Many people think that the Arconia in Only Murders in the Building is inspired by the iconic Dakota, on the Upper West Side, facing Central Park. It’s not, but if it depended on fiction, it could be. The gothic building has a whole history behind it, but unfortunately, it became famous both for the horror classic Rosemary’s Baby and for the address of the real murder of John Lennon, in 1980. The film Apartment 7A, which premieres on September 27 on Paramount Plus, will rekindle the entire past of the Dakota, which, in the story, is the Bramford.

The Bramford is where the young and pregnant Rosemary Woodhouse finds herself in the middle of a satanic cult that has evil plans for her baby.

The story is potentially brilliant. The prequel proposal for Roman Polanski’s film – an adaptation of Ira Levin’s bestseller – comes from quick scenes that, SPOILER, determine the tragic fate of Terry Gionoffrio. Skylar James imagined the character’s story based on this character, whom we never met in the film (she is found in front of the building, having “jumped” to her death from her apartment).

Starring Julia Garner (awards chances?), Apartment 7A explores the psychological thriller genre and is set before the arrival of Guy (John Cassavetes) and Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow) at Bramford. Young Terry Gionoffrio (Garner) is a rising ballerina who dreams of fame and fortune in New York. However, when she suffers an injury that ends her stage dreams, Terry is taken in by a wealthy older couple (Dianne Wiest and Kevin McNally, replacing the original Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer), who welcome her into their luxurious Upper West Side apartment.

In the meantime, an influential Broadway producer (Jim Sturgess) seeks out Terry to offer her a new chance to revive her career, but she soon realizes that there is something evil at Bramford and that to get what she wants, she will have to be willing to make sacrifices. Will Terry accept?

Of course, we know exactly what is going on at Bramford and that Terry was clearly the initial choice before Rosemary Woodhouse arrived at the building, but it will be chilling to discover the true circumstances that in Polanski’s classic are only hinted at. There are crucial differences in the narrative (see clips below), but it will be interesting.

In the 1968 film, Rosemary (Farrow) briefly meets Terry Gionoffrio (Angela Dorian) in the building’s laundry room, and she introduces herself as “a recovering drug addict who the Castevets have taken in.” The two young women become friends, and Rosemary admires a pendant necklace that Terry is wearing and also notices her strange smell. But then, when she returns home with her husband, Rosemary and Guy discover that Terry threw herself out of the window of the seventh-floor apartment. The girl’s sudden death shocks them both, but only later do we “imagine” what really happened. Well… now we’ll find out what happened in 7A!

Premiering on September 27.

Here are the scenes from the original film:

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