If you think you’ve already seen the “prequel to the classic film about the birth of the Antichrist” this year, you’re not lost. In April, First Sign It provided a terrifying and creative quest that led to the incident. Omen. Apartment 7A Trying to do the same thing. rosemary’s babyAnd that story is less shocking than the next one. The first sign, It’s a carefully considered prequel that still draws on interesting perspectives.
Inspired by Ira Levin’s 1967 novel and Roman Polanski’s 1968 film, Apartment 7A 2020 work <더 킹>Directed by Natalie Erika James, who directed and co-wrote the film. relics—A story of a generation of women grappling with a creepy presence in their family home. Another sinister dwelling takes center stage. Apartment 7Aand rosemary’s baby Fans know: Bramford is a once-elegant New York City apartment building whose dilapidated walls hide a coven of equally aging Satanic witches.
The new film’s production design pays meticulous attention to detail, and while the backdrops feel authentic, it doesn’t aim to replicate Polanski’s version exactly. But there are key elements that carry over, including the very thin partition walls that allow the high voices and haunting piano notes of “Für Elise” to float between the units.
Terry Gionoffrio stumbles into this place of dark wood, yellow lights and birdcage elevators, a character who appears for the first 15 minutes of the film. rosemary’s baby. Apartment 7A Fast forward a year to 1965, when Terry suffers a painful injury just as she is starting her promising dance career. Julia GarnerOzarkNext year Fantastic Four: First Steps) brings vulnerability to Terry’s version. You can feel her frustration as she confronts money problems, failed auditions, a worrying reliance on painkillers, and the unbearable feeling that the goal she’s been obsessively pursuing is slipping away.
It’s understandable that in that state of mind, she might make decisions she otherwise wouldn’t have made, such as accepting the free housing offer from Minnie and Roman Castavet (Dianne Wiest and Kevin McNally—both great, but not as iconic as she is). rosemary’s baby It came on shortly after Ruth Gordon and Sydney Blackmer first met. Castavet, you know, was simply Worship They help troubled young women straighten out their lives. They are also close friends with Bramford resident Jim Sturgess, who has written a new musical that Terry is desperate to cast.
We know this is all a very bad idea, because Terry’s fate is ultimately Rosemary Woodhouse’s womb as Satan’s next object of interest. But James and Garner find ways to add emotional nuance to Terry’s increasingly bleak situation. Much like Rosemary, she must piece together the pieces on her own in a story steeped in aggressive ambition, gaslighting, emotional abuse, sexual assault, physical terror, loneliness, and the terrifying feeling of not being safe in her own home. But in contrast to Rosemary, a housewife who is happily hoping to become pregnant, Terry is single, broke, unemployed, and without a support system other than her sympathetic best friend.
For all callbacks rosemary’s baby (Most of it is the obvious: the impulsive short hair, the vodka blush cocktail, the memorable silver necklace.) The new film makes one major change to the two films’ intersecting plot lines. It’s an interesting choice, and one that adds a layer of separation between Terry and Rosemary’s ordeals.
But there is another big difference that is hard to point out. One of the most creepy aspects is rosemary’s baby That’s not it only The story of a mother-to-be slowly realizing that she is the target of a sinister plot. Most of it takes place in Bramford, but it feels bigger than that. Along with the protagonist, the viewer begins to feel increasingly paranoid about the world. rosemary’s baby . How many people will be involved in this apocalyptic conspiracy? Is this our inevitable global doom? By the time the famous final scene unfolds, most of our fears are proven true.
Apartment 7A It feels more intimate. Terri can fantasize about seeing her name in lights, but she’s better known on Broadway as “the girl who fell,” a play on words for her devastating on-stage tumbles. But she’s also “the girl who fell” for the idea that a complete stranger can be selfless and kind. And she realizes too late the devastating price it costs to rekindle her sparkling dreams.
Finally, there is another similarity that connects. Apartment 7A and First Sign: Both were made by women, and stand in contrast to the classic films that inspired them. Horror films often see male directors experimenting with female characters. These films signal a welcome change of perspective, especially when it comes to familiar genre tropes where women’s bodies are appropriated and appropriated in horrific ways.
Apartment 7A It streams on Paramount+ and is available for digital purchase on September 27.
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