Apartment 7A May Be A Stealth Prequel To A Horror Classic
Stealth sequels and prequels are nothing new, especially in horror-adjacent genres. The "Cloverfield" franchise is famous for shoehorning wildly different semi-connected works in the original found footage kaiju movie's universe, from the close-quarters thriller "10 Cloverfield Lane" to the space-themed "The Cloverfield Paradox." Sequels are pretty easy to recognize, since they tend to refer the original movie in at least some ways. On the other hand, the prequels can get pretty tricky, because even when they nod at the original film, they might not give any indication about their true place in the timeline. In fact, there are tons of well-known movies that you didn't know were actually prequels to other famous works.
In this media-savvy day and age, getting away with a stealth prequel might seem like a pretty impossible move. However, new information indicates that Paramount's upcoming horror movie "Apartment 7A" might try to pull this off. What's more, the horror movie it may be connected to is one of the all-time classics of the genre.
The movie could be a prequel to Rosemary's Baby
"Apartment 7A" may be a prequel to the classic 1968 psychological horror drama "Rosemary's Baby," according to an exclusive report by Bloody Disgusting. "Rosemary's Baby" tells the story of Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow), who starts suspecting that her neighbors have literally diabolical plans for her unborn child. There are numerous unnerving and creepy elements in the movie, and not all of them are supernatural in nature.
"Rosemary's Baby" was a highly controversial movie in its day, and its director Roman Polanski continues to be so. Still, Bloody Disgusting notes that director Natalie Erika James' "Apartment 7A" has many elements that seemingly tie it to the older movie. The most immediate one is character names. "Pirates of the Caribbean" star Kevin McNally reportedly plays Roman Castevet (Sidney Blackmer's character in "Rosemary's Baby"), while Amy Leeson's character is listed on IMDb as Rosemary Woodhouse herself. There's also the fact that one of the movie's producers is John Krasinski, who has also been involved in plans for a "Rosemary's Baby" remake.
Julia Garner of "Ozark" fame plays the main role of "Apartment 7A," and she's implied to be playing a woman who dies early in "Rosemary's Baby" — presumably Terry, played by Victoria Vetri in the original. How extensively the movie intends to reference the events of "Rosemary's Baby" — if at all — is still unclear, but the doomed Terry would seem like a pretty good character to explore in a stealthy prequel.