Antebellum (film)

In a Louisiana slave plantation run by Confederate soldiers, enslaved Black people are treated harshly and not allowed to speak unless spoken to. Those who attempt to escape are killed and their bodies burned in a crematorium. After a failed escape attempt, a black man named Eli watches as his wife is murdered and her body is placed in the crematorium. A woman who had been assisting them is brutally beaten and branded by the general until she submits to being called Eden. A group of new enslaved Black people are brought to the plantation. Among them is a pregnant woman whom the general's daughter, Elizabeth, names Julia and places in the care of Eden. Julia asks Eden to plan an escape while Eden urges her to keep her head down. That evening, during a dinner where Julia and Eden are forced to wait on soldiers in the army, a shy Confederate soldier named Daniel is attracted to Julia and arranges to go to her cabin later. When Julia tries to play on his kindness and asks him to help her, he beats her for speaking when not spoken to, causing her to miscarry.

After being raped by the general in her cabin, Eden hears a ringing cell phone. In the modern era, a cell phone rings, awakening Eden, a renowned sociologist named Dr. Veronica Henley. She is preparing to take a trip to speak and promote her book, which is difficult because she has to leave her husband Nick and her daughter Kennedi. She has a bizarre online meeting with Elizabeth, leaving her uncomfortable, but she dismisses her feelings and cuts the meeting short.

While in Louisiana on her book tour, she meets acquaintances Dawn and Sarah and agrees to dine with them at a local restaurant. In the meantime, Elizabeth sneaks into her hotel room and steals her lipstick. Intending to return home early in the morning, Veronica leaves the restaurant in what she believes is her Uber ride, but it is a car driven by Elizabeth. Elizabeth's husband, Jasper, knocks Veronica unconscious.

At the plantation, Veronica discovers that Julia has hanged herself. Enraged, she tells Eli that they will escape that night. After being raped by the general again the following evening, she once again sneaks out of her cabin and steals the general's phone. Before she can call for help, she is interrupted by an intoxicated Daniel and another soldier who find the phone but are not suspicious, believing it dropped out of the general's bag.

When he is alone, Eli kills Daniel with a hatchet and retrieves the cell phone. As the phone can only be unlocked with facial recognition, Veronica returns to the cabin to find the general and is surprised to find he is awake. The general attacks both of them, and Eli is subsequently killed trying to protect Veronica. She stabs the general with his own bayonet and unlocks the phone, then uses GPS to send her location to her husband. Intending to hide the general in the crematorium, she is interrupted by Jasper. Veronica lures him and another soldier into the crematorium and sets fire to it, leaving the three men to burn to death as she steals the general's horse and rides off.

Elizabeth pursues Veronica on horseback and reveals that she handpicked every enslaved Black person on the plantation except for Veronica, whom she kidnapped at her father's insistence. Veronica knocks Elizabeth off her horse and puts a rope around her neck, dragging her until she hits the base of a Robert E. Lee statue, breaking her neck.

Veronica flees the pursuing soldiers into the chaos of a battle, revealing that the so-called plantation is part of a Civil War reenactment park called Antebellum, owned by Senator Blake Denton, who is posing as the general. Denton and his comrades intended to use the park to recreate chattel slavery using African-American victims. Veronica finally escapes as the police arrive.

The park is later shut down by the FBI, the enslaved Black people are rescued, and the park is destroyed.

In March 2019, it was announced Janelle Monáe had joined the cast of the film, with Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz directing from a screenplay they wrote. Ray Mansfield and Sean McKittrick serve as producers on the film under their QC Entertainment banner, and Lionsgate are distributors.^[5] In April 2019, Eric Lange, Jena Malone, Jack Huston, Kiersey Clemons, Tongayi Chirisa, Gabourey Sidibe, Robert Aramayo and Lily Cowles joined the cast of the film.^[6] In May 2019, Marque Richardson joined the cast of the film.^[7]

Principal photography began in May 2019 around New Orleans, Louisiana.^[8]

Antebellum was released through video on demand in the United States on September 18, 2020, while still playing in theaters in select countries.^[9] This includes a theatrical release in Australia on October 1, 2020.^[10] The film was originally scheduled to be released on April 24, 2020, but was pulled off the schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic, then was rescheduled to August 21, 2020, before being pulled off the release schedule again in July 2020.^[11][12][13]