Film Review - Antebellum (2020)

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” William Faulkner’s simplistic view of history opens Antebellum and, as it’s also quoted later in the film, it must be significant. With a capital S. But, as the opening shots show a Civil War plantation – that hideous mix of gentility and elegance living cheek by jowl with appalling abuse and brutality – first time directors Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz don’t seem to be taking it too literally. To start with.

Eden (Janelle Monae) is one of a number of slaves working at on a cotton plantation run by the Confederate Army. It’s an infinitely cruel regime – killings, brandings, relentless mistreatment, especially against the women – and, as a new batch of slaves arrives, she’s plotting her escape. But the location switches and she’s now Veronica (also Monae), an academic and writer, specialising in equality and a key speaker at a conference. A recent TV interview where she crossed swords with a conservative pundit – and came out on top – has put her in the spotlight and she starts attracting some unwelcome attention. To reveal more about the narrative would be a step too far, so we’ll remain spoiler free.

It’s evident after the first twenty minutes or so that there’s something not quite right at the plantation, aside from the horrors going on. Some things simply don’t make sense and, when Eden wakes up to find herself in the present day and with not just another name but another life entirely, we’re being pulled in different directions. It’s an uncomfortable feeling. The film’s marketing makes much of its connections to Get Out and Us, the implication being that Jordan Peele had a hand in its making. He didn’t, and anybody expecting the style of allegory and commentary on race relations of those two titles is going to be sorely disappointed. They’ll feel the same about the horror element in the film, which is negligible, leaving us instead with something closer to a period thriller.

There are inevitable echoes of other slavery films – Django Unchained and Birth Of A Nation particularly – but if the narrative is inspired by any film maker, it’s M Night Shyamalan. For there’s a twist in the tail and, while we’ll keep its nature to ourselves, it’s one that stretches credulity so that, coupled with the absence of tension, the end result is flat, uninspired and not a little disconcerting. Thankfully, some strong performances hold on to our attention, Monae in particular who is on compelling form, and Eric Lange as the unpleasantly creepy owner of the plantation. If only some of the other slaves were fleshed out in the same way, but they provide little more than a backdrop to Eden/Veronica’s dangerous predicament.

The really sad thing about Antebellum is that, fundamentally, it’s based on a strong idea and the early sequences, while perhaps over-melodramatic, also point in that direction. That it doesn’t live up to its promise and ends up backing itself into a corner just makes you shake your head in disbelief at all that creative waste. And when the subject at its heart is so big and so important, it deserves more. And better.