Movies News Talk
Audiences already know how the story ends, thus Apartment 7A, the forthcoming prequel to the legendary horror film Rosemary's Baby, encounters an apparently insurmount challenge. Set to open on Paramount+ on September 27, 2024, Apartment 7A explores the background of Terry Gionoffrio, the character Rosemary's Baby briefly highlighted. Terry in the original movie is a recovering addict brought in by Minnie and Roman Castevet, Rosemary and Guy's neighbors. But it turns out Terry was the first target selected to carry the Antichrist before Rosemary.
The most obvious problem with a prequel based on Terry is viewers already know her fate. We follow Terry through Rosemary's eyes in Rosemary's Baby. Terry is found by Rosemary in the Bramford Building's basement laundry room and tells her of her stay in a seventh-floor apartment with the Castevets. But the narrative ends with Terry's dead body—probably a suicide—found after falling from the Castevets' apartment.
Apartment 7A will recount this narrative Terry's point of view. Terry's death's exact cause is yet unknown: she might have jumped from the building to escape engaging in their Satanic ritual, or she might have taken her own life upon learning of the Castevets' actual motivations. Another theory holds that the Castevets planned her death upon learning her damaged womb from drug use was unfit for bearing the Antichrist. Whatever the reason, her ending is set; everyone who knows Rosemary's Baby knows this before even walking into Apartment 7A.
The best prequel Movies use the inevitable fate as a dramatic device. Anakin Skywalker, the young child destined to become Darth Vader, is first presented in Star Wars: Episode I as an innocent and charming child. Likewise, Better Call Saul uses the lack of Kim and Nacho in Breaking Bad to accentuate the audience's worry and concern for their fate. Though it might improve the story, knowing their ultimate results isn't always bad.
Particularly horror prequels take advantage of the predestined character fates to create viewers' sense of terror. Preceding X, Ti West's Pearl makes viewers uncomfortable by reminding them that this innocent-looking farmhand hoping for Hollywood glory will ultimately become a vicious killer. Margaret's attempts to reveal the church conspiracy surrounding Damien's birth before it is too late set the suspense in Arkasha Stevenson's prequel to The Omen. Apartment 7A can use Terry's terrible destiny to enthrall the audience.
Though it has been in development since 2008, a Rosemary's Baby reboot has not yet materialized over a decade and a half. But Apartment 7A arrives exactly at the right moment. Movies like Under Paris, In a Violent Nature, and A Quiet Place: Day One are helping the horror genre to revive itself.
Furthermore, the present environment offers the perfect setting for a prequel on Rosemary's Baby. Apartment 7A finds its setting in the recent trend of pregnancy-based horror stories in movies including Immaculate, False Positive, American Horror Story: Delicate, and The First Omen. Being the newest addition to this subgenre, it relates to the most famous pregnancy-themed horror film ever produced.
This psychological suspense centers on a young woman who moves into what appears to be a regular apartment building and finds herself drawn into a weird cult. She starts to doubt her sanity and the actual motives of her mysterious neighbors as odd events start to untangle.