Apartment 7A (2024)
Directed by: Natalie Erika James
Premise: A prequel to 1968’s Rosemary’s Baby. An aspiring dancer (Julia Garner) is taken under the wing of a wealthy but childless couple (Kevin McNally and Dianne Wiest) living in a posh New York apartment. The dancer suspects that she is a pawn in a larger scheme.
What Works: Apartment 7A includes Kevin McNally and Dianne Wiest as Roman and Minnie Castavete who were played by Sidney Blackmer and Ruth Gordon in 1968’s Rosemary’s Baby. McNally and Wiest are terrific replacements for Blackmer and Gordon. They have a similar look and demeanor and Minnie in particular becomes a more interesting character. Julia Garner plays the aspiring dancer and the early parts of the film establish her and the world she inhabits. Garner’s character is a chorus dancer in the cutthroat world of Broadway and the film dramatizes the physical demands of the job and the cruelty of auditions. One of the most interesting aspects of Apartment 7A is the way it deals with sexual assault. Garner’s character is drugged by a Broadway producer and something sexual happens to her while she is unconscious. The dancer is rewarded for her silence and the demonic conspiracy plays as a metaphor of the way assault is disguised. The film also recreates the era and the look of the original film quite well. Apartment 7A looks convincingly of its late 1960s era and the locations of Rosemary’s Baby are recreated in a way that feels of a piece with the original film.
What Doesn’t: It’s the job of a prequel to expand and deepen our understanding of the original picture. Apartment 7A doesn’t do that. The premise is rooted in Rosemary’s Baby. Julia Garner’s character was spoken of but not actually seen in the 1968 movie. The filmmakers of Apartment 7A don’t find anything new in her story. Instead this is mostly a rehash of Rosemary’s Baby but not done as well as the 1968 film (but better than the 2014 remake). The story of Julia Garner’s character in Apartment 7A is fundamentally the same as Mia Farrow’s character in Rosemary Baby, even repeating a lot of the same moments with some of the same characters. In that sense, the prequel does a disservice to the original film in the way it reveals some of the twists. Apartment 7A lacks the ambiguity or paranoia of the original film. Despite how closely Apartment 7A resembles its predecessor, the filmmakers are not able to tie the end of this movie into Rosemary’s Baby in a satisfying or way. The end feels forced and preordained in order to line up with the original picture.
Disc extras: Available on the Paramount+ streaming service.
Bottom Line: Apartment 7A is pretty well made in its own right but the film is a mediocre prequel. It’s redundant with Rosemary’s Baby and an inferior retread.
Episode: #1018 (October 20, 2024)