Apartment 7A on Paramount+

[silverscreenselect]

There's a new original movie out on Paramount+ now called Apartment 7A. It's a prequel to Rosemary's Baby, although it doesn't explicitly say so until the closing credits. However, anyone familiar with the original film will figure it out in the first ten minutes. In the movie Rosemary's Baby, when Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes move into the creepy apartment building, she meets another tenant named Terry in the building's laundry room. A couple of scenes later, Terry jumps out of her apartment window and kills herself.

Apartment 7A is the story of Terry (played by Julia Garner). Terry is a struggling dancer trying to make it on the Broadway musical stage. (This movie is set in 1965, like the original.) There's a lot more time devoted to auditions and rehearsals (it plays a bit like Chorus Line at times). Some of the characters from Rosemary's Baby also show up, most notably Diane Wiest as the seemingly harmless, meddlesome neighbor played by Ruth Gordon (who won an Oscar) in the original.

Of course, there's no suspense about what happens to Terry, but seeing how it all plays out, with a lot of Easter eggs and shoutouts to the original movie are entertaining, and Julia Garner, (who's not a kid anymore and doesn't have that Southern accent from Ozark) is very good in the lead role.

Not a classic like the original, but decent entertainment for those who have Paramount+ (the original Rosemary's Baby is also available on Paramount+ currently).

[Beebs52]

Just watched it. It was good.