New Movie Review: Antebellum (No Spoilers)

Antebellum is a new horror movie about a black author named Veronica Henley who somehow gets mixed up in time and must escape a plantation in the Antebellum South.  It was originally supposed to come out back in April of this year, but it was postponed due to the pandemic.  It was rescheduled for August, but then it got pushed back a second time, and it finally came out through VOD on September 18.

While I wasn't really sure what to expect going into this one, I was looking forward to it because it seemed to have an interesting premise and it's the first film intended for theatrical release (at least originally) that I've been able to see since theaters across the nation shut down around six months ago.  Unfortunately, I was really, really disappointed with it.  This movie is just plain bad.

For starters, for most of the film's runtime, I had no idea what it was about.  Sure, I knew the basic description I gave in my intro paragraph, but the movie doesn't clue you in to anything more than that until over an hour in.  It begins in the past, and for the entire time you're there, nothing that happens moves the plot forward.  It's all just a cinematic lecture about how bad slavery was, and it gets old really quickly.

Then, when you finally jump to the present, it gets a bit better, but it's still very light on actual plot.  You get to know the character of Veronica a bit, but you're still not sure where the narrative is headed.  Only when the two timelines begin to merge do you finally understand what the movie is actually about, but once that happens, the movie somehow gets even worse.

I don't want to spoil it in case you decide to see it, so I'll be vague.  Suffice it to say that you learn almost immediately how the two timelines get tangled, and the explanation for it is entirely underwhelming.  It fails on both the literal, narrative level and the metaphorical, thematic level.  As a narrative twist, it's downright bland.  It's way less interesting than the mystery it explains, much like how pulling back the curtain on a magic trick takes away the intrigue that makes you care about it in the first place.

And on the thematic level, it's a metaphor for racism that somehow manages to say both too much and too little at the same time.  At its best, it tells us that modern American racism has roots in slavery, but that's not news to anyone.  Everyone knows this, so it doesn't add anything to our national conversation about race relations or enrich anybody's understanding of the subject.  And at its worst, this narrative choice seems to equate modern racism with slavery, which is going way too far.  Yes, racism is definitely still a problem in our country today, but we've made significant progress nonetheless.  To imply that we haven't is just factually incorrect.

All of that being said, though, this movie does have a few bright spots.  The acting is pretty good (especially lead actress Janelle Monae); the transitions between the two timelines are really cool; and there are even a few times where they make you think you've switched timelines but you really haven't, and those shots are very well-done.

However, those bright spots are few and far between, so on the whole, I have to recommend that you give this movie a pass.  It fails to have anything new, interesting, or important to say about racism and race relations in America today, and it conveys its dull message with an equally dull narrative.  Simply put, there's just not much about this movie that makes it worth watching.

Hidden Gem Recommendation: The Taking of Deborah Logan

The Taking of Deborah Logan is a found footage possession movie from 2014 about a documentary film crew that spends some time with an Alzheimer's patient named Deborah Logan and her daughter Sarah.  Their purpose is to make a film about Deborah's disease, but they soon learn that she's afflicted by something much worse than just a neurological disorder.

Much like Relic from earlier this year, this film does a great job of depicting Alzheimer's and integrating it seamlessly with the supernatural.  Not only does it portray the disease accurately (my grandmother died from Alzheimer's, and much of what Deborah does in this movie reminds me of my family's experiences), but it also blurs the line between Alzheimer's and possession.  Up until the third act, you're never quite sure if Deborah's strange behavior is due to her illness or to supernatural forces, and that makes for an intriguing twist on the possession subgenre.

Along similar lines, the movie also eschews the traditional demon possession storyline that we've seen a million times since The Exorcist, instead giving you an original mythology and background to Deborah's affliction.  She's not just possessed by a demon who enjoys being a jerk for its own sake.  No, there's a specific reason why this supernatural force is targeting her, and the movie does a great job of slowly unraveling that mystery as the film goes on.

All of this works so well largely because of actress Jill Larson's performance as Deborah.  She does a fantastic job of portraying both an Alzheimer patient and a possession victim, sometimes simultaneously.  Up until the movie goes full-on supernatural, you can never quite tell if she's trying to act possessed or just ill.  In particular, she really excels at being calm but having a look of pure evil on her face.  Even without saying a word or moving a muscle, there are times when she just looks wrong, and that's as creepy as anything else in the film.

And speaking of creepy things, the scares in this movie are really well done too.  Director Adam Robitel takes full advantage of both the blurred line between Alzheimer's and possession and Jill Larson's ability to play both afflictions perfectly.  He knows when to be subtle and when to be more in your face; he knows when to have things jump out from the shadows and when to sit back and just let the creepy atmosphere work on its own.  Simply put, this guy knows how to make a horror movie, and it shows.

The only real issue I had with the film is that in a couple of scenes set in dark rooms, you can't help but wonder why the characters don't just turn the lights on.  That's admittedly a bit of a nitpick, and it by no means ruins the movie, but it's noticeable enough that it does take you out of those scenes a tiny bit.

Despite that one flaw, though, this is still a really good movie.  It has good acting, good scares, and most importantly, an intriguing twist on your basic possession storyline.  It's refreshing to see such an original film in such an overdone subgenre, so if you're a fan of supernatural horror in general or possession films in particular, you should definitely check out The Taking of Deborah Logan.  You do not want to miss this one.

Netflix Recommendation: May the Devil Take You

I've been thinking of doing Netflix recommendations for a while now, but I've been hesitant because movies can leave the service pretty quickly.  I wouldn't want to recommend something and then see it go away just a few weeks later.  But I decided to finally take the plunge with this one because it's a Netflix original, so it won't be leaving any time soon.

