‘I was obsessed with Rosemary’s Baby’: Apartment 7A screenwriter on how the Paramount Plus horror movie avoided the curse of the movie sequel

Have Hollywood prequels become the new sequel?

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With Tinsel Town experiencing a severe drought of original ideas of late, anxious studios, screenwriters, and producers have been gazing into the rear view mirror more to examine existing films and TV shows to mine for potential cinematic projects branded as fresh prequels.

One of the most recent examples of this trend that uses established properties with built-in audiences can be seen in Paramount Plus’Apartment 7A, an unsettling prequel that dovetails perfectly into director Roman Polanski’s award-winning 1968 supernatural shocker,Rosemary’s Baby.

That seminal film starring Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes as a yuppie couple who move into a venerable Manhattan apartment building housing a coven of Satanists rocked the established Hollywood roster that had been filled with bloated westerns and musicals. Here, Farrow’s character, Rosemary Woodhouse, is unwittingly drawn into a diabolical plan for her to become impregnated by the Devil after her husband, Guy, makes a dark deal to boost his acting career.

This was disturbing material for general audiences of the late ‘60s, but it was a surprise smash that year, becoming one of thebest horror movies.Rosemary’s Babyushered in a new era of maverick indie filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Brian DePalma, Francis Ford Coppola, William Friedkin, and George Lucas. Based on a 1967 novel by Ira Levin and adapted for the screen by Polanski, the film earned a pair of coveted Oscar nods, including a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination and a Best Supporting Actress win for Ruth Gordon, who played the overbearing elderly occultist, Minnie Castevet.

A hanging thread you can pull

I was obsessed with Rosemary’s Baby and I always thought of Terry as this hanging thread that you could pull

Directed by Natalie Erika James (Relic) from a sharp screenplay from Skylar James and starringOzark’sJulia Garner, Dianne Wiest, and Kevin McNally,Apartment 7Atargets the tragic character of Terry Gionoffrio, who commits suicide by diving from the notorious Bramford building in the 1968 movie – watch thetrailer to get a glimpse of the prequel story to the 1960s horror hit. James, with co-screenwriter Christian White, provide her with a backstory as an injured dancer who comes into contact with the seemingly benevolent Satanists and moves into their ornate apartment free of charge. With dancing opportunities suspiciously blossoming, it’s not long before she’s being seduced into becoming the mother of the Antichrist.

“It was an original idea that I had. I was very, very green and this was my first thing that had gone through and I had written up this 12-page treatment,” James tells TechRadar. “I was obsessed withRosemary’s Babyand I always thought of Terry as this hanging thread that you could pull. It was so interesting that there was story before this. Something had happened and she died this mysterious death and seems to be instantly forgotten. What was her place in the world? I kind of obsessed over it. A friend of mine also happened to be friends with John Krasinski and we got double-booked for dinner one night. I pitched him the idea of Terry and it turns out he’d studiedRosemary’s BabyforA Quiet Place. It was a really influential film for him.

“I never expected to hear from him again and I get a text the next morning from John. He wanted me to go meet with the other two producers on the movie right away. We workshopped the pages and all dug in on those 12 pages, and ended up selling that treatment and we were off to the races. Christian is Natalie’s writing partner and when she signed on as the director, she and Christian as co-writers did a pass on the script then.”

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Protecting a legacy property

We’re standing on the shoulders of giants and you want to honor that work

As one of the pioneeringhorror movies of all time,Rosemary’s Babywas a revolutionary flick when it was released and the box office tally reflects that, with it raking in $33 million off of a $3.2 million budget. James was well aware of the classic’s status in Hollywood history and was careful to respect the particular tone and flavor of the source book and Polanski’s iconic film.

“We’re standing on the shoulders of giants and you want to honor that work,” James explains. “And there’s a tremendous amount of film buffs who are really familiar with that work and hold it close. So you want to be loyal to the look, the feel, but then at the same time you want to do something new with the story. It’s such an amazing movie that you don’t want to go in there and tinker with it if you don’t have something new to say. Weirdly, as much time has gone by, we’re still having conversations about abortion and women’s rights. It’s an interesting way to look at the desperation that still echoes today.

“If you look at the original novel there’s a little bit more information on Terry. Her big dream in the book is going to secretarial school. Which is such a fun little nugget. But how do we update that for 2024? Terry is an ambitious person and knows she can do more, so that’s where the whole idea of dance came in. How do you honor that spirit of this woman in the 1960s who dreams of being independent and how can we make it feel fresh and give her her own identity?”

Paramount was naturally very protective ofRosemary’s Babyas a legacy property and refrained from pushingApartment 7A’screative team to stuff the story with a jump scare a minute.

“It’s a different type of horror,” adds James. “It’s a conceptual horror. Minnie Castevet is the scariest character in the movie, and the Devil is in the movie, so that’s definitely saying something. She’s so terrifying because it’s this sort of embodied evil that walks among us. Whether she’s really empowered by the Devil or whether she’s just your dangerous person right behind you in a department store, she’s ruthless either way. You don’t find out until the third act of the movie when the walls are closing in on Terry and you get the realization that this danger is very real. And Julia was so great, she just killed it.”

Apartment 7Ais currently streaming onParamount Plus.

7 horror movie prequels to stream

Looking for more paranormal and horror prequels to watch on thebest streaming servicesfor the spookiest time of the year? Here are seven scary suggestions to sample to make your Halloween season even sweeter.

These are available on multiple platforms as well as offered for purchase via online outlets.The First OmenandPrometheusare available to stream onHuluin the US andDisney Plusinternationally,whileA Quiet Place: Day OneandThe Thingare only available in the US on Paramount Plus and Shudder, respectively.

Meanwhile,Netflixsubscribers can findAnnabelleandThe Nunin the US, while those in the UK can catch those titles on Sky. As forDominion: Prequel to The Exorcist,that’s only on Prime Video in the US or thebest free streaming serviceTubi.

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Jeff Spry is a screenwriter and freelance journalist covering TV, movies, video games, books, and comics. His work has appeared at Space.com, SYFY Wire, Inverse, Collider, Bleeding Cool and elsewhere. Jeff lives in beautiful Bend, Oregon amid the ponderosa pines, classic muscle cars, a crypt of collector horror comics, and two loyal English Setters.

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