Scare-A-Thon Totals to Date:
Total Movies Watched: 1
Total First Time Views: 1
Amount raised for BOXVILLE: $63.50
Antebellum (2020) d. Gerard Bush / Christopher Renz (USA) (106 min) (1st viewing)
Addressing racism and especially the Black experience of slavery on film is an undoubtedly a sensitive task, especially within a horror film where realistic scenes of rape, torture, murder, and intimidation can easily be perceived as gratuitous. In the same way that the rape/revenge subgenre is predicated on the fact that we must first watch a woman being violated against her will in order to “enjoy” watching her mete out justice to those who wronged her, these scenes of unrelenting violence against people of color achieve their desired effect, such that shocked viewers’ sympathies inherently align with the onscreen oppressed.
