Rosemary's Baby (1968)

For me, it's not a big leap from childbirth to otherworldly gothic horror, and so when director Roman Polanski brings Ira Levin's macabre suspense novel to hideous life, it is just a question of how far he is going to ratchet up the terror as an angelic Mia Farrow experiences a troubled pregnancy and all around her in her and her husband's new New York apartment block, the behaviour of the residents is getting decidedly more odd and more and more in Rosemary's face.

★★★★★

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The Fearless Vampire Killers, or Pardon me, but your teeth are in my neck (1967)

You'll come to believe this is never-ending as it, like its title, just goes on and on - a laugh-free parody of the sorts of Hammer Film Productions horror movies that are now parodies of themselves and so don't need parodying, but still this - looking a little like a live action Asterix comic - goes pointlessly, inertly on, with Roman Polanski playing an assistant to a Van Helsing type who hopes to rescue Sharon Tate's damsel-in-distress one night after she is whisked away from a mountain inn by a wicked Count Dracula type.

★☆☆☆☆

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Carnage (2011)

Roman Polanski brings to the big screen God of Carnage, the successful stage play about two couples negotiating various differences of opinion, and while he manages to generate a few genuine laughs, it is all over before it begins and the impact of the satire is diminished by overtheatrics and moments of overacting.

★★☆☆☆

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The Ghost Writer (2010)

A satisfying, moody thriller from Roman Polanski about a man, Ewan McGregor, who takes over the task of ghostwriting an ex-Prime Minister's memoirs after the former ghostwriter tasked with the job mysteriously dies.

★★★★☆

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