Antebellum
Lionsgate | Release Date (Streaming): September 18, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
43
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
21
Negative:
11
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
VarietyPeter DebrugeAug 31, 2020
While Antebellum is no zombie movie, it treats systemic racism as a kind of contagion that refuses to die, eating the brains of successive generations. There’s only one way to stop it, and that’s by blowing the minds of all those infected — which is precisely the impact Antebellum achieves. Read full review
75
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiSep 18, 2020
A purely entertaining, scary flick will infuriate the culturati who like their movies like they like their Atlantic articles: long and academic. However, despite some issues, this Janelle Monáe film is a breathless watch. Read full review
75
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenSep 15, 2020
Antebellum—if you stick with it—reveals itself to be a sharp consideration of the lasting legacy of American slavery, right down to the present day. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliSep 14, 2020
The movie never loses sight of its twin objectives: maintain suspense and emphasize a message about the enduring, pernicious power of racism. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineHenry StewartSep 9, 2020
This is a film that employs imaginative twists to illuminate the racism that’s entrenched in American history and society. Read full review
75
USA TodayBrian TruittAug 31, 2020
What makes the new psychological thriller Antebellum effective, however, is not just studying the past of America’s original sin but deftly showing how it still paints our present day. Read full review
70
TimeStephanie ZacharekSep 18, 2020
Bush and Renz keep careful control over the tone: this is a tense, thoughtful picture that seeks both to entertain and provoke, rather than to simply punish its audience. It’s also very clearly a work of cathartic fantasy-horror with an underpinning in history, not a historical document, and it leans hard into its pulp sensibilities. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattSep 1, 2020
The star works valiantly to channel Eden/Veronica's pain and confusion, and the whole humanity of a life her captors so casually dismiss. As a performer, she commits utterly; if only the story could do the same. Read full review
60
The Irish TimesTara BradyAug 6, 2021
The big narrative rug-pull isn’t quite as smooth as it ought to be, but there’s plenty to admire here, including Monáe’s expressive eyes, Pedro Luque Briozzo’s unsettling camerawork, and a thrillingly vicious turn by Jena Malone. Read full review
60
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaAug 31, 2020
Antebellum feels curiously unfinished. Rushed, even. You catch a glimpse of what the filmmakers are going for here, but never entirely buy it. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubAnya StanleyAug 31, 2020
If only the filmmakers trusted their actors to convey the messages of this story, instead of burdening them with obvious, explanatory lines and speeches. Read full review
58
IndieWireDavid EhrlichAug 31, 2020
Antebellum might have been a movie that met this awful moment, but its confused attempt at seeing yesterday in today resolves as a throwback to a time when anyone could actually overlook it in good faith. Read full review
50
Rolling StoneK. Austin CollinsOct 8, 2020
Bolstered by the strength of its admirable and talented cast — which includes Kiersey Clemons, Gabourey Sidibe, Jena Malone, Tongayi Chirisa, and Jack Huston — the movie is good at getting a good number of ideas going at once. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrSep 24, 2020
It’s refreshing to see Monáe show what she can do as a lead, and her performance as Veronica possesses a wit and savvy that complement the performer’s natural poise. Read full review
50
ABC NewsPeter TraversSep 18, 2020
This socially-conscious horror film keeps tripping over its big ideas, but Janelle Monae—in her first starring film role—blazes with ferocity and feeling. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperSep 17, 2020
That this is such a well-made production, with passionate and strong performances from the stellar cast, makes it all the more exasperating. What a missed opportunity Read full review
50
The Associated PressLindsey BahrSep 17, 2020
Antebellum will inspire conversation, just probably not the one the filmmakers anticipated. Read full review
50
CNNBrian LowrySep 17, 2020
Antebellum is built around a provocative twist, and it's a good one -- as well as one that definitely shouldn't be spoiled even a little. Once that revelation is absorbed, however, the movie becomes less distinctive and inspired, reflecting an attempt to tap into the zeitgeist that made "Get Out" a breakthrough, without the same ability to pay off the premise. Read full review
50
Original-CinLiam LaceySep 16, 2020
A movie with a sincere social message and an exploitation movie sensibility, Antebellum is a clumsy cousin of Jordan Peele’s Get Out, an allegory of racism in a horror film about entrapment that goes wide of the mark. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzSep 16, 2020