May the Devil Take You is an Indonesian film that came out in 2018, and it's about a young woman named Alfie who learns a dark secret about her father's past.  It starts off with a man named Lesmana (who we later learn is Alfie's father) making a deal with the devil, and then during the opening credits, we see a bunch of newspaper headlines that tell us about his immediate business success, his marriage to an actress after his first wife's suicide, and his eventual downfall.

When the story picks up again, he's in the hospital with a mysterious illness, and Alfie goes to visit him.  While there, she has a terrifying encounter with an evil spirit, so she decides to go to her father's old house and look for answers about his condition.  She bumps into her step-siblings and step-mother, and things quickly take a turn for the worse when the truth about Lesmana's past comes back to bite the ones he loves most.

Once the horror gets going, the film takes on a very Evil Dead kind of a feel.  Much of it is very reminiscent of that franchise, even down to some of the small details, but it never sinks to the level of cheap knockoff.  Writer/director Timo Tjahjanto takes elements from that beloved franchise and makes them his own in a way that feels comfortably familiar.

In fact, I was pretty impressed with Tjahjanto's directing in general.  The film had a number of pretty spooky scenes, and I thought he struck a good balance between showing a lot of gore while also letting some of it take place offscreen.  I never felt like the gore was over-the-top, but I also didn't find myself wanting the movie to show more.

In addition, Tjahjanto also shows a good feel for how long to linger on the suspenseful shots.  There are a few times where you know something bad is going to happen to one of the characters, and the film makes you suffer in white-knuckled anticipation for just the right amount of time before finally releasing the tension and unleashing the pain.

And speaking of the characters, they're another strength of this film.  While none of them are super fleshed out, I found them to be quite effective for the most part.  You dislike the ones you're supposed to dislike, and the rest are all quite likeable.  In particular, the main character Alfie and her step-brother Ruben are the standouts.  Alfie doesn't have a great relationship with her step-family, but Ruben is able to bridge that gap and connect with her in a way that I really appreciated.  It's nice to see genuine goodness and love in movie characters, especially in horror films filled with darkness and evil, and Alfie and Ruben's relationship is a bit of a bright spot in an otherwise rather bleak family situation.

All in all, I really enjoyed May the Devil Take You, and if you're a fan of gory supernatural horror (especially if you like the Evil Dead franchise), I think you'll enjoy it too.  Netflix original films usually aren't very good, but I was pleasantly surprised by this one.  While I have a few minor quibbles with it (for example, the characters made a few bizarre decisions that seemed to come entirely out of nowhere), I didn't notice any egregious flaws.  It's a fun, well-directed horror movie, so if you're looking for something to watch on Netflix, you should give this one a shot.

Classic Movie Recommendation: Re-Animator

Re-Animator is a cult classic from 1985 that's loosely based on H. P. Lovecraft's short story "Herbert West–Reanimator."  It's about a medical student named Herbert West who invents a serum that can revive the dead, and when he and his housemate Dan Cain begin to test the serum on humans, things go terribly awry.

For me, this film works on two levels.  On the one hand, it's a fun zombie movie that puts a different spin on the subgenre.  The vast majority of zombie films involve some sort of apocalypse where all the dead mysteriously begin to rise and the entire human race needs to fight for survival, but this one is different.  These zombies are scientifically reanimated, and depending on how soon after death they're revived, they can even retain some (or all) of their personality and intellect.  That makes for a unique story that stands out in the subgenre while still delivering on the gory fun we've come to expect from movies about the living dead.

But even more than the zombies, the real star of this show is Herbert West.  Actor Jeffrey Combs plays him with a focused intensity that borders on the psychotic but never goes quite that far.  The character lives on the thin line that separates genius from insanity, and Combs absolutely nails it.  Herbert is a treat to watch every time he's onscreen, and since he's the driving force of the story, you get a whole lot of that treat.

On the other hand, Re-Animator is much more than just a fun popcorn flick.  It's an extended meditation on death, grieving, and our futile attempts to put an end to those realities.  After beginning with a brief prologue introducing viewers to Herbert, the film quickly moves to Dan as he tries to revive a dying patient in a hospital.  His attempt fails, and it really upsets him, setting the tone for the rest of the story.  The shadow of death looms over the entire narrative, so the idea of a scientist who invents a way to revive the dead naturally plays as a metaphor for all of humanity's attempts to overcome death.

Unfortunately, Herbert's serum causes more trouble than it's worth.  The vast majority of the people he revives come back as more or less mindless animals with only the faintest hint of their former personalities, and the one person who comes back with all of his intellectual faculties intact ends up being the villain of the film.  So at the end of the day, all of Herbert and Dan's attempts to conquer death end in failure.  Humanity is no closer to finding a way to live forever than it was when the movie started, and the final scene really hammers this idea home.   It mirrors Dan's opening scene in a clever way, making it clear that humanity's fight against death is futile even with Herbert's reanimating serum.

While this obviously isn't a happy subject to talk or think much about, it's still a profound truth about human existence, and good art is supposed to capture those truths even when they're unpleasant.  That's exactly what this movie does, but it manages to do so with a really fun story, so it lessens the brunt.  It balances out the sadness of its theme with a whole lot of fun, and that makes the theme much more palatable than it otherwise would be.

So if you're looking for a movie that gives you the cinematic yin-yang of a deep theme wrapped up in a fun horror story, or if you want a zombie film that does something other than rehash the same premise we've seen a million times before, then give Re-Animator a shot.  It's not on the level of the all-time greats like The Exorcist or Halloween, but it's a legitimate horror classic that most fans of the genre will probably get a kick out of.  If you consider yourself a horror fan but haven't seen this one yet, you should definitely check it out.