How well do you know your “ Rosemary’s Baby “? In Roman Polanski’s 1968 film and in Ira Levin’s novel published the year before, new Bramford tenant Rosemary Woodhouse meets a young woman in the basement laundry room, Terry Gionoffrio, who says the Castavets rescued her from drug addiction and homelessness. Smash cut to the next day, and her mangled corpse is found in a pool of her own blood outside the Bramford apartment complex, having jumped to her death. (The actual building is the Dakota, a German Renaissance-inspired, 94-unit coop on 72nd Street on the Upper West Side.
) “ Apartment 7A ,” the atmosphere-drenched, classed-up new film directed by talented “Relic” filmmaker Natalie Erika James , is a direct prequel to “Rosemary’s Baby” that focuses entirely on Terry’s story and the events that led to her suicide. It doesn’t blow open or reinvent the “Rosemary’s Baby” mythology, but it’s a decent primer to attract younger audiences back to the 1968 classic film. Terry is played by the ever superb “Ozark” triple Emmy winner Julia Garner , eventually in a Gwen Verdon-style, brunette coiffure that suits the blonde-haired, fair-skinned, sharp-cheekboned actress recently cast as Madonna.
As Minnie and Roman Castavet — played by Oscar winner Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer in Polanski’s movie — “Apartment 7A” features the great Dianne Wiest and Kevin McNally, who both eerily resemble and sound like their predecessors. Close your ey.