Rosemary's Baby: parents' guide
Best for ages 16 and up. Rated R.
A slow-burning psychological horror classic for older teens, best watched with a parent. A young wife in a New York apartment building comes to suspect that her neighbors and her husband have sinister plans for her pregnancy. There's little bloodshed, but at the film's center is a surreal, dreamlike scene in which she is drugged and raped, with nudity, and her husband is complicit. A woman's apparent suicide leaves a bloody body, and the satanic themes and paranoia build steadily. We suggest 16 because of the sexual assault, which is disturbing but not graphic.
What's in it
Violence
StrongSexual violence: the heroine is drugged and raped in a surreal dream sequence while neighbors watch. Otherwise little violence: a woman's bloody body after an apparent fall from a window, and the heroine is restrained and injected with a sedative.
Language
MildMild: "hell," "bitch" and some misuse of God's and Jesus' names. No f-words are reported, and the film relies on menace rather than profanity.
Sex and nudity
StrongThe rape scene shows the heroine's bare back, breasts and buttocks, with elderly coven members nude, mostly from the shoulders up. A recreated painting includes male nudity. The couple talks openly about sex and conceiving.
Drinking, drugs and smoking
ModerateHeavy cigarette smoking and social drinking, and a marijuana joint appears at a party. The heroine is secretly drugged through a spiked dessert and herbal drinks, then later sedated by injection.
Scary or intense scenes
StrongBuilds creeping dread and paranoia rather than jump scares. The dream assault is nightmarish, satanic rituals and chanting appear, and the heroine's isolation and helplessness are deeply unsettling.
Sensitive topics
- Sexual assault
- Suicide
- Domestic abuse
Worth talking about
The heroine's fears are dismissed by her husband, her doctor and her neighbors. Talk about trusting your instincts about your own body and finding someone who will listen.
On our lists
Similar picks around 16+
Checked October 13th, 2026 against Common Sense Media, Wikipedia, the-numbers.com. The age is our judgment, not an official rating, and every family draws its lines differently: read the notes, not just the number. Spotted something we missed? Tell us. How we rate.