By Sarah Musnicky
For those who have seen Rosemary's Baby, the story beats will feel all too familiar in APARTMENT 7A. While not a wholly necessary prequel, APARTMENT 7A offers a different twist on what bodily autonomy can encompass. Juxtapositioned against the Roe vs Wade reversal and the decline in women's reproductive rights in the United States, an argument can be made for the darker outcomes that transpire when you remove the woman's right to choose. In that, both APARTMENT 7A and its predecessor are sobering reminders of how little has changed.
In APARTMENT 7A, the focus shifts to Terry Gionoffrio (Julia Garner). An ambitious young dancer, Terry suffers a career-ending injury that launches her descent into drug addiction. A humiliating audition introduces her to an influential Broadway producer, Alan Marchand (Jim Sturgess), whom she decides to stalk to his apartment at the Bramford. However, after taking one too many painkillers, Terry collapses in the street, putting her in the crosshairs of Minnie Castevet (Dianne Wiest) and Roman Castevet (Kevin McNally).
The elderly couple takes the dancer under their wing and puts her up in one of the apartments with presumably no strings attached. But it's not long after Terry moves in that things get weird. A hallucinatory Broadway-style dance number turns into a nightmare after she is left alone with Marchand. Things start to look up regarding her career, but strange, sharp pains take hold not long after the encounter. Soon, Terry grapples with how far she is willing to go for her career, even if it means sacrificing mankind in the process.
APARTMENT 7A may not do enough to justify the reasoning for its existence in expanding the lore of Rosemary's Baby. Instead, familiar story beats are trodded as Terry's bodily autonomy is taken from her, and the Castevets (and other resident Satanists) use her body for their own agenda. Terry's gradual discovery of what's wrong unfolds predictably, but that doesn't mean that the discovery is not unenjoyable to watch. How co-writer/director Natalie Erika James plays with the scares, executing great tension, and experimenting with musical theater elements in Terry's world that inject some pizzazz.
As an exploration into Terry, a mysterious, minor character in Rosemary's Baby, she becomes more than her end fate. Natalie Erika James and screenwriters Skylar James and Christian White successfully flesh her out into a dancer with ambition. Despite her bodily fragility, Julia Garner's Terry is determined, and her subtle strength is apparent despite the mounting dangers rearing their head.
Terry also highlights another side to themes previously touched upon in Rosemary's Baby. Taking place as the women's liberation movement is emerging, APARTMENT 7A casts Terry as a career woman, a stark contrast to Rosemary Woodhouse, who wanted to start a family. As a dancer, having a child will ruin any prospect of a career. However, the vultures circling her don't see that. She is merely a vessel. Everything else comes last. And as this supernatural fetus and the cult use their powers to prevent its erasure, the walls start closing in.
Dianne Wiest does an impeccable impression of Ruth Gordon's Minnie. In APARTMENT 7A, Minnie seems the most dominant of the Castevets, and her relationship with Terry takes on an almost toxic mother-daughter bond as time progresses. As Terry discovers the truth, Wiest takes on a sinister, silent gleam in her eyes. No boundary is enough to constrain her. She will just bulldoze her way through when the time is right. But Terry proves to be a formidable opponent.
It's no wonder that Kevin McNally's Roman takes a backseat in APARTMENT 7A. Against Wiest's Minnie, McNally's Roman is subdued and barely there. Even Jim Sturgess's producer is barely fleshed out despite being a more active figure in Terry's periphery. With his influence, she can ascend to new heights. However, as time passes, Terry realizes his power is fleeting, and a much stronger influence is behind her ascension.
Speaking of ascension, attention must be paid to the theatricality of APARTMENT 7A. How James and the team lean into the theatrical elements of Terry's background and the inner workings of her mind adds a depth and layer of fun to APARTMENT 7A—at least, for a brief time. The set transitions, particularly when Terry hallucinates on her "big night," are seamless and warm the cockles of this theatre kid's heart. Terry is a performer at her core, and this shows in how James, production designer Simon Bowles, and cinematographer Arnau Valls Colomer work together to bring these scenes to life.
The theatricality alone gives APARTMENT 7A a different look and feel that separates it from its predecessor, but it's arguably not enough. Rosemary's Baby's beating heart echoes throughout, with the story doing little to go beyond the confines of ritual. However, in fleshing out an oft-forgotten character, APARTMENT 7A does justice in showing us who Terry Gionoffrio is. She ultimately does what Rosemary cannot - taking back control - and, at least for a brief time, postpones the inevitable.
APARTMENT 7A will premiere on Friday, September 27, in the U.S. and Canada, Latin America and Brazil and on September 28 in the U.K., France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Australia. It will also be available for purchase on Digital.
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