'Antebellum' Relies On Exploitation And Rehashed Ideas To Tackle Racial Dynamics [Review]

How does the historical nightmare of slavery inhabit the present day? “Antebellum,” the feature-length debut of directing duo Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz, tackles this question, once explored with originality and nuance by Jordan Peele’sGet Out,” with shallow simplicity. For all its ideas—the existential threat to white supremacy posed by Black success, the lingering effects of intergenerational trauma, and the insidious romanticization of the Confederacy— “Antebellum” contains symbols rather than people and intrigue without meaningful discovery. That isn’t to say its a boring thriller. The supernatural conceit, which straddles modern existence with life on a Southern Civil War-era plantation, is provocative and alarming. But simply reaffirming what we think we know can only be so effective; and done without regard for complexity—a mere rehash of the crudest racial fantasies and nightmares—the result is bland and aggravating. 

Promotional material for the film touts the involvement of the same producer responsible for “Get Out” and “Us” (it’s worth noting that does not mean Peele or horror mogul Jason Blum). Above all, this note purposefully situates “Antebellum” as one of several recent entries in the “Black horror” sub-genre in demand since Peele’s 2017 breakthrough. Its mind-bending premise and its “Twilight Zone“-esque mystery tackles issues about race, but not at the distance from reality that genre works typically afford. 

The film opens with an extended shot, the camera careening through a cotton plantation, past mounted slave owners and Black folks in chains. An enslaved couple struggle to break free from the clutches of white masters—they’ve been caught trying to escape. The woman, dressed in a striking emerald dress, makes a run for it as the music, an operatic Wagnerian score, swells with a sense of horror and imminent tragedy. A noose springs forth and drags the woman down by the neck; the sequence, aestheticized with slow-motion and a saturated color scheme, is off-putting in its epic aspirations. (Bush and Renz, who have a background in directing music videos, seem to bring an impulse toward hyper-stylization to bear here—a truly perplexing decision.) Hollywood is no stranger to recreating the brutalities of American history; historical dramas like “12 Years a Slave,” and “Detroit,” resurrect true stories with a confrontational, blood and sweat-drenched realism. “Django Unchained” does the same with a triumphant revisionist streak. Oddly enough, “Antebellum” has more in common with Tarantino’s Blaxploitation yarn than anything Peele has done.

We experience the many violent realities of slavery up-front and through the eyes of “Eden” (Janelle Monáe), whose body is battered and branded with a hot iron within the first ten minutes. Eden is responsible for the escape attempt, but her master (Eric Lange) keeps her around for sexual purposes. A new crop of enslaved women shows up at the plantation, including light-skinned beauty Julia (Kiersey Clemons), who seems to know Eden from somewhere. It’s through Julia that we approach the base motivations of these Confederate-flag worshipping white people, Southern genteel types who revel in their total mastery and take pleasure in brutalizing Black bodies and stripping them of their identities. These are racist caricatures, insane and egomaniacal mustache-twirling villains, we can’t wait to see burn. Though the flimsy script (also penned by Bush and Renz) does little to bring modern resonance to these personalities beyond showing us just how shameless and reprehensible they are—satisfying in one sense but ultimately small-minded. An aside into the mind of a young recruit practically forced into bed with Julia by his fellow Confederates underscores ever-so-briefly the fragile masculinity beneath such racial power-mongering, but that element peters out quickly, as do so many under-developed forays into deeper psychological territory.

Then comes the first (of several) twists, which I won’t count as a spoiler considering the modern dress on display in the trailer. Eden is actually Veronica Henley, a wealthy, New York Times bestselling writer, activist, and TV personality who enjoys idyllic family life. Veronica is the epitome of grace and intelligence, a persona that well-suits Monáe, who brings a gentle-eyed, but fiercely self-assured presence to her character. Author of “Shedding the Coping Persona,” a book geared towards motivating a new generation of Black movers and shakers, Veronica is a high-profile leader of the Black intellectual community and precisely the sort of person whose power and influence enrage those frustrated with the slowly toppling racial hierarchy. After an outing with her gal pals (including Gabourey Sidibe, in a bizarre comedic turn), Veronica is kidnapped by a rogue Uber manned by a familiar Southern belle (Jena Malone). The link between past and present quickly becomes clear.

Beyond its exploitative tendencies, its elementary (or simply disinterested) understanding of the racial dynamics that guide American life and Black interiority, “Antebellum” is also a disappointing thriller on a purely practical level. Silence is a running theme—the plantation owners forbid the slaves from speaking to one another without permission, and Veronica/Eden makes a show of identifying the spots on the floorboards that creak. It’s an element in contrast with the incredibly active, vocal presence Veronica exercises as a prominent leader, but it falls flat as a tool for suspense—in part because the action, like the characters, is so obvious and predetermined. Bush and Renz (and cinematographer Pedro Luque) show a flair for lush compositions at the expense of tension and streamlined action in the scenes that demand it most. The ending means to be awe-inspiring with revolutionary implications. But how, ultimately, does Veronica change? Jigsaw’s victims in “Saw” experience more inner conflict. There’s no room for introspection or difficult questions here. “Antebellum” therefore reads like the corporate spawn of “Black horror,” pieced together from Twitter anti-racist soundbites and crafted for maximum clout. [C-] 

“Antebellum” is set to arrive on Premium VOD on September 18.