20 Most Disappointing Horror Movies of the 2020s (So Far)

17. Antebellum

Antebellum is a textbook example of a horror film that simply failed to live up to its magnetic marketing. 

The trailers were purposefully vague in detailing the particulars of how Janelle Monáe's modern-day protagonist ended up in a Louisiana slave plantation, though led many to believe that the plot would involve time travel.

The apparent idea, of a contemporary Black woman being captured by white supremacists and sent back through time to live out her life on a plantation, is rife with dark potential, aided by marketing which basically sold it as a Jordan Peele-adjacent socially conscious horror film (despite Peele having no involvement with it).

Yet even with a stellar central performance from Janelle Monáe, Antebellum wasn't really this movie at all - time travel's got nothing to do with it. 

And even if you can forgive its shambolic final twist, the film's early momentum grinds to a halt by act two, at which point it becomes a decidedly less interesting slog all the way to the finish.