It’s universally acknowledged that 1968's Rosemary’s Baby is an influential horror classic. Attempts to directly recapture that witchy magic, however, have fallen flat: 1976 made-for-TV sequel Look What’s Happened to Rosemary’s Baby is pretty universally despised, as is the 2014 miniseries remake with Zoe Saldaña. However, the latest Rosemary’s Baby-adjacent project actually seems... promising?
Announced a few years ago but without many updates since then, Apartment 7A isco-written and directed by Natalie Erika James. James’ previous feature is 2020's Relic, a genuinely eerie tale of a woman (Emily Mortimer) struggling with caring for her aging, ailing mother (Robyn Nevin) with the help of her own daughter (Bella Heathcote)—and with zero help from the apparently malevolent entity lurking within the walls of their family home.
Based on the strength of Relic, James definitely has experience exploring the lives of women dealing with supernatural malevolence, and she has an outstanding cast to carry that into Apartment 7A. As Deadline reports, the Rosemary’s Baby prequel—which is coming to Paramount+ this fall—stars Julia Garner as a dancer seeking fame in 1965 New York City. The rest of the cast includes Dianne Wiest, Jim Sturgess, and Kevin McNally. Garner’s character suffers a terrible injury, after which “a peculiar, well-connected older couple promises her a shot at fame.” As the title suggests, it’s set in the same spooky apartment building that Rosemary and her husband move into a few years later, so you know what that means: witches with sinister plans barging in through secret doors!
As fans of Rosemary’s Baby already know, the original movie, based on Ira Levin’s best-selling novel, introduces a character who’s intended to be Satan’s baby mama before Rosemary takes her place: Terry, played by Victoria Vetri, who tells Rosemary a kindly older couple—the Castavets, Rosemary’s next-door neighbors—rescued her from living on the street. Of course, it doesn’t end well for Terry, and it’s unclear if Garner is playing that character or some other woman targeted to birth the Antichrist. Satanists are nothing if not persistant, after all!
There’s no exact date given for Apartment 7A’s Paramount+ debut other than “fall,” but Halloween season feels like a good bet.
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