Sartaj Singh
‘Apartment 7A’ follows Terry Gionoffrio, a ballerina who dreams of fame and popularity but suffers a terrible ankle injury during practice. Moving into her new apartment, she struggles to find a new sense of purpose while battling personal demons. Her moping is interrupted by her creepy neighbors, the Castevets. Terry begins to unveil a dark secret about her apartment and its previous tenant, realizing that the same fate may befall her. Directed by Natalie Erika James, the horror film is a prequel to ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ and takes us back in time to 1960s New York, its cobbled streets and gloomy theaters creating an atmosphere of mystique around the narrative.
Where Was Apartment 7A Filmed?
‘Apartment 7A’ was filmed primarily in London, England, with some shooting also being carried out in New York City, New York. Principal photography began on March 15, 2022, and was wrapped by June 4 of the same year. Just prior to the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, reshoots for the film took place in April and May of 2023. Director Natalie Erika James and her team arrived in London to set up their office and scout locations 10 weeks ahead of the commencement of filming. Despite the lengthy shooting schedule, the crew seemed to keep up the excitement about their work on the project.
London, England
London, the capital city of England, became the main filming destination for ‘Apartment 7A,’ with its historic streets and structures standing in for New York. While many exterior shots were filmed on location in some of London’s older districts, the crew also utilized a movie studio to build sets for the film. A soundstage was employed to create most of the interior locations seen in the movie. The studio also allowed for visual effects to simulate historical New York backgrounds, including bustling streets and cramped midrises. The setup was instrumental in creating immersive scenes of the apartment building, complete with unsettling narrow hallways and pastel-colored rooms that amplified the film’s tension.
London offers both modern and vintage aesthetics as a shooting location, enabling filmmakers to recreate various time periods and places with a high degree of authenticity. This becomes doubly true when considering the city’s cutting-edge filming studios, which can help simulate accurate backdrops. In the case of ‘Apartment 7A,’ London’s old-world atmosphere contributed to a believable depiction of 1960s New York. With a cinematic history of standing in for other cities, London’s versatility is a key draw as a filming location, and it has housed the production of movies and shows like FX’s ‘Shōgun,’ ‘Napoleon,’ ‘The Great,’ and ‘A Gentleman in Moscow.’
New York City, New York
While most of ‘Apartment 7A’ was filmed in London, select scenes were shot in the state of New York, more specifically, in NYC. The story is set in the city, which is a vital reference point for the film’s origins. One of the most iconic locations featured in the movie is The Dakota, a historic apartment building located at 1 West 72nd Street at Central Park West in Manhattan. This structure holds canonical importance for the narrative, as it famously stood in for the Bramford apartment complex in Roman Polanski’s ‘Rosemary’s Baby.’ “It was just a skeleton crew that we sent to New York to actually shoot shots of the Dakota,” revealed Natalie Erika James in an interview. “It was definitely production design in collaboration with visual effects to achieve that. A lot of planning went into it. Simon Bowles, our production designer, did such an incredible job finding structures and streets that could match New York. Even the interiors and finding furniture to match the original film was impressive.”
Also called the Dakota Apartments, it was constructed in 1884 and fits in perfectly with the film’s time period. Built with a combination of Gothic and Renaissance styles of architecture, it features sharply slanted rooftops that make it one of the most distinct buildings in the city. The Gothic architecture and the building’s long history lend it a naturally eerie and foreboding presence that became central to the dark narrative of ‘Rosemary’s Baby.’ Featuring the structure in ‘Apartment 7A’ reinforces the continuity between this prequel and its predecessor. Another classic that was shot in and around the building is ‘Ghostbusters.’
