Antebellum (2020)★★☆☆☆

This movie is beautifully shot, fairly well acted…and way too long and brutal.

I have vague recollections of when this movie came out, or at least when it was being heavily marketed. But I was dealing with my own stuff in September 2020 (who wasn’t?), so I didn’t immediately rush out to see it, nor did I look much further into it after its release.

Well, I looked into it now, and the consensus is…not good. Robert Daniels, whose review of the Candyman remake I enjoyed, summed it up again in his writeup of this movie, calling it “exploitative, shallow horror.”

Other reviews like this one by Rendy Jones (subtitled “Janelle Monáe, fire your agent.”) were even harsher (and at least in Rendy’s case, supremely well thought-out and highly entertaining).

In fact, Cathal Gunning has a good write-up on Screenrant collecting and explaining many of the criticisms of the film.

So I guess I’m saying I agree with the majority rule on this one.