Apartment 7A Movie Review: Retains the scares, disappoints on surprises

The factor that makes Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby a timeless horror film is its minimal reliance on conventional horror tropes. The most frightening aspect of the classic film is the gradual revelation of the sinisterity of its primary characters. Apartment 7A, the prequel to the Polanski film, does not have the enigma of the 1968 film because we already know who the Castavets and Dr Saperstein are. Their facade of niceness is predictably unamusing.

Natalie Erika James' film revolves around Terry Gionnofrio, whom we only see in a couple of scenes in Rosemary's Baby. Terry (Julia Garner) is a dancer aspiring to make it big on Broadway but sustains an ankle injury, earning her the dubious moniker “the girl who fell” (a possible reference to Satan being called a "fallen angel" in Christian beliefs). These minute details hint at the path Terry will take. As fate—or chance—would have it, a drunk and vulnerable Terry finds refuge in Apartment 7A at the Bramford, owned by Roman (Kevin McNally) and Minnie Castavet (Dianne Wiest). Viewing the rent-free apartment as a blessing in her hapless condition, she remains unsuspecting of the trap she is stepping into. Given the prequel's inherent disadvantage, Apartment 7A should have shifted focus beyond Terry to explore the lives of the Castavets, Dr Saperstein, and Mrs Gardenia. The film is a hit-and-miss in this regard. It would have been valuable to examine how and why the Castavets and Saperstein became Satanists. Instead, we get a two-line exposition from Roman: "My father was attacked by a mob for praying to a God different from theirs." 

Director: Natalie Erika James

Cast: Julia Garner, Kevin McNally, Dianne Wiest, Jim Sturgess 

Language: English 

Streamer: Prime Video

Conspiracy theorists suggest that signing a pact with the devil through a blood ritual guarantees success in show business. Terry, desperate for fame, is introduced to Broadway producer Alan Marchand (Jim Sturgess) through the Castavets. Shockingly, this intriguing territory is underexplored. The narrative simply reduces it to Terry trading sex for work with Alan. Another character who deserved more screen time is Mrs Gardenia. In the 1968 film, she is mentioned in passing as the previous inhabitant of Rosemary and Guy’s apartment before her mysterious death. A Satanist who later repents, she is an enigma; the film does not explain why she joined the cult or what led to her remorse. While Rosemary's Baby has intriguing Easter eggs for viewers to uncover, Apartment 7A could have compensated for its absence of such hidden details with richer character development.

The guileless and innocent Rosemary, played brilliantly by Mia Farrow, evokes our sympathy and concern with each of her missteps. On the other hand, the trope of a naive woman unknowingly falling into a satanic trap is overdone in Apartment 7A, making the film feel like a mere recap of the original. Setting the flaws aside, every actor playing a role with an established precedent delivers impressively. With her sneaky smirk, Dianne Wiest’s Minnie sends chills down the spine every time she appears. The same can be said for Kevin McNally’s Roman, who reacts nonchalantly to Terry’s discovery of their double lives—as though being in a cult and partaking in evil rituals is mundane. Julia Garner shines as Terry, particularly in her display of confidence and arrogance as she prepares for her final performance after finding a way to defy the cult’s control. The film’s nods to the original are also well-placed. The Catholic nun fretting over the birth of a child (the Antichrist) is poetic and funny, given the Church’s stance on abortion.

Apartment 7A could have been a stronger film had it delved deeper into the characters from Rosemary’s Baby who continue to intrigue us. Instead, it simply mirrors the original film’s story—another innocent woman preyed upon—accentuating the eeriness of a cult that has committed ungodly deeds for decades and will continue to do so unscathed.