In Apartment 7A, the year is 1965 and in New York, young dancer Theresa ‘Terry’ Gionoffrio is keen to make it in show business. Problem is, despite her experience (including 6 years of training) things aren’t going well.
Terry recently suffered an injury during a show, which has caused her a painful setback, and as far as casting agents are concerned, her on-stage fall is now infamous. This in turn has resulted in a loss of work, a reliance on pain medication, and a huge pile of bills she simply can’t pay.
Down on her luck, Terry is befriended by Minnie and Roman Castevet. Minnie and Roman live in the beautiful Bramford building, they have lots of money, as well as a spare apartment, and they offer Terry her own place in the building rent free.
Not wishing to turn down a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Terry accepts the offer and moves into the Bramford. However, she soon comes to regret her involvement with Minnie and Roman.
Directed by Natalie Erika James, Apartment 7A stars Julia Garner, Dianne Wiest, and Kevin McNally. The movie is the third entry in the Rosemary’s Baby film series and acts as a prequel to Rosemary’s Baby.
Unfortunately it is an unnecessary prequel that adds nothing of any value to the Rosemary’s Baby story. Sure, the film fleshes out a few bits and pieces previously hinted at in the original movie, but there is nothing here that needs to be revisited or expanded upon.
It also doesn’t help that Apartment 7A is painfully slow and extremely dull. It moves at a snail’s pace, fails to build any real suspense or tension, and for the most part rehashes elements of the ‘68 film with considerably less success.
So, all bad then? Erm… almost.
Apartment 7A has two redeeming features, the first of which is the cast. Everyone involved in this film is clearly doing their best with the material they are given, and even if the film is a non-starter, the actors can’t be blamed.
Julia Garner gives a solid performance as Terry, while Kevin McNally is decent as Roman, even if his screen time is limited. However, the best of the bunch is Dianne Wiest as Minnie.
Wiest gives a notable turn as the meddling Minnie and while her performance isn’t quite as strong as Ruth Gordon’s in Rosemary’s Baby, she is still able to impress. The actress is essentially the biggest selling point of this film.
Outside of the cast, the other redeeming feature of Apartment 7A is the simple fact this prequel isn’t as awful as the Rosemary’s Baby sequel, Look What’s Happened to Rosemary’s Baby. That film is practically unwatchable whereas this one is at least watchable, just utterly pointless and likely to send you off to sleep.
Apartment 7A is an absolute snooze-fest from start to finish. There really is no need to delve into the story of Terry or the Bramford, and I genuinely can’t understand why anyone would spend money on producing this film… other than to fill out the content quota on a streaming service (yawn).
There’s no creativity here, no imagination, and simply no point. I really wish studios would stop making these redundant prequels and would focus on something new instead.
Ah, well, should you wish to check out Apartment 7A, the film is currently available to stream on Paramount+. Alternatively, the film is available to buy on digital platforms.
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