Apartment 7A, has premiered, but the 1968 movie's best follow-up came out six years ago and boasts an impressive Rotten Tomatoes score of 90%. When it was first released in the late 1960s, Rosemary's Baby played a crucial role in shaping the horror genre and inspired many horror movies that came after it. Over half a century after its release, the film still stands the test of time, and even its thematic elements are now more relevant than ever.
Considering Rosemary's Baby's lasting legacy, creating its prequel or any direct extension of its universe was never going to be an easy feat. Natalie Erika James still took up the challenge by directing Apartment 7A, which not only adds more depth to Rosemary's Baby's story but also stands on its own as a compelling horror movie. However, long before Apartment 7A saw the light of day, another film came off as the perfect Rosemary's Baby follow-up.
Hereditary Comes Off As A Better Reimagining Of Rosemary's Baby Than Apartment 7A
Hereditary Adopts Similar Ideas But Presents Something Completely Original
's ending moments, the central cults also succeed at their missions and welcome their satanic leaders by hailing them. In both films, the central demonic forces are used as a narrative device to highlight a relatable societal fear.
Both movies also dabble with themes of body invasion and the loss of agency, reflecting humanity's fear of the unknown.
For instance, Rosemary's growing paranoia towards the people in the Bramford building parallels the concerns surrounding rapid urbanization in the 1960s. Meanwhile, Hereditary shows how a family's emotional detachment and growing lack of trust ultimately become weapons for a cult that wishes to exploit their vulnerabilities to pave the way for Paemon's rise. Both movies also dabble with themes of body invasion and the loss of agency, reflecting humanity's fear of the unknown.
Like Rosemary's Baby, Hereditary Ranks Among The Best Horror Movies Ever Made
Unfortunately, Apartment 7A Isn't As Good As Rosemary's Baby & Hereditary
Given how perfectly Rosemary's Baby and Hereditary execute their similar ideas and bring new incredible spins to the best horror movies of all time. Both present blueprints for other horror movies to follow, showcasing how a film in the genre does not have to rely on cheap thrills and jump scares to be memorable. It only has to intertwine disturbing psychological elements with familiar supernatural story beats perfectly to remain with the viewer long after the credits start rolling.
Hail Paimon!: Hereditary Ending Explained
Ari Aster's Hereditary is as horrific as it is perplexing, and deciphering its layered ending and "Hail, Paimon" scene isn't a simple feat.
Mia Farrow and Toni Collette's performances in Rosemary's Baby and Hereditary, respectively, are also among the best in horror, further anchoring the two films as the genre's best offerings. Unfortunately, even though Rosemary's Baby's prequel, Apartment 7A, sets out to achieve something similar, it fails to bring anything new to the table. While Hereditary masterfully uses its attention to detail and dread-inducing atmosphere to set up an unpredictable twist, Apartment 7A struggles to step out of Rosemary's Baby's shadow despite its best efforts to add more heft to its parent film's story.
-
8/10Directed by Roman Polanski and starring Mia Farrow, Rosemary's Baby chronicles the chilling tale of Rosemary Woodhouse, the wife of an actor who, after finding out she is pregnant, begins to suspect that her unborn child is something far more sinister than a normal baby. John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, and Maurice Evans also star.
-
Hereditary
- Run Time
- 127 minutes
- Language
- English
A24 are one of the most exciting production companies releasing movies today, and they have been behind some of the most interesting and unnerving horrors of recent years. Hereditary is the first movie by director Ari Aster, who then went on to produce another spectacular A24 folk horror a year later, Midsommar. Hereditary is a supernatural horror film that follows the Graham family and after the death of Annie Graham's estranged mother, supernatural forces start messing with the family to disastrous consequences. Hereditary is a tense watch all the way through and there aren't many scary films that keep up the same level of uncomfortableness so strictly. Hereditary delivers on some truly terrifying stuff and there are scenes that will leave you speechless including a decapitation, Ari Aster is not afraid to leave the audience uncomfortable. Toni Collette has never played a more convincing role, and she plays the distraught mother to perfection and does at least 4 different things in this movie that will leave you in awe. There is a lingering supernatural feel as the movie crawls along, and the initial set up is slow and considered. The other characters are both superbly acted and directed, and they paint a brilliant picture of a mysterious family who have plenty of issues. The characters are fully realized, which makes their demise all the more effective. Although the set-up is slow and deliberate, the finish is anything but. The film crescendos in a full-frontal limb bending possession, without going totally over the top. The placement of horror in the dark make these scenes particularly creepy.
-
5/10In this psychological thriller, a young woman is forced into a mysterious cult after moving into a seemingly ordinary apartment complex. As strange events occur there, she begins to question her sanity and the motives of her enigmatic neighbors.
