I don’t think anybody would argue that Roman Polanski’s 1968 film Rosemary’s Baby is one of the greatest movies ever made, horror or otherwise. Rosemary Woodhouse’s (Mia Farrow) terrifying experience living in New York City’s Bramford apartment building has stood the test of time and then some. I’ve seen neither its sequel, Look What Happened to Rosemary’s Baby or the recent tv mini series remake starring Zoe Saldana, and I have no plans to.
But now there’s Apartment 7A, a prequel to the original film. I hate to say it, but this one caught my attention. A prequel giving us more inside the building? That seemed interesting to me. And for a while, it sort of is.
Directed by Natalie Erika James, who co-wrote the film with Christian White and Skylar James, Apartment 7A kicks off with a great musical number that introduces us to Terry Gionoffrio (Julia Garner), an aspiring dancer in New York City who winds up breaking her foot mid-performance and then struggles to recover and land another show. Turning to pills to dull the pain of her injury, Terry is soon taken in by Mini Castevet (an outstanding Diane Wiest) and her husband Roman (an equally great Kevin McNally), who offer Terry the empty apartment next to theirs in the Bramford. It doesn’t take long before we discover that the Castevet’s generosity comes with a price, and Terry winds up pregnant with Satan’s child.
If some of this sounds familiar, it should. The Castavets featured in the original 1968 film, played there by Sidney Blackmer and Ruth Gordon, and the plot to have a young woman in 7A become the mother of the Anti-Christ is the plot of Rosemary’s Baby, to a tee. However, Apartment 7A does aim to be its own thing along the way to its inevitable conclusion. Whereas Mia Farrow’s Rosemary is never particularly strong and is more victim to the machinations of the Bramford’s residents, Julia Garner’s Terry is ambitious and determined in her life. She wants to be a star, which brings her to the Bramford in the first place, as she ventures there to see Alan Marchand (Jim Sturgess), the producer of a new show Terry is desperate to be in. Hopped up on pills, we’re never quite sure what Terry’s intentions are, as she gets sick before seeing Marchand. Julia Garner does a decent job with her character, as Terry struggles between her aspirations of stardom and the horror that she’s got a devil-baby inside of her.
The standout performances in Apartment 7A, though, come from Dianne Wiest and Kevin McNally, who theoretically have the unenviable task of taking on two of the most memorable roles from Rosemary’s Baby (Ruth Gordon in fact one of the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mini Castevet). Wiest and McNally embody their precursors beautifully; they nail their moves, mannerisms, and sound perfectly, though they never come across an imitation. If there’s any reason to watch Apartment 7A, it’s to see these two at work.
Unfortunately, Apartment 7A lacks the general disquiet and unease of the original film. It doesn’t even come close. There are some dream sequences throughout the movie that are neither horrific nor trippy, though I’m fairly certain that’s what the creators were aiming for. The movie itself is never really frightening at all, even with the presence of a few moments that are supposed to be jump scares. There’s also a scene, where a rival dancer to Terry is met with a gruesome punishment, that feels like a half-assed rip-off of a similar moment in Luca Guadagnino 2018 remake of Suspiria.
Since the ending to the film is never in question (it’s a prequel, after all), it’s more about the journey rather than the destination here, and ultimately Apartment 7A winds up being just fine. It doesn’t hold a candle to the original at all, even when it aspires to. There’s always the question of whether or not a movie like Apartment 7A needs to exists. Was anybody asking for a prequel to Rosemary’s Baby? Well, probably not, but regardless, this movie at least doesn’t sully the original, and it does offer up some great acting from two veterans. If you’re someone who has longed for a return to the Bramford and visiting with some classic characters, Apartment 7A might scratch that itch, but at the end of the day, you’re better served just rewatching Rosemary’s Baby one more time.