Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Terry Gionoffrio is a struggling dancer, mooching off her best-friend in the big city after a fall puts her career on a stand-still. Things turn around for the young woman when an aging wealthy couple rescue her from collapsing on the street. They not just offer her their swanky spare apartment, but also their connections to rise in the world of dancing. What Terry doesn’t know is that she is possibly making a dangerous bargain with the devil…
Directed by Natalie Erika James, who co-wrote the film with Christian White and Skylar James, the horror movie Apartment 7A stars Julia Garner as protagonist Terry, a young woman with dreams of headlining her own dance shows. The story serves as a prequel to the horror classic Rosemary’s Baby, following Terry’s move into the infamous Bramford high-rise, home to wealthy but dubious families.
Dianne Wiest stands out in Apartment 7A as the genial, over-friendly, nosy, and insidiously dominant Minnie Castevet, the wealthy older woman who lets Terry move into her family’s flat. Minnie and her husband, Roman (Kevin McNally), seem like adorable, harmless grandparents, which is precisely why a broke and desperate Terry agrees to take up their offer to live in their extra flat ‘rent-free.’ She believes she is the one taking advantage of the charitable couple, who seemingly have nothing better to do with their money. But there’s no free lunch in the world, is there? The Castevets offer Terry everything she desires, but the price they demand is one she’s not sure she’s willing to pay.
Eerie visions of demons, ghostly figures, and creeping shadows begin to haunt Terry in her new apartment, she starts investigating the last girl Minnie and Roman ‘helped’ – only to uncover a terrifying secret by the film’s end. So, Apartment 7A moves at a slow pace in terms of revelations and spooky scenes. However, given the heavy focus on dance, the creators and choreographers deliver some very engaging sequences, turning even what could’ve been distressing/disturbing events, into artistic pieces.
Apartment 7A works better as a drama about the struggles of its young protagonist as an artist, highlighting the despair, humiliation, and hopelessness she endures in her search for work. Julia Garner effortlessly slips into Terry’s skin, a passionate dancer riddled with anxiety and addiction. She evokes sympathy despite her questionable decisions (like moving into the home of an old couple she just met… seriously, who does that?).
The climax is tragic, with Terry performing an emotional dance in a room full of shady strangers, which leads to an unexpected curtain call for Apartment 7A. The dancing might seem out of place or random to some viewers. However, it’s important to remember that dance is Terry’s way of expressing her freedom – her path toward the light, even in her darkest moments. Some scenes in the movie reminded me of Black Swan, though Apartment 7A isn’t as dark or unsettling, despite having the potential to be a far more potent psychological horror/thriller than it ultimately is. Regardless, the cast and cinematography made it a worthwhile one-time watch for me.
Rating: 3 on 5 stars. Watch the film on Prime Video.
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