Antebellum
lionsgateThe success of Jordan Peele’s Get Out and Us has help create a market for horror films and television series’ with a social commentary. While some have proved to be more successful than others (HBO’s Lovecraft Country fitting that category), most of these films and series have continued to be derivative of the projects that kicked off this resurgence. The most egregious of these recent projects is Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz’s debut film, Antebellum.
The film stars Janelle Monae as successful writer Veronica Henley, who awakens to find herself trapped as a slave on a plantation. The white characters in the film (played by the likes of Jena Malone, Jack Huston, and Eric Lange) are almost entirely male, with the men portraying confederate soldiers enforcing a very strict silence and submission policy. Following the death of another slave and the reveal of the films twist, Veronica and another slave, Eli (Tongayi Chirisa), decide to attempt an escape.
Though Antebellum begins with a confident and well-staged long take that builds an uneasy atmosphere, all of that work is immediately wasted on a film that tries to use the violence of slavery and ambiguity as it’s horror aspect. Since the films marketing kicked into gear (even before Covid affected the world), the film was building up its twist as one of its biggest selling points, aside from being produced by someone who produced both of Peele’s directorial efforts. The twist (which seems to take a warped inspiration from a season four episode of The Boondocks), comes nearly an hour into the film and does little to save what had already gone off the rails somewhere between the first and second act. Adding in the violence aspect, the reveal of the twist and losing of the ambiguity ultimately only serves to make an already questionable premise more questionable, with little to no answers given by the time the credits finally roll.
Despite everyone in the film bringing as much as they humanly could to their characters and situations (Janelle Monae shows she can lead in just about any film or series she’s in), the cast can only do so much for an already troubled film, thanks in part to a poor script, written by the films directors. Aside from the premise, the script does little in truly justifying its own existence, with the twist and the films third act all but undermining the entirety that proceeded it.
Bush and Renz got their start as music video directors and that often shines through in one of the films stronger aspects, its visual eye. There is no denying Antebellum is a well shot film, with the long take opening and the scene with the films twist both being strong indications Bush and Renz can stage scenes well and keep their films visually interesting. Despite the strong visuals, some of them are greatly wasted, including a backwards tracking shot used repeatedly to little effect and a poorly shot and edited day to night scene that should be taught in schools as an example of how not to do them.
Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz’s Antebellum is a questionable, wasted opportunity and total waste of time. It takes the premise of an episode from The Boondocks and attempts to make it a Jordan Peele-esque horror/thriller film but ultimately fails at being anything beyond an exercise in shock and horror.
