geese are hatched, they imprint onto their mothers. This compels them to follow the mother around in a line. Konrad Lorenz popularized the notion by imprinting goslings onto his wading boots. Lorenz would put on his boots and a line of geese would dutifully follow him around town. The imprinting would have to happen in a critical period of 13-16 hours after birth, or it wouldn’t happen at all.

People have critical periods also. We must learn to speak by age four or we will have an affected speech pattern. We must emotionally bond with an affectionate person as an infant, or we will never be able to bond with people later. People can imprint onto nonliving things. Shoes, leather, latex, faux fur, etc.  I think you know where I’m going with that.

I’m imprinted on Rosemary’s Baby (1968).

I was four, and it was on TV, and I knew that I was watching a “movie,” and not a TV show. It scared me, of course, but not as much as you might think. It fascinated me more than anything else.

I see echoes of Rosemary’s Baby everywhere. I see its influence in other movies, TV shows, short stories, paintings, word-play, you name it. I see it in the behavior, some of it not good, of others. It might be a delusion. I’m in no position to know. But the world throws me just enough bones to keep this illusion going.

In The Innkeepers (2011), there’s a reference to a movie called Nobody Loves an Albatross, a non-existent Broadway play mentioned in Rosemary’s Baby. In Slither (2006), a character mentions the Castevet’s farm, Castevet being an unusual surname from Rosemary’s Baby. I could go on and on.

I have seen the movie many, many times, and have found something new every time. It has spoken to new experiences that I’ve had at each life stage.

A few weeks ago I was watching a sci-fi/horror movie called Under the Skin (2013), and the music was so creepy that it made my wife drop her book and come downstairs from the bedroom to see what was on. I told her the music was cribbed from Rosemary’s Baby, and even cued up the scene on my Rosemary’s Baby DVD to play it. I’m convinced that this was no accident, nor was it theft, but homage. The writer/director’s previous film, Birth (2004), had referenced Rosemary’s Baby in so many obvious ways.

At least, I think it did.

Like I said, I’m in no position to know.

Mike’s story “Honor” appears in Dammit, I Learned a Lot from That Son-of-a-Gun. Click here to learn more about him.

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