Antebellum

The past is never dead. It's not even past.

The movie did an excellent job with the twist and reveal.

That said, the movie overall could've been better. The tone of race and discrimination is handled well. The story could've gone a supernatural way with how it was done. Though I'm not hating this psychological thriller route they took.

Mixed reactions and reviews are a given for this movie. Bottom line is seeing this movie for yourself. Personally, I enjoyed it but not enough to overlook the faults in the film. The movie took something and tried to make it work. It wasn't great but it wasn't bad.

As someone who has been enjoying the renewed focus on black horror and the rise in storytelling from unique perspectives kickstarted by 'Get Out', it makes my heart sink to see something like 'Antebellum' stumble into cinemas. My fear is that if there are enough negative appraisals of the genre and the discourse shrinks, the film industry will just stop producing socially conscious horror movies, point-blank. The biggest sin that 'Antebellum' commits is that the filmmakers took one of the most horrific periods of American history and, via exceedingly clumsy execution, unintentionally made it into a joke.

• Jake Watt

Read Jake's full article... https://www.maketheswitch.com.au/article/review-antebellum-socially-conscious-horror-without-any-finesse-or-cleverness

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Some media outlets are providing a spoiler-ish synopsis that I believe the film should have omitted throughout its marketing campaign, including its own trailers. There's a central mystery that only begins almost midway through the runtime, and it plays out until the start of the third act, so you have my advice: stay away from its trailers and don't read too many synopses. Since I didn't know anything about it, I watched Antebellum with modest expectations, and most important of all, without any preconceived ideas or theories about its narrative structure.

However, I couldn't help but see the movie later than most people, and I have to ...

"Antebellum" is a tough movie to watch AND review. It's depiction of slavery is brutal, but the twist that brings it into genre territory is badly timed and ultimately disappointing.

"Antebellum" is a tough movie to watch AND review. It's depiction of slavery is brutal, but the twist that brings it into genre territory is badly timed and ultimately disappointing.