TIFF Review: 'Rosemary's Baby'-Esque Thriller 'The Ones Below' Starring Clémence Poésy

Perhaps aware that the comparisons to “Rosemary’s Baby” will arrive from the start, playwright and theatre director David Farr, making his feature film debut, acknowledges the allusions to Roman Polanski’s picture from the first frames. Our first look of Clémence Poésy in the film bears a similar fragility to Mia Farrow, and the score by Adem Ilhan (“In The Loop”) evokes lullabye-style tones not unlike Krzysztof Komeda’s work on Polanski’s picture. However, Farr doesn’t simply trod over similar ground of its predecessor, but offers an intriguing proposition: what if Rosemary Woodhouse became a mother to a perfectly healthy baby, but was driven mad not by a satanic cult, but by “The Ones Below”?

Kate (Poésy) and Justin (Stephen Campbell Moore) are the picture of a perfect couple. They each have successful careers, a lovely London flat, and a baby on the way. However, their little bubble of happiness gets popped with the arrival of Jon (David Morrisey) and Teresa...