Antebellum (2021) Review

After a disruptive release schedule Antebellum has finally made its way to the UK on Sky and I watched it today and here is my review for it. The premise of the film sees a woman trapped in a terrifying scenario and how she adapts to life within it. 

Main Character

Janelle Monae plays the lead in this film and I thought she was decent here. Her character goes through a lot in this film and you do really sympathise for her and Monae does a good job of telling that particular story. But the issue is that there isn't a huge amount of depth to her character and we don't learn enough, I don't want to go into depth because this film is guarded in secrecy but I think the fact there isn't enough meat to the role is what holds it back. 

Supporting Characters

There are a few supporting characters but in my opinion only one of them was that memorable and that was Kiersey Clemons. She isn't in the film a huge amount but she is the highlight of every scene she is in and you really grow to care about her and I felt like maybe the film would have been more effective if she had been the main character of the film. But the rest of the cast are paper thin, the bad guys are cliché and offer nothing unique and new to their roles and the friends of Monae's character are just annoying and really took away from the film. 

Story 

The story is interesting, there is no doubt it keeps you guessing throughout and I can't deny that I was intrigued as the story went on and then the twist came and I thought it was a good idea and something I didn't see coming. But then it all comes down to execution and that is sorely lacking here, the plot deviates too much in its second act and takes too long to get going to the point where the story gets interesting. Then the last act is a bit all over the place with plot holes and stupidity coming from plenty of different places. 

Script

Easily the worst part of the film for me. The script has no bite to it, this film has serious subject matters but the script doesn't convey them well enough and you will have seen plenty of films that have done it way better and made you feel plenty of emotions. Also don't get me started on the humour, it is awful and made one particular character the most annoying character you will see in any film that there is. 

Style 

This film looks great, the film is shot beautifully with cinematography that rises this pretty small scale film above the really bad level. However, the film is just too slow for me and takes too long to get to its point which takes interesting ideas and stretches them out for way too long. 

Overall

Overall, Antebellum is a below average film. It has a few nice ideas but doesn't execute them well enough to be at the level it wants to be. I would say unless you are a huge fan of thriller/horror then give this a skip it isn't that good. 

Rating - 4/10