“Antebellum” Review: Intriguing Idea, but Poorly Executed

Antebellum is written and directed by Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz in their feature film debut and stars Janelle Monáe as Veronica Henley, a successful author who finds herself trapped inside a terrifying reality on a slave plantation and must figure out how to escape before it's too late.

Perhaps the greatest thing about this film is the strong concept. The concept is very intriguing and really lures you to this film, however what really carries the film is the cast. Janelle Monáe is incredible is this film! The way the script is written develops her character really well and really allows you to sympathize with her character, which dosen’t happen often. Another really strong cast member is Gabourey Sidibe as Dawn, one of Veronica's friends. She provides all of the comic relief in the film and she had me laughing out loud several times. Something else I really liked about thos film is the pacing. The film never drags in the slightest and because it dosen’t feel boring it has a really captivating feeling.

My main praise about this film is the production designs. This film is beautifully shot and every frame is filled with bold colors, and stunning camerawork. The score here is also spectular. The opening scene is one of the most beautiful yet haunting pieces of cinema I have ever seen in a film to date, and the score really contributes to that.

While there are many things to praise with this film, this film is far from perfect. One criticism I'd like to discuss is the extreme lack of horror elements. This film is marketed as a horror film, however for most of the movie, there is nothing scary in the slightest and one you realize the direction the story is going, it becomes more silly than anything. The film is also very predictable. I was able to predict the ending 50 minutes into the film and once it happened it was I was just like “oh, okay”. The ending of this film is a disgrace to this concept. As soon as the twist is revealed, it pretty much throws away everything this film could've been building up to.

This film is okay. While it may be beautifully shot, filled with great performances, and be far from boring. All of the problem lie in the execution. There's practically nothing scary about it, and the ending is extremely predictable and aggravating, and it throws away everything this film could’ve been.

Final Grade: C+

In the future, I will be experimenting with a different release format. While this review can be found on this website, it will also be published on my Facebook page, Matthew's Movie Reviews. I will be doing this for most of my reviews, however I will occasionally have some reviews that will be exclusive to the website. As always thank you to everyone for reading this review! If you enjoyed it make sure to like, share, and subscribe to my website for many more reviews coming very soon.