Apartment 7A never breaks free from the blueprint of the far superior Rosemary’s Baby, and in doing so with a shorter runtime, it rushes the paranoia that ultimately removes any inkling of fear from viewers and fails to create an enticing horror experience.

 

When it comes to classic and greatly revered horror films, Rosemary’s Baby is often uttered in the same sentence of The Exorcist, Alien, and The Shining. Roman Polanski’s psychological horror film stills sends chills down viewer’s spines today, and its final scene is one that viewers won’t ever forget. It therefore comes as no surprise that Paramount is tapping into this valuable intellectual property once again after a not well received television adaptation back in 2014 starring Zoe Saldana and Patrick J. Adams, this time with a prequel film set to debut on Paramount+ just in time for Halloween. This prequel follows Terry Gionoffrio, played by Julia Garner, the previous occupant of the apartment in The Bramford that Rosemary and her husband will eventually move into the classic horror film. While The First Omen displayed earlier this year that a new and exciting direction is possible while setting the stage for a horror classic, Apartment 7A plays it safe and merely rehashes Rosemary’s Baby, leaving the talented cast with little to work with.

 

If you have seen Rosemary’s Baby, sadly there are little surprises in store for you in Apartment 7A. You know the scene that this prequel is building towards as its big finale, and everything that comes before it is a rushed repeat of the original horror classic. From the second that Terry Gionoffrio sets foot inside The Bramford and the Castevets and the other residents of the building set their sights on her, you know exactly how the story is going to play out. Skylar James’ story borrows so heavily from Rosemary’s Baby that it could be labelled as plagiarism, but unlike Polanski’s masterful writing that made the audience question whether Rosemary was losing her mind or if there was something sinister happening within The Bramford, James’ writing is completely lacking in this regard. Instead, he spends too long setting up the sinister situation Terry finds herself in while never developing the lore to support the direction the story takes, instead assuming that viewers are familiar with the original film and can fill in the gaps, while placing an emphasis on less than subtle jump scares into the film to appeal to a younger audience. And for those viewers who have never seen Rosemary’s Baby, this prequel is sadly rather boring, burying the suspense until it crams it all into the film’s last twenty minutes, which is too little too late to salvage Apartment 7A from being anything but a disappointing stain on one of the horror genre’s most beloved films.