Not a rip off, but a Peele off.
Antebellum is your big brother going into a huge build up before he wrenches your arm behind your back: there's a lot of exaggeration before we get to the forced twist, and much of it is painful.
On a technical level, there's much worth keeping here but as concerns the story, this does not beg a re-watch.
An opportunity completely waste, it had the potential to be a good story but turned out to be drivel. zero character development throughout.
It is obvious that it wanted to be a political statement but it failed in that too as it did in everything else about this movie.
Please save yourself 100 or so minutes by not watching this, try something else, anything else
I definitely think this deserves a 7 or an 8. There were some issues I had with this; shallow plot and poor development, no explanation behind motivations except racism, which makes for a funny feeling afterwards.
Veronica is a successful and educated woman who has written books on intersectionality around race and been part of many political debates in her career. She's married with a cute daughter and lives a happy, carefree life with her husband.
In the distant past, Eden is a slave who lives a systemic, abusive life as part of a plantation run by Confederate soldiers who have kidnapped her from her normal life (based on the introduction of new slaves to the compound). At the start of the movie we see that she has been caught after escaping and another couple faces execution for being part of the plot.
These two stories slowly come together over the course of the film. The camera shots are dramatic albeit quite common and tense scenes are brought up by loud and erratic orchestral pieces. I honestly felt shock and horror as the plot unravels and thought it was very clever in the end. I loved the sense of helplessness and the reality of the slaves was made more horrible by the twists in the movie.
This movie was maybe a bit less than 2 hours, but I felt that a lot of content could have been utilised better. Some more background development for the villains, which were disgusting people (but their actions were never something people reacted to(?)), and some more information about what was happening in Victoria's life would have been greatly appreciated.
Spoilers ahead.
I felt like the scene with the hotel room was a massive throw away and didnt contribute at all to the story since we never see Veronica react to it; all her documents being thrown around, her toilet having piss in it, did she honestly believe the hotel staff did that?
We only have one or two scenes explaining her job and career, barely enough to contribute to the reason for her kidnapping. Plus the cult that re-enacted colonial USA is never confronted by anyone - until the FBI. Surely a string of highly educated and controversial black people disappearing would raise red flags? - the black man that is killed by the colonel was called professor by Veronica.
However, I must admit I felt like something funny was happening from the start; only the white people have accents, which they drop when with other whites, and the black "slaves" all have neat eyebrows and piercings. I also felt like the butterfly motif was a massive red herring.
Overall an interesting film but not as deep as the other two the producer backed.
I read so many negative reviewss that I watched it with low expectations. Ended up liking it. I understand where critics come from (the slavery movie fatigue IS real and the opening minutes are hard enough to make some people turn it off -and others take pleasure in what they see) but I disagree. This was not that different than The Hunt.
I thought this was like Kindred, but it’s more like Get Out. People aren’t well read enough to know that this is a spin on Octavia Butler’s book.
An opportunistic film that achieves a certain nightmare atmosphere, but has such an absurd premise that its development is implausible. When you need to tell a story in a fragmented way to extend the plot, the script has serious problems. The film wants to be provocative, but also politically correct and in this aspect it borders on ridicule. At least the soundtrack stands out, which manages to convey more than the images.
Ignore the poor reviews and watch this clever movie unfold before your eyes. I really enjoyed this - from the shocking title sequence panning shot, through the WTF moments that mess with your head to the big reveal ending. The movie was well paced, photographed, acted and written. Yes, it was a bold statement piece with plot similarities to a certain M Night Shyamalan film, but those points aside - cracking entertainment that was at times uncomfortable and unforgettable. Moving and shocking in equal measure. You have been warned. 8/10
There’s 105 minutes of my life I’ll never get back. What a terrible movie. The best moments are the opening sequences, which are beautifully shot, to an interesting score. Should have turned it off after that.
I've seen worse movies, but this doesn't mean it's not a bad movie. Clever "twist" I guess, but it's a tired theme that's been done before, and a lot recently, and more over there's no investment in the characters to make you give a damn about them so why should I care about what happens to them in the movie?
