APARTMENT 7A (2024)
Starring Julia Garner, Dianne Wiest, Jim Sturgess, Kevin McNally, Marli Siu, Rosy McEwen, Amy Leeson, Scott Hume, Andrew Buchan, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Rosy McEwen, Nikkita Chadha, Julia Westcott-Hutton, James Swanton, Brooke Walter, Hannah Morley, Patrick Lyster, Dylan Baldwin , Mellanie Hubert, Anton Blake Horowitz and Eva-Marie Kung.
Screenplay by Natalie Erika James & Christian White and Skylar James.
Directed by Natalie Erika James.
Distributed by Paramount Pictures. 104 minutes. Rated R.
There have been a ton of horror films over the years that have ripped off Roman Polanski’s classic 1968 horror film Rosemary’s Baby (I’ve seen at least two which stole scenes from it in just the last few months), so it is kind of a surprise that it has taken so long for an official reboot of the movie.
Apartment 7A is not a remake of Rosemary’s Baby – it’s actually a prequel – but the film is based on Ira Levin’s classic novel (as was the 1968 film) and has a very similar storyline and old-fashioned style to the original. In fact, it seems that the movie was originally conceived as a remake as written by Skylar James, but when that project didn’t take off, writer/director Natalie Erika James reconceptualized the story to show the happenings in the Bramford, a mysterious old apartment building in New York. (As with Rosemary’s Baby, the Bramford is filmed in the famous Dakota on Central Park West in the Upper West Side.)
In fact, the makers of Apartment 7A are being a bit coy about the connection, not really pushing the fact that it is a part of the Rosemary’s Baby story, particularly not in its very generic sounding title.
However the lead character Terry Gionoffrio did appear, briefly, in the Rosemary’s Baby novel and film. This film is that woman’s backstory. (I won’t go into details as to how she fits into the original storyline, because that could be considered a bit of a spoiler for Apartment 7A.)
The basics of horror cinema have certainly changed a whole hell of a lot since Rosemary was released in 1968, and interestingly Apartment 7A sort of settles into the old-fashioned, more measured, spooky vibe of its predecessor. Which makes the film rather interesting, if occasionally a bit slow-paced for modern audiences.
We meet Terry (Julia Garner) as an aspiring Broadway dancer. During a performance, she badly injures her foot, leading her to have to stop her promising career for a period of months. (The accident becomes so well known that on Broadway she is broadly referred to as “the girl who fell.”) She tries to hurry herself back to work before she is ready by using painkillers, eventually becoming addicted to the pills.
After a particularly humiliating audition, Terry follows the producer Alan Marchand (Jim Sturgess) to his home at the Bramford. When she is unable to get through to him, she passes out due to her drug use. She is brought in the building by a sweet-seeming older couple named Roman and Minnie Castevet (Kevin McNally and Dianne Wiest), who quickly offer to put Terry up in an apartment that they own. Of course, if you have seen Rosemary’s Baby, you know that the Castevets have ulterior motives. (Wiest, in particular, does a stunning job of recreating the character as played by Ruth Gordon in the original. Close your eyes and you may think it was the same actress.)
In fact, their plans for Terry are very similar to their later plans with Rosemary. In fact, according to this storyline, the satanist residents of the Bramford have tried similar acts several times with multiple women.
None of it is completely surprising – if you are familiar with the original story, you have a pretty good idea how it will all end – but Apartment 7A is still an interesting chapter of the tale.
Jay S. Jacobs
Copyright ©2024 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: September 25, 2024.
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