Review of ‘Apartment 7A’: a remake more than a prequel to ‘Rosemary’s Baby’
Director: Natalie Erika James | Script: Natalie Erika James, Skylar James, Christian White | Cast: Julia Garner (Terry), Dianne Wiest (Minnie), Kevin McNally (Roman), Marli Siu (Annie), Jim Sturgess (Alan), each | Playing time: 107 minutes | Year: 2024
The prequel is currently running. The Lion King in the cinema. It’s not a bad movie, but it’s just not exciting. Because the problem inherent to prequels is not solved: that viewers already know where the story is going. Apartment 7A suffers from the same problem, and on top of that, in the long run the original plot of The rosemary baby It is redone again.
Terry tries to break through as a dancer on the New York stage in the ’60s, but unfortunately something else breaks: her ankle. After a poor recovery, she is rejected from all auditions. After another rejection, he pursues the play’s writer to convince him to give him a chance. She passes out at home and wakes up in an elderly couple’s apartment. That gives her a free place to live until she can take care of herself again. But it appears to have a price tag attached.
Even the viewer who doesn’t realize that this is a prequel to the movie The rosemary baby (but who has seen it) will understand when they see Roman and Minnie Castevet. These two characters were portrayed so iconically in the 1968 original that they made no less of an impression than the lead actress.
That task is now in the hands of Kevin McNally (who takes it easy) and none other than Dianne Wiest (who takes it a step further). Pushy neighbor Minnie is especially brilliantly written. She ignores Terry’s words, talks exclusively about how she feels, and dismisses everything that worries Terry as nonsense.
Terry is played by Julia Garner, for once not with her trademark blonde curls, which is no less than the veteran actors she faces. However, the entire film feels like a repetitive exercise. Those who have never seen the original should start with Apartment 7A. Because otherwise we already know how it will end, and that’s much harder to make exciting.
It’s not that the creators don’t do their best. On the contrary: it is a fairly well-conceived story, especially at the beginning. Terry’s accident during a performance is a moment where the pain can be felt almost literally. That makes her attempts to dance again very exciting. But after this setup, the focus turns to the dubious apartment complex and the scenes begin to resemble those of the original.
It’s quite oppressive to watch someone become more and more trapped, but it’s still a repetition of moves with a known outcome. Even that oppressive atmosphere eventually boils over as the pace increases and logic is thrown out the window. For example, Terry visits a Chinese gynecologist and something strange happens, but the creators easily get away with it by jumping to the next scene. After which there is no more talk about what happened to that doctor, not even how incredibly strange it was.
Apartment 7A is a production of Platinum Dunes, the film company of Michael Bay, among others, which became known in the 2000s with remakes of old horror films such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, friday the 13th in Nightmare on Elm Street. In recent years there has also been space for more original works such as A quiet placedirected by John Krasinski. He is a producer with Bay, among others. Apartment 7Abut ultimately this feels more like an early Platinum Dunes film than anything recent from the production company.
a movie like Titanic showed that an outcome that has already been determined can be made exciting by introducing characters that the viewer is interested in, but who does not know if they will survive or not. is in Apartment 7A It is already known whether the Castevets will achieve their goal or not, and it is already known whether Terry will escape from them or not.
None of this can be saved by good acting, beautiful sets and decorations or good camera work. It would be much more exciting to see what happened next. The rosemary baby. Anyway, they already tried to tell this in 1976, and that sequel’s embarrassingly low ratings don’t lie. Maybe that deserves another chance.
Apartment 7A can be seen in SkyShowtime.