WTF! This is crap! Do not waste your time.
This is heavy handed in its message to say the least. I think the correlations the movie makes aren’t bad. However, it’s framing story has been done in better ways. The twist is painfully obvious. It fails fails the number one rule of thriller/suspense, leave the audience guessing. It’s a shame this movie didn’t have better writers that could have crafted the narrative better and make it more suspenseful.
Very familiar to a film you will have seen below. No spoilers here though, and while its not original, it does hold power of its own. Not a classic - it had the potential to be better - but undeserving of the poor critical scores it has received in some quarters.
reenacting war, only in america ..
the cast and the cinematography carried this through the occasionally confused plot well enough that i think it's a good movie at the end of the day. there are some weird choices for sure with the pacing and the timeline. but to be fair, while i spent half the movie completely unsure what was actually going on, i was still interested the whole way through. i think those were intentional decisions, because as soon as it clicked that this wasn't some weird nightmare or virtual reality situation and she'd been kidnapped i was that much more horrified by all the violence leading up to it. plus there were hints early on now that i think back on it.
this is one of the few movies where i would've liked a more extended epilogue. the short credit scenes were a satisfying end, but with veronica being an active voice on news channels and a relatively known author, i feel like they could have brought it back full circle with that first news segment. the remark that it wasn't over, though. like man i know it's just a movie but i want some reassurance that they all got hella murdered
elizabeth's death scene was the best part tbh god it took so long to shut her up
This movie isn't a horror it's pure drama. The first 30 minutes are hard to go through it doesn't make sense at all. Later it becomes a bit better but I expected so much more of it.
Janelle is still in Geist and is sent for treatment to the get out camp
As a piece of fiction, I think this is a pretty good movie. It is quite unfortunate that a major plot point was already revealed in the trailer.
Some people will not like this movie because it goes in pretty deep on racial tensions between black and white people. It's a movie, some things are going to be overplayed. A lot of movies about real problems are exaggerated, it doesn't make it a bad movie per se.
Take a chill pill and enjoy the movie.
Egalitarian. Entire audience is the victim.
The performance from Janelle saved this movie
A subject seen in movies before but told from a new perspective , you can feel it strecthes in the second act that you start getting bored
An okay one
what was the scene in the taxi about??? how does that even remotely make any sense at all?!?!
As with all movies concerning this topic, witnessing the grotesque actions of the slavers is difficult to endure. Luckily, the second act helps ease that suffering. Much better than expected and worth at least a watch.
Detractors of this film comment that this film’s premise is absurd, yet completely ignore the fact that abduction and control are implements used to achieve slavery.
I understand the insecurities of others who are different than us. But, don't allow that to corrupt your soul. We should all not divide between races, but realize that we are one race, Human.
What the.. Yea sure horror genre... more like a political message movie sigh. I thought this might be an interesting story to watch, but was soon disappointed by the continual political and stereotypical portraits, which results in a predictable and very poorly put together film. Black lives matter theme throughout - hooray thanks for reminding the dumb viewers that all humans are equal, Captain Obvious... -.-
It's like 2 movies in one. The first 40 minutes are very good. Then it turns into, ironically, a movie about entitled rich people with no worries in the world.
This movie, in my opinion, provokes fear, which in not a good thing.
I'm not sure if our current political, social, and racial environment is the exact right or exact wrong time for this movie. It certainly tries to make several points, I'm just not sure they hit the target. The movie keeps you guessing until the very end as to what is actually going on, and once you understand it - I'm not sure it is even really believable. Yet it is interesting.
A horrifying reality all right, ANTEBELLUM really is a twisted nightmare that could have been better with a little extra plot or a more innovative twist but it still a creepy story with a powerful protagonist and bone chilling antagonists that you only wish that they could be punished even worse. It has powerful elements and beautiful yet nightmarish visuals, but it doesn't live up entirely to its premise.
Shout by StimVIP 4BlockedParent2020-09-28T09:22:46Z
This is a meandering, badly acted , self indulgent mess. If you are having trouble sleeping put this on.