Rosemary Woodhouse (Patty Duke) tries to seek shelter for her son in good areas away from the cult lead by Roman (Ray Milland) and Minnie (Ruth Gordon) who wants him to keep their ceremony with Satan.
Suddenly her son is taken away from her as he resides at a hotel adopted by a guardian named Marjean Dorn (Tina Louise) in which Adrian (Stephen McHattie) has to live everyday finding out who he is and the fact that he is the son of Satan in which it causes him to go wild and crazy and goes to the aid of his best friend Peter Simon (David Huffman) in order to keep him sane and not use his demonic powers on people who cause him trouble.
However, Roman and Minnie have frightening plans for Adrian as they want to keep the antichrist happening more and more with their wicked deeds.
What a disappointing sequel. I mean it's hard to beat the original but I think the writers got a little carried away with what they did for this sequel to the box office smash Rosemary's Baby. So let's take a look at what cheesiness we have in the storylines shall we???
There's flashback audio with the character Rosemary acting intense like to believe what happened after the ending of the first film along with her running away from the cult with her 5 year old son Adrian years later as the story look incredibly rough to how everything was done and not taking it's time to explain too much. But yet this seems common for sequels but some aren't as cheesy as to how all of this was written. There's silly narrations between Roman and Minnie whom are also reprising characters from the original as I didn't take anything they did seriously at all.
There's some good cheesy horror scene's with Adrian having his eyes glow in front of mean kids as they fall down and break their necks leaving a nice touch.
There's also a moment when Rosemary is taken away in a bus while someone else takes away her son which can seem sad to watch but what was weird was that the bus was deserted and driving on it's own. Now this was way too weird. Was this bus controlled by the devil himself??? After that it doesn't explain as to what happened to Rosemary at all.
We also spot Rosemary's husband Guy out on holidays with Roman talking to him on the phone and his cult calling out a chant. This seemed to be weird and twisted as well as spotting Guy's eyes glowing. It seems to explain as to why he was a part of the cult in the first flick. Could he also be the son of Satan???
There's the odd effective moments with Adrian all grown up and disturbed about his past trying to get his friend Peter to help him out in which this was supposed to be disturbing wondering if he will do evil deeds due to who he really is but the writing was pretty bad it didn't seem disturbing at all.
There's some interesting moments with Adrian driving like a mad man in his vehicle and messing around with some bikers later on to be in trouble with them as well as using his demonic powers on him when they are about to beat the crap out of him. This was fun to watch to save the film from bombing.
What seems to work well is when Roman and Minnie are doing a ceremony towards Adrian on his Birthday as there's a thunderstorm outside which seems to start a strong force along with some musicinas playing some sort of a disco song at the pub. This looks like they're in a trance too. All in all this was all pretty weird and twisted.
Then later on he has his name changed and the story seems to almost seem to get a bit better when he tries to escape with an employee at the insane asylum he's in named Ellen and explaining what his mission has to be. The two of them seem to have a romance together as this was a nice touch to the story of the film but yet is she who she says she is??? There's good twisted hallucination sequences trying to make the film psych you out but that even fails big time. With these moments happening, the makers of the film becomes creepily mysterious and trying to borrow the same chemistry to the original film but it fails big time. At the end of the story doesn't explain what became of Adrian and trying to open a door for another sequel involving Ellen in the end of the film but thankfully one never arose.
Bottom line is the film is a very obscure TV movie and now I can see why since it's easily forgotten and most people who know the original film weren't aware of this sequel as this one was a real embarrassment to say the most. At least it was nice to see what happened to this newborn and how he was leading his life although the writing for this seems terribly rushed. All I have to say is this sequel is very sad to watch and don't expect it to be as mysterious in a good way like the first film as it isn't and made on a low budget too.
