Natalie Erica James’s “Apartment 7A” is a pointless horror drama. This is stuff that, even while watching, you roll your eyes in disbelief and deeply question how on earth this got greenlit. It is a patently unnecessary endeavor that piggybacks on the classic that is Roman Polanski’s 1968 film Rosemary’s Baby by way of needless, empty corroboration. It’s flat, silly, and dangerously wavering to on-the-nose parallels.
The screenplay, which James co-wrote with Christian White and Skylar James, drives hard and furiously over-exerts itself to establish convergences between its heroine and Rosemary. But what’s the point when the story itself doesn’t deepen? There are exact echoes without an inherent expansion. An ideal prequel shouldn’t just be a background filler but sharpen the edges of the original work from which it has sprouted.
Apartment 7A (2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
James’ film is half-rescued by the ever-reliable Julia Garner. But this is such a stale, hopelessly rehashed affair where each piece feels so annoyingly familiar the entire outing is frankly irredeemable. The same story of an unsuspecting starlet who gets sucked into a satanic coven is recycled here. The film opens in 1965 in New York City. We are plunged into the world of showbiz.
A bevy of young girls is keenly eyeing their big break. One of them is Terry Gionoffrio (Julia Garner), who is the film’s protagonist. She is ambitious and comes from humble origins. She will stop at nothing to prove her mettle, talent, and spirit. But she has a severe leg sprain in the middle of a performance. Her career gets halted. Her friend, Annie (Marlie Su), kindly shelters her. Terry struggles to keep herself motivated. She sustains herself on a heavy dose of painkillers.
When insulted at an audition for Alan Marchand’s (Jim Sturgess) Broadway production The Pale Crook, she musters her spirit and follows Alan to his abode. It’s the posh, pricey Bramford establishment she finds herself in. The painkillers take their toll, and she passes out on the sidewalk. It’s an old couple, residents at the Bramford, who put her up for the night. She is touched by their kindness but surprised when the couple, Minnie (Dianne Wiest) and Roman (Kevin McNally), offer her a free apartment in Bramford, which they own to stay in.
Against her initial reservations, they assure her she can stay as long as she wants until she gets back on her feet. The Castavets are influential, wealthy folks who are well-connected to the arts. The flat’s earlier tenant was a young girl, Joan, who the couple had allegedly helped. But the girl got herself into a terrible boyfriend situation and suddenly fled in the middle of the night, never to return.
What are those mysterious happenings at Bramford?
Terry moves into the flat, though Annie does warn her of trusting utter strangers. But it’s free, and Terry is glad not to rely overly on Annie. The couple initially seem harmless and well-meaning. Soon, however, their intrusiveness turns alarming. They set up a date between Alan and Terry. The morning after, Terry wakes up with an uncomfortable sensation. Could Alan have violated her? Terry starts having hallucinations about a demonic figure.
Terry discovers scratches on her arms and legs. However, she shuffles aside the thought of what had happened and doesn’t ask Alan about it. Things start happening in a jiffy. Alan informs her she has been selected for the production. She joins immediately. Terry discovers her pregnancy. The Castavets turn even more interfering, fixing up a meeting with an obstetrician. Terry, of course, doesn’t want the child. It’d mean an instant annihilation of her career.
All her dreams would be put on the back burner should she keep the child. But Minnie and Roman are exultant in their happiness, and so is Alan. The couple offer her to give them her child. They tell her they’d tried for a child for years. She’d only be helping them materialize an old wish. They give her all sorts of ointments and a tannish root locket. A series of horrors quickly erupts. One of the neighbors, Mrs. Gardenia, tries to attack her. The production lead, Vera, has a fit, and Terry has been asked to replace her.
Terry also starts digging around to see what happened to Joan. She locates the girl’s studio and finds in her unclaimed belongings a Bible with marked-out passages and a cross. At the church, a nun discloses to Terry the hidden history of Bramford, which has been a Satanist coven since the turn of the century. The leader had conjured the Devil. Now, his son is trying to find a human carrier. Terry becomes the prey through which the Devil can enter the world.
Apartment 7A (2024) Movie Ending Explained:
Does Terry give birth to the Antichrist?
Terry tries to abort the child, but the demonic force is too strong, and she fails. She refuses the help of Annie and storms back to Bramford, where she confronts Alan and stabs him in a heated, tense exchange. Returning to her apartment, she finds the old couple waiting for her. She realizes it’s not Alan but Roman, the leader’s son. She tries to stab herself but is prevented by the strong, satanic force. The couple tries to convince her of the glory she could have by having the child. She’d be the mother of the Devil himself. It would be an incredible, enviable honor, they reiterate.
Terry coasts along. In the film’s climax, there’s a gathering of the well-heeled coven. Terry does a final dance, the performance of her life, charming the crowd. However, she startles the entire group as she leaps out a window and dies. It’s the only way she deems that she could halt the arrival of the satanic child. But it’s only for a brief while till the couple finds their next victim.Â
How is Apartment 7A connected to Rosemary’s Baby?
Terry may have taken her life, but she was pushed to it by the couple and their elaborate manipulations. They left her no option but to succumb to every dictate of theirs. Terry had an appearance as the girl who jumped to her death in Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby. She was only the previous victim in the Castavetes’ long line of manipulated targets. After her, it was the turn of Rosemary, whose husband they first ensnare.
Even Doctor Sapirstein is the same. He’s the one who gaslights both Rosemary and Terry into keeping the child and threatens both with institutionalization under the pretext of natal hysteria should they be non-compliant. Besides the ointments, both Terry and Rosemary are administered by Minnie, and the final scene ties the two films. While Terry protests and chooses death, Rosemary simply implodes, unable to mentally take it any longer.Â