Any film that reminds us that the work for equality is far from done is traveling a worthy path. This one just could have done it better. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleSep 16, 2020
Unfortunately, there’s a gulf between a great idea and competent execution, and this first feature, from writer-directors Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz, can’t bridge it. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreSep 10, 2020
As screenwriters, their First Best Destiny might be keeping a script doctor on speed dial. Their “mystery” isn’t nearly mysterious enough. And that three act structure makes for a grim, distressing and lumbering opening, a tense and bloody finale and a middle act — the one set in the modern day that “explains” what’s going on — that is as straight-up hackwork, a Tyler Perry fashion show meant to add dread but where rolling one’s eyes is the only proper response. Read full review
50
The Film StageJared MobarakSep 8, 2020
The filmmakers’ obvious ambitions fall prey to cinematic convention. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Sarah-Tai BlackSep 1, 2020
Antebellum is a film that lives smugly within its final reveal – and what’s worse, this reveal is more groan-inducing than anything else. Read full review
43
TheWrapSteve PondAug 31, 2020
Grounding a genre movie in the history of slavery and the resurgence of white nationalism is a dark and dramatic gamble that pulls “Antebellum” out of the horror genre and into social commentary, or at least makes it an intriguing mix of the two. It’s just too bad that the execution isn’t surehanded enough to live up to the ambition. Read full review
42
The PlaylistBeatrice LoayzaAug 31, 2020
There’s no room for introspection or difficult questions here. Antebellum therefore reads like the corporate spawn of “Black horror,” pieced together from Twitter anti-racist soundbites and crafted for maximum clout. Read full review
40
EmpireBen TravisApr 1, 2021
It’s an audacious swing — but ultimately a miss from a pair of filmmakers who know exactly what they want to say, and haven’t yet mastered how best to say it. Read full review
40
The GuardianEllen E JonesApr 1, 2021
Antebellum offers neither a coherent social commentary nor – thanks to its pat, ahistorical ending – a revenge thriller’s catharsis. What else, besides entertainment, could its purpose be? Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterJourdain SearlesAug 31, 2020
In the end, Antebellum is undone by a lack of empathy and emotion. It has no real perspective on the past and thus fails to make any real impact on the present. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireSep 17, 2020
While Antebellum is dazzling to the eyes, it also leaves an icky taste in your mouth in its leering, exploitative depiction of violent, slavery movie tropes. Read full review
37
Washington PostAnn HornadaySep 15, 2020
Even Monáe’s magnetism can't elevate Antebellum above roots that are firmly planted in the blood and soil of pulp exploitation, shaky liberal earnestness and rank opportunism. Read full review
33
ConsequenceJenn AdamsSep 16, 2020
Antebellum makes every moment meaningful or teachable. And under the strain of making its many, many points, Antebellum forgets to be a good movie, which is ultimately what draws audiences in and allows them to connect the dots for themselves. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesJen YamatoSep 17, 2020
Antebellum ultimately trips over its gimmicky plotting en route to a conclusion that rings false. Read full review
30
The New York TimesA.O. ScottSep 16, 2020
Written and directed by Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz, and propelled by the charisma of Janelle Monáe, it lines up moments of possible insight and impact and messes up just about all of them. Read full review
30
IGNSiddhant AdlakhaSep 3, 2020
The psychological thriller-horror film Antebellum mishandles its sensitive & painful subject matter on multiple levels. Read full review
20
The TelegraphTim RobeyApr 1, 2021
Antebellum doesn’t so much concertina the past and the present as do a leering jig back and forth, then blow you a callous raspberry instead. Read full review
20
The AtlanticDavid SimsSep 19, 2020
It loads up on visceral scares and disturbing imagery in service of a shallow film that feels like a gory theme-park ride showcasing the horrors of slavery. Read full review
20
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerSep 17, 2020
Neither inspired enough to work as a fable nor sufficiently grounded to bear up to even an instant of examination, Antebellum is a woeful misfire. Read full review
20
New York Magazine (Vulture)Angelica Jade BastienSep 14, 2020
Antebellum is ultimately a travesty of craft and filmmaking with a perspective that hollows out the Black experience in favor of wan horror. Read full review
10
PolygonRobert DanielsAug 31, 2020
Though the filmmakers hoped to balance the historical atrocities of slavery with contemporary racial oppression, Antebellum — yet another unnecessary slave movie — rarely feels like a horror flick. Instead, its needless brutality, ropy character work, and misguided twist make it easily 2020’s worst movie so far. Read full review
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