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APARTMENT 7A follows in 2024's tradition of independent directors helming prequels to successful horror franchises. We had THE FIRST OMEN and A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE. Now, Natalie Erika James takes the reins to ROSEMARY'S BABY, revealing the story preceding Roman Polanski's iconic 1968 movie.
This story follows Terry Gionofrrio (Julia Garner), a New York dancer toughing her way through a marathon of auditions to try and land work. It's already difficult to stand out in New York, but doing so right after sustaining a severe foot injury? Impossible.
Coping using pain pills, Terry goes on a bender, and after one particularly bad night, is scooped off the street by the wealthy, doting Castavets - Minnie (Dianne Weist) and Roman (Kevin McNally). The childless couple, drawn to the struggling artist, become her benefactors, offering her a gorgeous apartment in the opulent Bramford building: rent-free. (Daniel, stop drooling. You're embarassing yourself.)
But as the days and weeks pass, with more pain pills, impossible auditions, and a one-night experience of which Terry can't quite place the details regarding how she ended up in another's bed, she encounters these bizarre nightmares, hallucinatory and threatening in scope. The once high ceilings of her apartment appear to slowly shrink in size. She swears she sees presences lurking round every corner. And the Castavets? They're a bit too friendly, a bit too doting, a bit too...possessive.
Natalie Erika James' movie is surreal, theatrical. At times, I'd dare even say, pulpy. The camera bobs and weaves through musical sequences and hallucinations, borrowing from films such as THE RED SHOES and ALL THAT JAZZ. But the sinister beating heart lies in the real-life horror befalling Terry, one about bodily autonomy, sexual assault and an obsession for success that grows to prevail over one's own wellbeing. This grounds the movie so bitterly that I find the surrounding silliness to often be a welcome tonal reprieve from an otherwise all-too-real nightmare. Mix all this with rich, textural photography, a color palette of decadent chestnuts, mustards and moss greens & costumes that teleport me to 1960s New York. The result's a hazy, tense thriller that breathes new life into a nearly 60-year-old franchise, posing James as an exciting new voice in horror.
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Credit Song: "Be My Baby"- The Ronettes