Zoe Saldaña’s Surprisingly Faithful 2-Part Horror Adaptation Is Officially Streaming for Free

Roman Polanski‘s 1968 horror film Rosemary’s Baby is an undisputed classic of the genre, a film that relies on an ever-increasing sense of dread and uneasiness that keeps Mia Farrow‘s Rosemary and the audience questioning everything. Its twisted, ambiguous ending is a pitch-perfect sendoff that ensures its unsettling nature stays with the viewer well after the credits roll. Rosemary’s Baby spawned a sequel, Look What’s Happened to Rosemary’s Baby, and Paramount+ released a prequel, Apartment 7A, in September 2024, but neither project succeeds in bringing to the table what the original does seemingly effortlessly (although the former did bring disco, so that’s something). Yet a 2014 miniseries remake of the film, also called Rosemary’s Baby, fares much better while giving the story a modern update.

The ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ Miniseries Makes Subtle Changes That Update the Classic

2014’s Rosemary’s Baby is not an improvement on the original, and it would be foolish to assume it could be. But what it does, and does well, is bring modern sensibilities to the story while changing elements that make sense of the few nonsensical flaws of the original. The most impactful change the miniseries makes is with Rosemary herself, played by Zoe Saldaña. Saldaña’s Rosemary isn’t the meek, trusting, and naive homemaker Farrow’s is. She’s revealed to be a dancer who supports her writer husband, Guy (Suits‘ Patrick J. Adams), as he works on his novel. After suffering a miscarriage, the couple looks to make a fresh start in Paris.

Shifting the locale from New York to Paris is another impactful change that works on a number of levels. It justifies Rosemary’s dependency on others, a stranger in a strange land with no friends or knowledge of the language. She has to trust that those in her circle have her best interests at heart. It’s not a blind trust like Farrow’s, but rather a trust necessitated to survive in her new surroundings. Paris, too, offers something that New York simply can’t: mystery. In a way, Satan fathering a son in New York is almost cliché, but Paris’ deep history, its dark corners, gargoyles, and Gothic structures seem custom-made for Satan to play.

The ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ Miniseries Goes Younger, Bloodier, and More Supernatural

In the original, Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer made for decidedly creepy next-door neighbors as Minnie and Roman Castevet, with Gordon even winning an Oscar for her performance. While it’s hard to argue with what works so effectively, the decision to cast Carole Bouquet and Jason Isaacs as Margaux and Roman Castevet, placing the couple closer in age to the Woodhouses, makes it easier to accept that they would develop a closer relationship. Additionally, it adds an interesting dynamic where the Castevets go from an intrusive, old couple to a couple that is still intrusive but with a sensual element that makes the deception even more sinister.

When talking about the film, Polanski admitted to his disbelief in God or the Devil affecting how he made Rosemary’s Baby, approaching the more supernatural aspects of Ira Levin‘s novel with ambiguity. Something else Polanski avoided was the use of gore, relying on his adept skills at building dread to give the film its punch. For better or worse, this is where the miniseries drags Rosemary’s Baby into the 21st century. The occult is a larger presence in the miniseries, a byproduct of an age where shows like Constantine and Salem have normalized it. And the subtleties of building dread had really only come back into vogue with the 2013 release of The Conjuring, so blood and gore were still very much the go-to for the horror genre.

The Rosemary’s Baby miniseries is flawed, to be sure, and the padding to fill the time is one of the more common criticisms of it. But in it lies the blueprint for a successful modern update of a horror classic: don’t tread on the original; bring something new to the table; add contemporary elements; and if Zoe Saldaña is available, bring her in.

Rosemary’s Baby is currently available to stream for free on Tubi.