Throughout the cinematic timeline, and horror history in particular, prequels have tended to be a double-edged sword. While it’s possible to make a great prequel, the focal strength almost always has to be on the characters or the technical aspects rather than an attached story.
Looking at the horror genre specifically, films like Alien: Covenant¸ The Thing (2011), and Orphan: First Kill directly lead into their original predecessors’ content, so the stories often feel like there aren’t any stakes, and we end up getting a lot of the same ideas. Horror prequels like Pearl or Prey (2022) take characters or ideas from the original films, and then create unattached stories that come previously to the original movies, and ultimately end up stronger for it.
Sometimes, the result comes out as a film that both excels in the technical and character aspects and does an extremely solid job of tying in the content, some examples in the horror genre being A Quiet Place: Day One or Red Dragon. Natalie Erika James, who directed the intense metaphorical horror film Relic, found the sweet spot with her new prequel to Rosemary’s Baby, titled Apartment 7A.
The film stars Julia Garner (Ozark), Dianne Wiest (The Lost Boys, Edward Scissorhands), Kevin McNally (Pirates of the Caribbean franchise), and Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe). Along with Natalie Erika James, Apartment 7A was written by her Relic collaborator Christian White, along with Skylar James, and, of course, is based on characters from Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin.
Julia Garner plays Terry Gionoffrio, an aspiring dancer in New York City. After Terry has an unfortunate fall at a performance and breaks her ankle, she’s down on her luck and taken in by an elderly couple, the Castevets (Weist and McNally). From then on, Terry starts to notice her luck changing for the better, as the Castevets start introducing her to their friends and other tenants of their apartment building, who also start doing Terry favors. Terry starts to realize that the Castevets may not truly be how they present themselves, and she finds herself at the center of their sinister motives.
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Starting with the story, Apartment 7A transitions into Rosemary’s Baby quite flawlessly. The end of the film essentially picks up at the start of the original, minus a couple of small scenes between Terry and Rosemary. So, while the two movies fit nicely together, Apartment 7A rehashes many of the same events with Terry that Rosemary’s Baby does with Rosemary. Outside of the dance-related side story, which feels a little similar to Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria remake, it seems like we’ve seen this same song and dance before, no pun intended.
Some of the highlights of the film come from its aesthetics. Not just in the 1960s-esque sets, which do a fantastic job of matching the look and feel of the 1968 movie, but also in the dream sequences, which felt different due to Terry’s life, but also in sync with the same nightmares Rosemary faced during her run-in with the Castevets and company.
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Apartment 7A’s brightest spot came from Julia Garner’s performance. Those (myself included) used to seeing the three-time Emmy winner as the foul mouth from the South, Ruth Langmore in Ozark, probably got quite a shock seeing Garner portray such a vulnerable character, desperate for a win. Dianne Wiest was a treat, too, as she broke away from her most recognizable comfort characters and showed why she’s won two Academy Awards with flashy transitions from consoling neighbor to intent Satan worshipper.
While the film could have benefited from changes to make it feel less like a rehash of the Rosemary’s Baby movie, it does excellent work exploring a character that fans of the original story wanted more insight into. More depth across the board, from Terry’s investigations of her neighbors to the manipulative tactics used against her, could have made things feel less like a watered-down retelling.
It’s difficult to make a horror prequel in a way that allows the audience to become invested in characters while already knowing their fates and outcomes. Luckily, because the film’s stronger aspects outshone its weaker ones, Apartment 7A did just enough to be a pretty good prequel and added some welcomed depth to Ira Levin’s original terrifying tale.
Apartment 7A is now streaming on Paramount+
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