MASTER (2022)

Studio:     Amazon Studios
Director:    Mariama Diallo
Writer:     Mariama Diallo
Producer:  Joshua Astrachan, Brad Becker-Parton, Andrea Roa
Stars:     Regina Hall, Zoe Renee, Talia Ryder, Talia Balsam, Amber Gray, Ella Hunt, Noa Fisher, Kara Young, Bruce Altman, Jennifer Dundas, Joel de la Fuente

Review Score:

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Summary:

The eerie experiences of a Black student, a dean, and a professor intersect at a predominantly white university with a haunted history.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Black freshman Jasmine Moore arrives at Ancaster University, a historic college whose faculty and students are predominantly white. Jasmine learns she will be living in “the room,” although the welcoming committee doesn’t explain what that means. Jasmine meets her white roommate Amelia.

Gail Bishop becomes the school’s first Black housemaster as she assumes dean duties for Jasmine’s dorm. While addressing her residents, Gail amusedly mentions the legend of Margaret Millett, an accused witch who was hanged on the campus grounds on December 3rd, 1694. Gail also maintains a close friendship with literature professor Liv Beckman, who is also Black.

At a party, Jasmine is casually told to clean up someone else’s dropped drink. In an effort to make new friends, Jasmine reveals she is prone to sleepwalking. A Black cafeteria worker who is pleasant with white students treats Jasmine rudely. Jasmine has a vision of the founder’s face morphing into a skull on his painted portrait. Later on, Amelia’s friends decline to pay back Jasmine for pizza she purchased.

Jasmine returns to her room one evening to find Amelia hosting a small party with friends. Without asking her permission, Amelia remarks that Jasmine won’t mind people smoking and sitting on her bed. Jasmine grins through everyone jokingly identifying her as various Black celebrities.

Amelia’s boyfriend Tyler takes an interest in Jasmine. When someone mentions that a girl died in that same room in the 1950s, Tyler remarks that Margaret Millett cursed the whole school. Tyler tells of someone else jumping out of the room’s window as he recounts an urban legend that the witch chooses to show herself to one freshman every year. Then one night at 3:33am, the time when Margaret died, she takes that student with her to Hell.

Liv teaches “The Scarlet Letter” as a metaphor for racism. Frustrated by the connotation, Jasmine contends that she doesn’t see the allegory since all of the characters are white. Liv openly compliments a white classmate, Cressida, who counters Jasmine’s viewpoint.

Gail hosts a party for fellow masters including Brian and Diandra. In discussing her possible rise to the university’s presidency, Brian and Diandra jokingly call Gail “Barack.” Gail finds a mammy cookie jar among her campus home’s curios, in addition to a photo of a Black maid found earlier. Afterward, Gail discusses the discomfort of being a minority at Ancaster with Liv.

Jasmine notices a portrait of Margaret Millett in the school library. Jasmine has an awkward experience when she sets off a theft detector and a librarian asks to search her book bag.

Jasmine wakes at 3:33am following a sleepwalking spell. Jasmine finds bloody scratches on her arm.

Jasmine meets with Liv to discuss her essay on “The Scarlet Letter.” Jasmine feels belittled by the professor when she dismisses Jasmine’s confusion over the supposed racial theme.

Jasmine researches rumors of what happened in her room. A 1965 newspaper dated to December 4th reveals that Black freshman Louisa Weeks was found dead by hanging in the same room. A dark shape seemingly haunts Jasmine while she showers later.

Upon learning Cressida received a B and she received an F on their “The Scarlet Letter” papers, Jasmine asks Gail to open a dispute against Liv. Jasmine insists that the problem is with the professor, not with her understanding of the material.

The masters meet to discuss awarding tenure to Liv. Diandra questions if Gail can be impartial since Liv is her friend, which leads to Gail doubting her personal convictions. The masters become concerned when Gail mentions Jasmine’s complaint, so they table their discussion pending a performance review.

A concerned mother named Esther Bickert calls Gail to discuss her daughter Elizabeth. Gail insists that such calls should go to administration and hangs up on the woman.

While another master revises her speech over the phone, Gail becomes startled by a swarm of maggots found in her kitchen. After finding a box of troubling old papers with racist imagery, Gail sees a moth fly out of her eye and maggots spill out of a tear in her mouth on her personal master portrait. Gail goes to stay with Liv while her residence is fumigated.

Initially denied entry, Jasmine attends another party. Jasmine becomes uncomfortable when everyone sings along to music with offensive lyrics. Tyler flirts with Jasmine as they drink shots together. Amelia walks in on Tyler and Jasmine kissing, which creates a rift between the roommates.

Jasmine has a nightmare of shadowy figures following her. Gail comes to see Jasmine and finds the word “leave” carved into her door and a noose hanging on the knob. Gail questions Jasmine and Amelia about the troubling warning, but they say nothing about the tension between them. Afterward, Amelia tells Jasmine that she hates her.

Jasmine has a nightmare involving a historical tour of the campus and a dark figure crawling through her window. Jasmine wakes to find marks around her throat. Amelia insists she wasn’t responsible.

Jasmine finds Louisa Weeks’ file of personal effects in an archive. Louisa’s diary discusses strange noises, someone being in her room, and friends and family no longer speaking to her. Louisa concludes Margaret’s curse is making her miserable.

While jogging together, Gail and Liv spot several members of the local community who still live like it’s the 18th century due to being descendents of the original settlers. While jogging alone later, Gail sees community members holding a cemetery vigil.

