Master (2022)

Directed by Mariama Diallo. Starring Regina Hall, Zoe Renee, Amber Gray, Talia Balsam, Talia Ryder, Kara Young, Bruce Altman, Jennifer Dundas, Noa Fisher, Anna Van Patten, Ella Hunt, Will Hochman, Mary Catherine Wright. [R]

Initially-intriguing but ultimately-unsatisfying psychological horror film set at a prestigious New England university where systemic racism and witchcraft legends make life unsettling for student Renee and collegiate head of house Hall, both of them black and in the substantial minority on campus. A patchwork of social discomforts, racial microaggressions, supernatural visions/dreams, hot-button issues, ominous but clichéd threats, and clumsy satire; it deserves credit for its sensible message and sufficient atmospherics, but the directions the script takes are too often contrived beyond rhyme or reason. It’s a case of complexity without focus, as if the filmmakers had a lot on their minds but didn’t know how to sew them into the fabric of the story, and so many of those loose threads become pointless misdirections once the abrupt ending arrives. It may be a more compelling way to attack the problem than a conventional violent showdown or a “happy ending” spiked with spooky ambiguities, but turning so much fringe menace and conspiratorial suggestion into an everyday sort of panic is unlikely to please most viewers. Hall was also one of the executive producers.

47/100