Any performance set in the world of Rosemary’s Baby is going to pale compared to Mia Farrow. That’s just a given. Apartment 7A director and co-writer Natalie Erika James avoided a direct comparison, focusing the prequel on a minor but pivotal character from Ira Levin’s 1967 novel and Roman Polanski’s 1968 film.
For those needing a brief refresher, Rosemary (Farrow) encountered a young woman named Terry Gionoffrio (Victoria Vetri) in the Bramford’s creepy laundry room. Both were weirded out by the place and promised to meet up to wash their clothes in the future so they wouldn’t have to be alone. Terry also told Rosemary about the Castevets, the friendly elderly couple who took her in.
Unfortunately for the future mom of the Devil’s baby, Terry couldn’t keep her promise of friendship. The next time Rosemary saw Terry, she was sprawled out on the sidewalk, dead, after falling from a seventh floor window.
Apartment 7A explores Terry’s story leading up to her death outside the Bramford. Set in 1965, Emmy-winner Julia Garner (Ozark) plays Terry, a talented dancer who is on the doorstep of fame when she suffers what should be a career-ending ankle injury. Terry tries for a comeback, but her reputation as the “girl who fell” precedes her.
Hooked on painkillers and desperate to resurrect her career, Terry makes a reckless decision and follows big-time producer Alan Marchand (Jim Sturgess, Home Before Dark) home to the Bramford. She’s denied entry by the doorman and, now at the end of her rope, collapses on the sidewalk steps from the doorway.
Roman (Kevin McNally) and Minnie Castevet (Dianne Wiest, Mayor of Kingstown) rescue Terry, stepping in as sort of surrogate grandparents and setting her up in an apartment next to theirs. Everything’s hunky dory to begin with, but slowly the Castevets begin to manipulate every aspect of her life. The Castevets use Terry’s desire for fame as an entry point, promising a private meeting with Alan, the producer, and supplying a special “treatment” that mends her ankle.
But nothing in life is free, and everything the Castevets do for the struggling dancer is in service of the Devil. And what the Devil desires is to have a son.
Apartment 7A is incredibly frustrating. The ghost of Rosemary’s Baby permeates every frame, even though the intention was clearly to forge a new story. Writers Christian White, Natalie Erika James, and Skylar James took liberties with what was established in the original film, and this version of Terry doesn’t have the same spark as the Terry played by Vetri. Vetri’s Terry was effusive in her praise of the Castevets while chatting with Rosemary in the laundry room. It’s unclear where that conversation fits into the Apartment 7A timeline, as Garner’s Terry never shares that optimistic attitude.
Terry’s rape plays out similar to Rosemary’s, with the dancer drugged and hallucinating while the Satanic cult oversees the assault by the Devil. Rosemary believed she was at a yacht party; Terry hallucinates dance sequences. Both women were stripped of their bodily autonomy and Terry, after realizing she’s literally sold her womb to the devil in exchange for fame, takes drastic action to try to end her pregnancy. Because Rosemary’s Baby revealed her fate, we know how Terry’s attempt at obtaining an abortion will end. But Apartment 7A approaches the abortion topic without real bite, missing an obvious opportunity.
Julia Garner nails Terry’s desire to be famous, no matter the cost. Terry accepts favors from the Castevets, and she’s intelligent enough to realize this elderly couple isn’t just giving her a rent-free apartment and connections that will return her to the stage without wanting anything in exchange. Garner’s nuanced performance shows glimmers of that knowledge even if Terry doesn’t outwardly address it. Terry’s willfully ignorant and completely focused on becoming a star. That attitude doesn’t ingratiate her with the audience, and Terry’s never embraced the way Rosemary was in the classic horror film.
Kevin McNally is decent as Roman Castevet but doesn’t capture the menacing vibe hidden behind his friendly demeanor that Sidney Blackmer pulled off in the original film. Diane Wiest has the unenviable task of following in Ruth Gordon’s footsteps as Minnie Castevet. Gordon’s Minnie was gregarious and bossy; Wiest tones it down and plays a more restrained–and terrifying–Minnie. This Minnie is just as formidable as Gordon’s but more grounded.
Apartment 7A acknowledges that Terry is an active partner in the initial stages of her downfall before she’s drugged and sexually assaulted. It also explores her conscious avoidance of what happened in the days following her rape. Fame drives her and clouds her judgment, and there’s no one in her life capable of pulling her away from the situation and forcing her to see the truth.
Rosemary’s Baby is still considered to be one of the greatest horror films of all time, nearly 60 years after its release. Apartment 7A seems an unnecessary revisiting of Ira Levin’s horrifying story. The differences between Terry in Apartment 7A and Terry in Rosemary’s Baby are distracting, making it hard not to wonder why they didn’t just create a new character who had contact with the Satanic cult before Rosemary’s encounter with the Devil.
GRADE: C-
MPAA Rating: R for drug use and some violent content
Release Date: September 27, 2024 on Paramount+, following a screening at Fantastic Fest
Running Time: 1 hour 44 minutes
Studio: Paramount Pictures
This post was last modified on April 14, 2025 12:15 pm