Apartment 7a
HORROR-THON 2024 • SEEING RED
5/10
DIRECTOR: Stanley Kubrick
STARRING: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd
RELEASED: 2024
RUNTIME: 1 hour, 47 minutes
WATCH ON: Paramount+, Amazon, Apple TV, Fandango at Home
SCARE LEVEL: Low to medium
ACCEPTING HELP FROM THE NEIGHBORS: We’ve been over this.
In Rosemary’s Baby, there’s a young woman named Terry who lives with the Castevets before Rosemary does. She doesn’t make it out of the first act. Apartment 7A is her story, and it turns out the Castevets had a whole practice run.
Terry is a dancer in 1960s New York whose career ends on a bad landing. She’s desperate, broke, and running out of options. Then an older couple at the Bramford, Minnie and Roman Castevet, take her in. They have connections, and suddenly Terry has a shot at a lead role.
After a night she can’t fully remember, she starts to feel off. The neighbors become very involved. The building seems to be watching her. And she realizes the price of fame is a lot higher than she agreed to.
MY HUMBLE OPINION
It wasn’t that bad. The cinematography and production design were great: the Bramford, the costumes, the ‘60s Broadway glamor. Dianne Wiest as Minnie is a lot of fun, and there’s a glittery demon because…obviously.
But just watch Rosemary’s Baby. It’s practically the exact same movie. Same building, same neighbors, same night she can’t remember, same everyone-telling-her-shes-fine.
I’m sure they thought people would happen before Rosemary. I don’t think they expected people to ask why the Castevets were trying this with other women, too. Everyone knows the birth of the antichrist is a try-it-once-and-that’s-it situation.
And the plot’s focus on whether Terry can end the pregnancy felt way too real in 2024.
FUN FACT FOR YOUR NEXT DINNER PARTY
The model in the fashion magazine that the girls are looking at while Terry is packing to move out of Annie’s apartment is Megan Draper of Mad Men. This suggests the characters in this movie exist within the same universe as Mad Men.