Directors: Gerard Bush (Black, man), Christopher Renz (White, man)
Allow me to start with two things:
I adore Janelle Monáe.
I am not the biggest horror movie buff.
Both of these things are important, because I wasn't really planning on watching Antebellum at first. Because as much as I love Janelle Monáe, a horror movie really has to be something new to catch my interest.
Luckily (?), I'm not sure that Antebellum was a horror movie, or at least, not in the way that horror movies typically play within the genre.
There is a LOT that I can't say without spoiling the movie, and I promise I won't, but here's a few things.
The Good
Janelle Monáe is, of course, stunning. She is absolutely one of the best actresses on the scene these days, and that makes this movie worth watching entirely on its own. She pulls you into her joys, her sorrows, her laughter, and her pain. And boy is there a lot of pain in this one, so be prepared. If you aren't ready for something heavy, maybe watch something else for a bit, because boy does this get heavy, and quick.
Additionally, although he does not say much throughout the film, Tongayi Chirisa did such a phenomenal job with this role, I can't wait to see him in other larger roles. He made me feel so much for his character despite exceptionally little information, just based on his acting alone.
Huge shout out to Gabourey Sidibe, who is hilarious, "cute as hell", and just a delight to watch. She really pulled this movie forward in ranking for me, personally.
There is some absolutely GORGEOUS cinematography here. For the most part, the movie follows through with breaking my least favorite horror movie trope, which is color coding everything to be dark all of the time. There are colors abound, which only add to the surreal feeling and intrinsic unsettled environment.
The Bad
The writing is trying, really, really hard. A lot of the dialogue seems forced, and although the subject is heavy, a lot of the scenes didn't quite land hard enough specifically due to bad writing.
I had a big problem with feeling "scared" of the villains partially because I didn't really find them believable. Their dialogue was oftentimes chock-full of cliche, and one of the actors in particular was trying a southern accent on that seemed to slip every other sentence. That being said - there may be a reason for that particular problem, which I find forgivable given the ..... big ole spoiler that I'm not going to do. You get to figure that one out by watching it. But I did find this very distracting.
Finally, I didn't feel scared. Horrified - absolutely. There is plenty about our country's original sin that is horrifying to the bone, but I can't say I felt the level of fear I got from say, Get Out, Us, the Babadook, or Midsommar (which are, btw, the only horror movies that I really like. Sorry, horror fans.). There are a lot of horror tropes that they play with here: the creepy little girl from the Shining, imagery a la Silence of the Lambs, film style from "standard horror" scenes - but none of them landed. They all felt out of place and unpracticed. The timing felt entirely off. I feel like they detracted from the overall story and made it seem like the directors were trying too hard.
That being said....
The Hopeful
I got it. Once the big ole spoiler that I'm not gonna do happened, the movie went from being just "okay", to being EXCELLENT. Suddenly, all the things I was griping with didn't really matter, because it WAS horrifying, and it WAS scary, and wow HOLY SHIT THEY JUST DID THAT.
There is a great deal of "I really need some catharsis" by the end of this movie, and boy does it DELIVER. I was cheering throughout the last twenty minutes of the film.
It seemed as if the movie was trying to make itself into a horror film, which I have to wonder if it was somewhat pressured into one by production companies, rather than putting forward its own incredible narrative. If it had just focused a little more on its timing and not worried so much about fulfilling horror tropes, I think it could have easily ended up on the masterwork list.
Additionally, this is Gerard Bush's and Christopher Renz's first feature film as directors, and as writers. I have hope that if this is where they start, their work can only get better from here.
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