The sins of America’s past are repeated no matter how much time has passed or how many generations have come and gone. Their vileness is always among us. This is essentially what Antebellum wants to make abundantly clear when it comes to racism, backed by brutal imagery. But unlike Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave, there’s an enormous disconnect from the suffering shown and a story with no emotion or empathy whatsoever.
Janelle Monaé stars as Eden, a slave living on a southern Civil War plantation ran by “the general” (Eric Lange) who sexually assaults her every night. Her attempted escape leaves her beaten and a friend murdered by the hand of Captain Jasper (Jack Huston), who Eden serves along with his wife (Jena Malone) and daughter. With the arrival of more of the enslaved every day, including a pregnant Julia (Kiersey Clemons), Eden is well aware of the vicious cycle they are trapped in.
Then comes the ringing of a cell phone.
It’s present day and Monaé is now Veronica, a successful author and mother who is about to head out on a book tour without her husband (Marque Richardson) and little girl. But she will have her best friend Dawn (Gabourey Sidibe) there to flaunt her fashion and yell at men for buying her a vodka cranberry instead of a whole bottle of champagne. There’s a familiar face that shows up as Veronica has an awkward interview with a “journalist” named Elizabeth (Malone) who has a stench of southern charm and wickedness. By the time she gets settled in to her fancy hotel suite, Veronica has been submitted to unspoken racism and straight up WTF occurrences like getting shushed in the elevator by a weird ghostly girl.
How these two lives interlace with one another is the mystery to Christopher Renz and Gerard Bush‘s feature film directorial debut. It’s one that would make M. Night Shyamalan proud. However, it’s more The Village than the The Sixth Sense. Renz and Bush heavily rely on it in turning Antebellum into something of great consequence and cleverness. They should have had a plan B. What is easily recognizable is the relevance, but the big reveal hurts more than helps this social thriller in addressing the horrors of this country’s history and our inability in resisting to repeat them.
Don’t lose sight of the the artistic aggressiveness from the co-directors, the several scenes that are beautifully captured, and Monaé giving it a real go in a dual performance that could have stood for so much more. Unfortunately, Antebellum has no legit scares, a twist that’s been done before, and, most importantly, severely slips in establishing a poignant purpose in order for the pain and punishment to seem substantial rather than senseless.
The horror genre can undoubtedly be utilized to discuss race and equality in ways no other genre can. Jordan Peele‘s Get Out and Us are the two most recent examples of that. Antebellum wants to be next, but the only thing it has in common with aforementioned films is they share the same producer and not much else.
Brandon Vick is a member of The Music City Film Critics’ Association, the resident film critic of the SoBros Network, and the star of The Vick’s Flicks Podcast. Follow him on Twitter @SirBrandonV and be sure to search #VicksFlicks for all of his latest movie reviews.
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