Apartment 7A [Fantastic Fest Review]

by Mike McGranaghan

You’ve got to be a little crazy to even think of touching Rosemary’s Baby. The 1968 chiller is rightly considered one of the all-time great horror movies, thanks to a tight screenplay, magnificent performances, and atmospheric direction. Director Natalie Erika James (Relic) obviously has a little bit of crazy inside her, because she made Apartment 7A, a prequel to Roman Polanski’s classic. And thank goodness we have artists willing to tap into that craziness because, while obviously nowhere near the original, this is a surprisingly effective chiller in its own right.

Terry Gionoffrio (Julia Garner) is a theater actress whose chance at earning a much-desired big break is foiled by a freak injury. Unable to find work, she accepts an invitation from an older couple to live in the apartment down the hall from theirs – the one they happily loan out to young women in need. That couple is Roman and Minnie Castevet (Kevin McNally and Dianne Wiest). The Castevets take it upon themselves to solve all of Terry’s problems, including getting her a plum role in a musical being staged by their friend Alan Marchand (Jim Sturgess). Is there an ulterior motive Terry doesn’t know about? Again, it’s Roman and Minnie Castevet.

Apartment 7A undeniably tries to go in the same direction as its source material, giving us a tale about a woman manipulated into becoming pregnant with a devil-child. Certain familiar beats are hit along the way, from the sinister obstetrician to a final scene set inside the Castevets’ apartment, which is filled with their sinister friends. In every way, shape, and form, the film is presented as a lead-up to what will eventually befall poor Rosemary Woodhouse.

James develops a few fresh ideas to avoid becoming an outright carbon copy. One of the best scenes presents Terry’s demonic impregnation as a Busby Berkeley-style musical number as reimagined by Satan. It’s a haunting, risk-taking sequence that proves unexpectedly eerie. The director and her co-writers, Christian White and Skylar James, also infuse the plot with a feminist twist. Present throughout is a theme about bodily autonomy. Terry does not want to be pregnant with any child; she wants to pursue her career. The effort to determine what she does with her own body after an unplanned pregnancy becomes a significant plot point.

Julia Garner is sensational in the lead role. She fulfills the requirement that every good horror movie needs a solid, emotional central performance to ground all the scary stuff. The actress creates a character we care about and root for. Dianne Wiest is the other standout. She’s got a tough job, given that she’s playing a character made iconic by the late Ruth Gordon. A role, incidentally, for which Gordon won an Academy Award. Wiest captures the mannerisms and speech cadence yet goes deeper than mere impersonation. Her Minnie is a distinctly unnerving figure.

2024 has been a good year for horror prequels from female directors. Apartment 7A comes not far off the heels of Arkasha Stevenson’s The First Omen. This may be the way to approach such productions in the future. Give them to filmmakers who will bring a unique sensibility rather than just trying to Xerox the originals. Whether you revere Rosemary’s Baby or have never seen it, there’s plenty to appreciate in this sleek, well-made picture.

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