Zoe Saldaña’s Forgotten Remake of a 58-Year-Old Thriller Classic Is Officially Streaming Free

Thanks to the success of Lioness Season 3, Zoe Saldaña continues to solidify herself as one of the biggest stars in Hollywood (her T-Mobile commercials notwithstanding). However, as popular as the Taylor Sheridan creation is, Saldaña isn’t immune to a few flops here and there on both the big and small screens, as is evident by her forgotten remake of an iconic thriller classic that’s now streaming free.

Zoe Saldaña Helps Put a Fresh Spin on an Iconic Classic

Premiering on NBC on May 11, 2014, Saldaña took on the role of a homemaker who becomes pregnant with the Prince of Darkness in the remake of Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby. However, instead of adapting the classic thriller beat-for-beat, the remake serves as a modern retelling of Ira Levin’s iconic novel that moves the setting from New York to Paris.

Starring Saldaña as Rosemary Woodhouse and Patrick J. Adams as her husband, Guy, Rosemary’s Baby sees the couple relocate overseas after Rosemary suffers a miscarriage. Living in a luxurious apartment, it isn’t long before they make friends with their wealthy neighbors, Roman (Jason Isaacs) and Margaux Castevet (Carole Bouquet).

When Rosemary becomes pregnant, though, something seems …off. Her health begins to deteriorate, the people around her start behaving peculiarly, and though Guy’s professional career is flourishing, the mother-to-be begins to suspect that her perfect life is anything but.

From there, Rosemary’s Baby descends into a psychological horror tale about paranoia, manipulation, and satanic conspiracies. Considering it was co-written by James Wong, famous for The X-Files and Final Destination, we’d expect nothing less. Sadly, unlike the original 1968 film (which is considered to be one of the best religious horror movies ever made), the two-part miniseries didn’t have the same unsettling atmosphere or tension, which led to it being panned by pretty much everyone who watched it.

‘Rosemary’s Baby’ Is Now Streaming Free

Holding a disappointing audience score of just 27% on Rotten Tomatoes, many felt that the remake of Rosemary’s Baby was overly long, and that Saldaña’s performance lacked the nuance that Mia Farrow brought to the role more than 50 years ago.

“Despite the different premise (Paris v NYC) almost ALL of the show is a very sanitized and ultimately unsatisfying realization of the story,” wrote one user in their review. The miniseries didn’t fare much better on IMDb, where it’s rated 5.5 out of 10.

That being said, not everyone saw Rosemary’s Baby as a flop. Alessandra Stanley called it a “surprisingly clever remake” in her New York Times review. Hank Stuever of The Washington Post was another who enjoyed the remake, calling it “surprisingly and even satisfyingly true to the old movie” in his 2014 assessment of the series.

All in all, Saldaña’s version of Rosemary’s Baby offers an opportunity to see how one of the most influential horror stories of all time translates to a modern setting. The results might not have been what anyone hoped for, but filling the shoes of a legendary classic was never going to be an easy task. It might not be perfect, but it does stand alone as an ambitious outing that offers something different for those willing to give this remake a chance on its new free streaming home of Tubi.