**Minor spoiler alert for ANTEBELLUM**
PLOT: An influential author, Veronica, is abducted and taken back to a Southern plantation and forced into slavery. Now she must do whatever it takes to survive and free herself and the other prisoners from their Confederate captors.
REVIEW: I have no doubt that in the early development and eventual filming of the new horror thriller ANTEBELLUM everyone involved believed they were on to something great. Here’s a story that tries to take a unique approach at examining America’s current relationship with its horrific past involving the enslavement of Black men and women, and how it all reflects the William Faulkner quote at the movie’s intro, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” But what came out is not that movie. Instead what we get from potentially thought-provoking material is an exercise of drudging brutality that presents a shocking scenario without offering up anything in the way of substance to explore it.
At the root of the movie’s failings is the vision of writer/directors Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz, or general lack thereof after the opening few minutes. It starts off with a dialogue-less, free-flowing (fueled by Nate Wonder and Roman Gianarthur’s score) depiction of what would be a typical Southern plantation during the Civil War. It’s graceful before becoming brutal — and much like the rest of the movie that follows — never goes deeper than the visceral impact of the visuals. We soon discover this is no period film set on typical Southern plantation, but rather a twisted area where white racists have kidnapped Black men and women and enslaved them – all to relive the monstrous existence of their slave-owning ancestors. Think a more bluntly racist version of the park in WESTWORLD, geared specifically towards people who think America is doomed because protestors graffitied a statue of Robert E. Lee.
Now, that last paragraph was the reason I slapped on a warning above, but that's because Bush and Renz are not as clever as hiding the truth of the setting as they think they are, and even casual viewers will likely pick up on how everything works within the first 10 minutes. The reality of the plantation is never directly revealed during the first act, but rather hinted to via small verbal cues between characters. So while the directors are busy showing off too much of their hand and ensuring the audience remains two steps ahead of the story, no time is spent developing any sort message that hints they thought things out beyond the thesis statement, let alone any emotional core for any of the characters on screen. This entire first act soon becomes nothing more than a deeply unpleasant, grotesque experience built solely for us to watch Black men and women be nothing but bodies to be victimized by racist white “customers” who wish to enact their most vicious impulses. All at once, it’s trying to be mysterious and provocative in trying to reflect modern American racism, but instead, we’re forced to just live in this hellish scenario as people are beaten and assaulted all so the filmmakers could illustrate the point that there are still some violently racist people out there.
The central character we follow is a woman given the name “Eden” (Janelle Monáe), who tried to escape her captors and is beaten and branded for it. She spends the rest of the first act quietly following orders and just as quietly planning her escape, all while telling newcomer “Julia” (Kiersey Clemons) to keep her head down for now. This is as far as their – or any Black character’s development – goes because clearly the script wasn't designed for any real character work to begin until the misguided second act. If the first act puts too much on the table with zero subtlety, the second is all about playing catch up by focusing on “Eden” — who we learn in the real world is Dr. Veronica Henley — and the events leading up to her kidnapping. The problem with this structure is that we’re introduced to Veronica as someone’s property to be brutalized like so many others around her. When the time comes for us to get to know her, we’ve already seen so far down the road, and we know what horror awaits her. That makes it incredibly difficult to connect with and see her as the incredible woman she is.
Despite all the greatness she exudes (with Monáe doing so effortlessly), everything she does feels diminished by the constant allusions to the events that will lead to her capture. We can’t just sit back and absorb all who she is as a character — someone who slaps down ignorant white buffoons on TV, gives inspiring lectures and hangs with her equally confident, empowered friends, like Dawn (Gabourey Sidibe). We're denied the simple necessity of bonding with her because there’s also groundwork being laid for her inevitable capture. As a result, this section feels neither engaging on a character level or suspenseful on a thriller level as it should be, coming off like a muddled mess that probably would’ve been better suited had it been rewritten to open the film and followed a more typical narrative structure. Not to mention we have Jena Malone as Elizabeth showing up here as the woman who “finds” the victims (think Allison Williams in GET OUT), and who is clearly acting in a whole other movie than everyone else. As everyone channels the seriousness of the story, she’s trying to chew the scenery as a villainous Southern debutante – which as wild and campy as that comes off feels ultimately for naught, given how little she ends up being around for the rest of the movie.
By the time we get to the third act, leading to an expectedly triumphant climax – which without giving too much away has the kind of lingering, visual power akin to the opening minutes – it’s already become painfully clear how much time has been wasted. Except for Veronica and Dawn in the middle section, no character has any dimension besides their surface-level attributes (racist or victim) and any sense of emotional impact is practically non-existent. Worst of all, the only point it makes is that in modern America there are some who see compassionate, intelligent Black men and women fighting for equality and inclusion and get very angry, and likely have visions of what it would be like for themselves to be slave masters like their ancestors. In tackling that kind material there is plenty of room for something great, and with a more focused script filled with compelling characters and bit more creativity in fleshing out the premise, this certainly could've been. What we have to settle for is an often grotesque bore that's challenging in every way other than the ways that inspire thought.