Apartment 7A is now on Paramount+, and it serves as a prequel to the iconic horror film Rosemary's Baby––though one connection in particular is causing some to question its continuity.
The new film follows Terry Gionoffrio (played by Julia Garner, who will also be in The Fantastic Four), a character who only plays a brief role in the original film. She meets Rosemary early on in the laundry room, but the next time audiences see her, she's dead after having jumped out a window.
How she got to that point, and how it relates to everything Rosemary went through, is the driving point of the movie.
But, despite it being a prequel to the original, Terry and Rosemary never properly meet on screen. This has led many fans to wonder if this is a proper continuity break.
Apartment 7A on the Continuity With Rosemary's Baby
In an exclusive interview with The Direct's Russ Milheim, Apartment 7A writers Skylar James and Christian White revealed if the film has a continuity break from the original movie.
In Rosemary's Baby, Rosemary meets Terry Gionoffrio in the laundry room. However, that never plays out on screen in Apartment 7A––with the movie ending in Terry's death, leaving no room for it to occur after.
James was quick to point out that in the laundry room scene in Apartment 7A, "you do see Rosemary enter and put down her laundry basket:"
"In the laundry room scene, you do see Rosemary enter and put down her laundry basket. So there's a quick glimpse of them, sort of passing as ships in the night, which, of course, in the original movie gives us that scene of them talking in the laundry room... I think that we didn't want to retread any ground. We wanted to just build forward, but for all of those fans of the movie, we've loaded it up with Easter eggs."
She went on to tease that the digital download of the movie includes "a bit more Rosemary" in it:
"For anybody who buys it, the digital download... You'll see all these deleted scenes and these cool moments where there is a bit more Rosemary, and there are more sort of hints of that original storyline threading through. But you know, we wanted it to be really fresh. We wanted it to be able to stand on its own for people who hadn't seen the original or weren't fans of that movie. So we tried to layer it in there for the hardcore fan."
White explained how they also "really [did] not [want] to see an aged-down Mia Farrow:"
"I remember, early on, really not wanting to see an aged-down Mia Farrow. I really didn't want to see that kind of CG face... There were versions where we did really lean in, and I think then we kind of leaned away... If we had seen that laundry scene, tonally, it would have played so much differently."
According to the writer, replaying that laundry scene from Rosemary's Baby in Apartment 7A "would have felt almost sacrilegious," with him adding that the duo do feel "they still met off-camera, off-page:"
"Because, now we know Terry, she's got all this emotional baggage. We know where she's going, and it just would have felt almost sacrilegious. I think in a way. It's almost like, let's let that scene be in the original. And in my mind, they still met off-camera, off-page. That's still consistent, internally consistent... I was worried about putting too much Rosemary in... We've seen her story."
The writers also revealed why they feel their Rosemary's Baby spin-off is worth the time for audiences to go see.
Many fans of the iconic horror film have been vocal about their hesitancy to watch Apartment 7A, with many not understanding why the movie needed to be made in the first place.
"Terry Gionoffrio had been this loose thread," James explained, noting that "being able to look at the story through a new lens of Terry feels important:"
"I mean, for me, Terry Gionoffrio had been this loose thread that was left hanging in the original movie, so to speak. I have the temptation to pick at that thread and pull at it. I am a huge 'Rosemary's Baby' fan, and I do not take it lightly to go back into that work. So, I wouldn't have done it if I didn't feel there was something new to say. But being able to look at the story through a new lens of Terry feels important."
"It's a conversation about the victimization of women," she elaborated:
"For me, it's like, okay, the opportunity is there. But like many, many people, It's a conversation about the victimization of women in this sort of situation that's been happening since the 60s, but seeing it through the lens of a very different type of woman, of an ambitious woman, of a driven woman, of a woman who has her own agency, and seeing what happens when they pick a victim for the sort of grooming and victimization, who is a totally different kind of woman. And it sets the story on this trajectory of just a sharp left turn."
She went on to joke how this was an "opportunity to imagine these other stories that exist in the cinematic universe of the New York's Upper West Side:"
"I'm a New Yorker. I grew up passing The Dakota all the time. And, thinking of it as this lightning rod for all the sort of, like dangerous, satanic, nefarious vibes, these evil vibes. The Dakota and its real lore and The Bramford and its fictional lore, and the intersection between the two, there's so much that's left unexplored, right? It's this opportunity to imagine these other stories that exist in the cinematic universe of New York's Upper West Side... Just thinking of what else could happen."
Christian White admitted that he feels he began as one of those naysayers originally, but he had to turn off those voices in his head so that he could tell "Terry's story in the best way possible:"
"Similar to those people, I think I began this as one of those people... The idea of being able to write the 'Rosemary's Baby' universe is freaking amazing. But very early on, I had a similar reaction, thinking, well, what story is there to tell? I didn't want to retell the same beats we know… I had to switch off those voices that said, 'You're writing in the 'Rosemary's Baby' universe. There's such a big responsibility. Don't fuck it up.' I had to turn those off and just tell a really cool story. Tell Terry's story in the best way possible. So, yeah, I think for those people, give us a chance for those reasons."
The writer detailed how in Rosemary's Baby, "things are happening to [Rosemary]," while in Apartment 7A, "Terry's driving the story:"
"…In 'Rosemary's Baby,' Rosemary is--things are happening to her. It's a great film, but things are just happening to her, and in 'Apartment 7A,' Terry's driving the story; her ambition is driving the story. Her arc is almost similar to Guy's in the original film. That ambition. In the original film, Guy sacrifices his partner, whereas Terry sacrifices parts of herself. The closer she gets to her goal, the more she keeps having to give and give. And she's shedding parts of herself. That's one of the things I really responded to."
White was also excited to include "the musical angle," which presents itself as a production that Terry is working on for the stage throughout the film:
"And the other was the musical angle... I'm a big fan of musicals. And the idea of kind of stitching this horror story in with musical elements and these dark, nightmarish musical scenes was just exciting and fresh... Very early on in the process…"
Apartment 7A is now streaming on Paramount+.
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