Rosemary’s Baby and House of Wax added to National Film Registry

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

As they do every year, the Library of Congress has announced a new batch of films to be added to the National Film Registry, described as an "elite selection of films recognized for their cultural, historic or aesthetic significance." Selection to the registry will help ensure that these films will be preserved for all time.

Out of 25 films this year, two are horror classics, so we thought we'd shine a light on them and celebrate the honor. They are: Roman Polanski's devilish ROSEMARY'S BABY and Andre de Toth's immortal HOUSE OF WAX. The former is one of the great psychological/supernatural thrillers of all time (not to mention one of the nastiest domestic dramas ever committed to film), while the latter is an operatic, ghoulish funhouse that utilized 3D in a way never seen before.

Here is the Library of Congress' official comment on ROSEMARY'S BABY:

With “Rosemary’s Baby,” writer-director Roman Polanski brought his expressive European style of psychological filmmaking to an intricately plotted, best-selling American novel by Ira Levin, and created a masterpiece of the horror-film genre. Set in the sprawling Dakota apartment building on New York’s Central Park West, the film conveys an increasing sense of unease, claustrophobia and paranoia as the central character, convincingly played by Mia Farrow in her first starring role, comes to believe that a cult of witches in the building is implementing a plot against her and her unborn child. The supporting cast that Polanski assembled—John Cassavetes as Rosemary’s husband, Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer as their neighbors, and Ralph Bellamy as her doctor—portray believably banal New Yorkers who gain nearly total control over Rosemary’s daily life during her pregnancy. Insistent that “a thread of deliberate ambiguity runs throughout the film,” Polanski maintains that the film’s denouement can be understood in more than one way.

And here is their take on HOUSE OF WAX:

A remake of 1933’s “Mystery of the Wax Museum,” the 1953 “House of Wax” expanded upon the earlier horror tale of a mad sculptor who encases his victims’ corpses in wax. It added the dark talents of Vincent Price and helped introduce 3-D visual effects to a wide audience. “House of Wax,” produced by Warner Bros. and released in April 1953, is considered the first full-length 3-D color film ever produced and released by a major American film studio. Along with its technical innovations, “House of Wax” also solidified Vincent Price’s new role as America’s master of the macabre, and his voice resonated even more with the emerging stereophonic sound process. Though he had flirted with the fear genre earlier in his career in the 1946 “Shock,” “Wax” forever recast him as one of the first gentlemen of Hollywood horror. Along with Price, Phyllis Kirk, Frank Lovejoy and Carolyn Jones (as one of Price’s early victims) complete the cast. André de Toth directed the film.

To see the full list of films on the National Registry, head over HERE.