'Master' Review: Witches Are Scary. Racism Is Scarier

Arlington TX

25 January, 2022

5:53 PM

Description

By Joe Friar, Fort Worth Report January 25, 2022 A quarter of a century after John Singleton's "Higher Learning" examined racism and sexual assault at the college level, Brooklyn-based writer-director Mariama Diallo heads back to campus using folklore and horror imagery to remind us that little has changed over time. Regina Hall plays the new dean of students, aka "Master," at an elite New England university where the ghost of a woman accused of witchcraft and hanged around the time of the Salem witch trials is rumored to haunt the campus. Jasmine (Zoe Renee), an incoming freshman, suddenly finds herself the target of supernatural forces and hair-raising prejudice. Diallo first arrived at Sundance in 2018 with the short film "Hair Wolf." Four years later she returns with her feature debut competing in the US Dramatic category. As a Black filmmaker using horror as a social platform, she's in good company, following in the footsteps of Jordan Peele who premiered "Get Out" at Sundance in 2017. When you think of witchcraft and school, Dario Argento's "Suspiria" comes to mind. But apart from a brief party scene, the only dancing in "Master" is done by the administration at the film's fictional Ancaster College as they shuffle around the real issue at hand, racism. Most of the student body, professors, and administrators are white. The exception is newly-arrived freshman Jasmine Moore (Zoe Renee), her literary professor, Liv Beckman (Amber Gray), who uses fashion to embrace her heritage, and Gail Bishop (Regina Hall) who just became the school's first Black "Master" or dean of students. To read the full article, click here. Fort Worth Report is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that produces factual, in-depth journalism about city and county government, schools, healthcare, business, and arts and culture in Tarrant County. Always free to read; subscribe to newsletters, read coverage or support our newsroom at fortworthreport.org.