Ah shit, here we go again. It’s time for another prequel of a cult classic no one asked for. But maybe this one won’t be as bad as the others. Maybe we should give it a chance? After all, how many good occult horror movies come out every year? Just a few and most of them are indies. With this mindset, I went into the dark and almost turned off this movie after 20 minutes. Perhaps under the influence of the atrocity that is Joker: Folie à Deux I thought this is an artsy-fartsy musical with some minor occult motifs. After all, that’s how it opens, with a song and dance number.
Call me old-fashioned but I like my daily dose of Satanism a bit more rough and impactful. However, things soon take a turn for the better. Or worse, depending on how you’re looking at it. Apartment 7A is a solid occult drama horror movie driven by Julia Garner’s terrific performance. It feels more like a remake than a prequel to one of the most famous horror movies ever made, Rosemary’s Baby. Natalie Erika James wanted to pay tribute to the original by adding a lot of cool Easter Eggs and references you can get only if you watched the original. However, you should know that this is a stand-alone prequel.
The story takes place in New York City, back in 1965. We will be following young dancer Terry Gionoffrio, who we find struggling to find work. She almost ends up homeless when, luckily, an elderly couple decides to help her. And just like that, her life starts to change for the better and all her hard work seems to be paying out. Until… Right away, I have to tell you that there will be just two dance and song numbers along with a couple of dream-like sequences. I’m telling you this because I almost turned off the movie during the second one thinking it’s going to be all like this.
Just to be clear, Apartment 7A is all about that foreboding atmosphere. You know things are bad and are about to get worse. The only question that remains is just how much worse are they going to get. I say all of this because there won’t be much action here. Luckily, everything else was top-notch. The production values, camera work, and terrific costumes will take you back to New York City during the sixties. Apartment 7A features one of the shortest and best speeches I have ever seen and heard in an occult horror movie. It’s so effective and jarring that you’ll easily commit it to memory. And, I hope, you use it at every opportunity you get.
I can’t get into details, but, you know what, fuck it, I’m going to write it. I’m talking about the short toast by Kevin McNally who plays Roman Castevet. And it goes like this: “Dear friends, god is dead. Satan lives. The year is one!” To which all of them join him in this toast by saying The year is one. I fucking got goosebumps all over my body as soon as I saw that scene. And I kept talking about it for days and days. I’m still waiting for an opportune moment to spring it on an unsuspecting friend or an acquaintance. I guess this is not something you can just blurt out to a stranger. Although, now that I think of it…
I apologize if I spoiled the best part of the movie but I simply had to tell someone about this scene. 2024 saw the release of another prequel to another occult horror classic. The First Omen was a much better movie than Apartment 7A, even if it feels a bit more commercial. When it comes to the prequels I always refer to The Thing 2011 as an excellent example of how these things should be done. Finally, I want to talk about something that I’ve been thinking about for quite some time. As time goes on and the culture changes, some movies just don’t have the same impact as they used to.
One of the better examples is Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby. While the idea that a wealthy, smart, and cultured elderly couple could be Satanists seemed outrageous back then, today is nothing new or extraordinary. Hence, the big reveal, which kind of you could see quite early on, wasn’t as big of a deal as it was back then. That was a time when people considered Satanists crazy or unable to function in a normal society. We could see something similar with the Satanic Panic wave during the eighties.
They had to be this all-black wearin’ tattooed wackos wearing pentagrams and inverted crosses. So, Apartment 7A lacks the edge that the original had way back in 1968. What you’re left with is more of a drama than a horror. Much more similar to Natalie Erika James’s previous movie Relic, a huge hit among film critics.
Director: Natalie Erika James
Writers: Natalie Erika James, Christian White, Skylar James
Cast: Julia Garner, Dianne Wiest, Kevin McNally, Jim Sturgess, Marli Siu, Rosy McEwen
Fun Facts: A remake of Rosemary’s Baby has been in the works since 2008 with Paramount Pictures greenlighting this supposed prequel back in 2021 on the wings of A Quiet Place’s success.
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IMDb Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14371860/
