Wow, this uhh... this sure is a movie. I really do not think there could be a worse time to release a slavery-themed "horror film" than right now and not only does it fail to prove to be good enough to warrant any discussion but it reveals itself to be incredibly vile. Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz's Antebellum is a grossly misleading mistake of a film and one that is only barely made watchable by the performance from its lead. The horribly uneven direction, offensive script, and strong sense of "style over substance" becomes very frustrating, to the point that I was rolling my eyes more times than I could count. Even though this film does a genuinely good job of hiding its absolutely demented twist, it never changed the fact that the story leading up to that was one of the most confusing ones of this year. It's a very, very good thing that this film was released on VOD now instead of in the theaters because I'm certain that much more of the general public would have been rightfully disgusted.
Veronica Henley (Janelle Monáe) is an acclaimed author and public speaker who finds herself trapped in a newfound, terrifying reality. Switching back and forth between her current life and a past life that she once lived during the Civil War, Veronica must fight to escape the hell that she has been placed into. This movie, written and directed by Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz, is one of the most frustrating stories of the year and one that tests your patience like nothing else. Their direction throughout this film was incredibly uneven and it definitely took a lot for me to even get invested in this story. The shifting narrative between the Civil War era and modern-day was paced very awkwardly and this might be the only case in which I will say that it needed to switch back and forth even more. The first act was nearly 40 minutes long and never gave me a semblance of what was happening until the audience is thrown into the present. These various narratives finally come together in the last fifteen minutes in what may be one of the most appalling twists I have seen in a while, which is not a good thing in this case. I do believe that Bush and Renz did a great job of hiding this twist from the audience at the expense of their terribly slow direction but it is also due to me being so preoccupied with trying to figure out what the fuck the point of the film was supposed to be. However, don't get anything twisted or get your hopes up for a Shyamalan-level twist in horror because Antebellum is the furthest thing from horror. Social thriller perhaps, but the way that these filmmakers rely on Jordan Peele's brand of black, horror storytelling just proves to be cheap. I really hate that the marketing led me to believe this was a horror film because all it does is try to capitalize on Peele's reputation. This film might be produced by someone who worked on both Get Out and Us, but the script itself is just a slap in the face to Peele's excellent ingenuity in the modern horror genre.
I am not sure who exactly was responsible for making the choice of placing these black leads into one of the worst time periods for black people in history and to attempt to make a "horror film" out of such events becomes revolting. The premise of characters finding themselves stuck in a past generation, forced to deal with the ghosts of America's past, is interesting in and of itself and would have been a much better choice than what Bush and Renz ultimately went with. The only, actual horror that is apparent throughout this story is the grotesqueness that is used to portray the realities of what happened to slaves back during the Civil War. Like previously mentioned, this era occupies almost the first half of the film, and Bush and Renz do nothing but exploit these people for the sake of shock value. It was almost akin to torture porn after a while and seeing the terrible things that happened to these people during this time period is really never needed, even in a horror setting. Antebellum is not a film that needed to be released, or realistically ever, and is just truly exploitative in regards to its treatment of black slaves. Thank god for Janelle Monáe, however, who undeniably saves this movie from being an even bigger mess. Her performance as Veronica is fantastic and she saves this movie from utter ruin more than any of its other elements. She is able to portray both the insufferable pain that slaves felt during this era along with the grace and power of a contemporary public figure and her range is what makes this movie the most interesting. I also think that Antebellum had so many good ideas going for it and much potential to be an actually great horror film but that was abandoned for the disgusting story we ended up with. The idea of technology traversing generations is one that could have led to a much more interesting horror story and that is what I was led to believe would happen based on the trailer and the one, specific shot of the airplane glitching out over the plantation. Instead, this unique idea is wasted and is instead placed on the chopping block of originality, accompanied by any hope that this film might be redeemable.
I actually wish that Antebellum would have been released earlier this year: that way, I could have gotten upset earlier and promptly forgotten about it. This film is a frustratingly misguided attempt at an empowering black story and one that unsettlingly capitalizes on the worst period of American history. Monáe is a powerhouse and I can not wait to see what acting projects she takes on next but I'm also surprised and confused as to why she would pick this story in the first place. To each their own I suppose but Antebellum is a big no from me.
My Rating: ★★
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