The acting is
pretty well done for the most part even if the movie sucked in general. However most of the reprising character's were played by different people which I can understand why. Lead actor Stephen McHattie (Adrian) seems to do well acting like a wild spirited type and being rebellious who seems to like playing with fire in which he studied his role well as the son of Satan. He also is okay with his crying emotional attitude and losing his mind. He brings a good amount of energy into all of this. In a scene he shows off a nice disturbed reaction when asked about his past life and then getting anxious which seemed impressive. He does a good job wobbling around and getting up walking into the dance bar scene like he was drugged which seemed fairly natural. There's a good intense moment with him going crazy and acting intensely emotional. He does well pleading towards someone else which looked strongly performed. Does a good job unbuttoning someone's shirt and smoothly talking to this person in a good wicked sense kneeling above him.
Ray Milland (Roman Castevet) seemed to have a good businessman like type of personality with what he does yet has a good coldness to what he does like he is someone you wouldn't want to be involved with. He has this evil voodoo type of character. I liked his part for what he did in it.
Ruth Gordon (Minnie Castevet) reprised her role and was the only one and yet doesn't seem to bring the spunk into her part like in the original nor was she as witty like she made herself out to be. This was mainly due to bad writing but she did the best that she could. She tried to act a little wicked but she seemed a little too uplifting to what she did. Oh well, she's better off remembered in the original flick that's for sure.
Tina Louise (Marjean Dorn) seemed to come across as one of those sympathetic types and does this very well. She was quite mellow but strong willed with everything that she did in her role. She came across perfectly onto the screen and I found her to be one of the best cast members in the flick. She shows off a good charm in her personality.
David Huffman (Peter Simon) really showed of his characteristics as he always did throughout his career until his tragic death in 1985. He comes across with a good serious personality along with showing nice stern aggressions when he needed to in other parts of the story. There's a good moment withhim in a scene pulling over acting expressionless when an onscreen sheriff asks for his drivers license. Does a good job getting aggressive towards his fellow actor while they both walk into a pub about what happened which looked fairly natural. He does a good job trying to talk towards his fellow actor at a church about his past life. He shows off some great anxious reactions too bringing out a ton of energy and not letting it drop at all. There's a good moment when he tries to act forceful towards another fellow actor at a pub by trying to talk to him. Does a good job running outside trying to stop this same person with energetic force and trying to reason with him in a good loud voice. He often played these types of roles and it was a shame that he didn't land roles in too many mainstream shows. Bless his soul.
Lloyd Haynes (Laykin) was a real attention grabber with his masculine type features coming across quite intimidatingly with her serious and quiet attitude. He reminds me as someone who's like a hitman or a mobster type since he seemed to build around this for the film. A good forceful blocking moments on him grabbing someone and pushing this person aside when this person gets in his face.
Donna Mills (Ellen) brings off a nice clean cut type of look as well as bringing across a nice innocence to her role in the film. She seemed to fit the part quiet perfectly and performed pretty well with what she did in the flick. She also came across as perfectly mysterious too quarter way through her performance proving to be a good character actress.
George Maharis (Guy Woodhouse) seems to do well with his disturbed attitude on being pitted against the cult to do what they want as he shows off some good emotions and a nice seriousness to his part in the film. Has a good disturbed expression on his face while talking on a phone in a certain scene.
Patty Duke (Rosemary Woodhouse) doesn't meet up to the original actress who portrayed this role on her shocked and scared behavior but she still tried her best to do what she had to do. In the beginning she does well with her anxiety and showing good energy. In the end of her performance does a good job screaming and panicking while she in a the back window of a bus pounding away as well as creepily stepping near the drivers seat to see who's driving along with a great shrieking terror coming from her too. She also does a fine job getting anxious inside a cathedral. She was passable as an actress and can have the odd intense behavior too. Yet she can be a little over the top at times.
The music works very well but at times a little bit rough with the chanting sounds which almost sounds similar to the theme song from the original flick. There's some average dramatic piano playing in certain spots as well as good windy type icy pitched synthesizer music for certain suspenseful moments in the story. There's also good screeching and shireking sound effects when a terror moment happens. Plus alot of good heavy drum beats used alot too all composed by Charles Bernstein who is brilliant at composing music for many other horror flicks.
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