Finally got around to reading the book one of my favorite horror movies of all-time is based upon and after doing so, Polanski nailed it! The film follows the book practically verbatim and Ira Levin made such an incredible and memorable classic. There were a few subplots and characters that Polanski snipped for the film, which I agree with. In the end, they didn't serve much purpose to the overall story and it helped with the film's runtime. I heard in an interview Polakski's first version was almost 4 hours and with the film being near identical to the book, I'm very curious what else he had in there for an extra hour and 45 minutes? Other than the minor characters who were cut, there are some extended scenes, particularly at the end, as well as a few minor scenes Rosemary has thinking or talking to family I would have liked to have seen in the film. However, the overall benefit of this book is you get to read some of Rosemary's thoughts and feelings that don't come across in the film. As stated before, the movie is so close to the novel that unless you really love the story and wish to dive more into it, you can get away with just watching the film. I wish director's took heed of this more nowadays when adapting movies: if the story's good enough to turn into a film, leave it alone instead of trying to put your own spin on the source material.