While jogging in those same woods at night, Gail sees two boys running away from Amelia, who is in a disheveled state. Amelia refuses Gail’s request to take her to an infirmary by saying she can’t go through that experience “again.” Gail goes to Jasmine’s room to retrieve fresh clothes for Amelia and finds a defaced photo of Jasmine on the door.

Jasmine runs into Liv. Jasmine mentions she will be staying on campus alone through Thanksgiving break, even though she lies in a letter to her mother that she will spend the holiday with a friend’s family. Liv cheerfully tells Jasmine that despite her official grievance, there doesn’t need to be any animosity or awkwardness between them. Jasmine returns to her room to find Amelia packing to leave school permanently.

After a smoke alarm frightens Gail and Jasmine, they discover that a burning cross is the cause. The school subsequently announces a new program for promoting diversity.

A fellow Black student commiserates with Jasmine in a bathroom. Jasmine mentions her nightmares. The other student invites Jasmine to join her at a Black student union meeting where she can feel a true sense of community. Cressida and another girl interrupt. The other student cryptically says, “You’re not wrong” to Jasmine on her way out. Cressida and her friend laugh off the idea of joining a clique-ish group.

Liv meets with the masters for her tenure review. When the review board cites Liv’s lack of publishing along with Jasmine’s dispute as concerns, Liv accuses the school of working harder to undermine her career than to root out the racist terrorizing students. Liv contends she is being made a scapegoat while they should be doing something about what’s happening to Jasmine.

On December 3rd, the anniversary of Margaret Millett’s death, Jasmine reads more of Louisa’s diary. Louisa writes about a ghost dragging a rope. Jasmine finds a secret page that mentions Margaret and 3:33am.

After leaving the library, Jasmine flees from a cloaked figure. Unable to get into Gail’s residence, Jasmine runs back to her dorm. Someone tries to enter Jasmine’s room at 3:33am. Frightened, Jasmine leaps out of her window to escape.

Jasmine recovers from her fall in a hospital. Jasmine tells Gail she was trying to get away from the witch. Gail tells Jasmine that the witch isn’t real and that systemic racism is what’s actually haunting her.

An elderly woman in a neighboring hospital bed refers to Jasmine as “Margie.” The woman cryptically warns, “It’s too late, they’re almost here.” When Jasmine reaches for her, the woman angrily admonishes Jasmine for attempting to touch her and declares, “This is my house.”

Liv sees Jasmine return to campus in a disheveled state. Liv says she doesn’t think it is a good idea for Jasmine to be there. Jasmine counters that it doesn’t matter where she goes because “it’s everywhere.”

Gail becomes concerned when she notices a light on in Jasmine’s room. Gail enters to find Jasmine hanging from a noose.

Liv and Gail discuss Jasmine’s death, which paves the way for Liv to receive tenure. Although Gail remains distraught, Liv remarks that she finally feels like she has a place where she belongs now. Gale becomes confused when Liv mentions having a brother, because Liv previously told her she was an only child.

Following repeated phone calls, Gail finally agrees to meet with Esther Bickert about her daughter Liz. Esther turns out to be a member of the cloistered community. Esther shows Gail a photograph of her daughter that Gail recognizes as Liv. Esther claims Liz left their community, changed her name to Liv, and now refuses to speak to her family. Esther goes on to claim that Liv isn’t actually Black and the devil is now inside her.

Gail confronts Liv about this revelation at a party celebrating Liv’s tenure. Gail accuses the masters who defend Liv as being so divorced from reality that they can’t tell Black from white. Gail blames herself for failing Jasmine as she realizes she changed nothing at the university, and is more of a maid than a master. Gail notes that Jasmine will haunt her for the rest of her life.

Liv speaks to Gail privately. Liv claims she really is Black, but Esther told her she would go to Hell for being the bastard child of a Black man, which is what actually led to her being ostracized. Gail is uncertain what to believe.

Gail sees that every white male master at the party resembles a face from portraits of previous masters. Gail concludes nothing will ever change.

On her way across campus, a cop stops Gail for looking suspicious. The officer allows Gail to go when she tells him she doesn’t work there anymore and is about to leave the grounds permanently.

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Review:

Shortly before “Master” released wide on Prime Video, a bit of a brouhaha resulted in backlash for a critic who said he couldn’t connect with Pixar’s “Turning Red.” He felt the animated family film was tailored too specifically to Asians living in Toronto, which in turn limited its appeal.

A digital dogpile immediately ensued. Seeing that stance as obliviously ignorant discrimination, comments cynically countered with questions like, do you have to be a fish to find the heart in “Finding Nemo,” or an anthropomorphic deer to relate to the tragic loss of a parent?

This controversy came to mind when I watched “Master,” a movie that follows the intersecting arcs of three Black women in different stations at a mostly white university with a haunted history. To be perfectly frank, that “Turning Red” take reminded me that when you’re speaking about stories that represent demographics you don’t belong to, you’d better be cognizant of your cultural blindspots and tread more thoughtfully to avoid sounding tone-deaf. It’s why, as a white man covering “Master,” I hope I’m not undermining writer/director Mariama Diallo’s intentions with my take, which I also hope anyone prone to acting out of antagonism accepts in good faith.

I had the opposite thought about “Master” than the other guy had about “Turning Red.” “Master” is inextricably immersed in the experience of facing passive-aggressive, and aggressive, pressures from systemic racism at a revered institution. However, even though the story illustrates demoralizing struggles specific to Black women, you don’t need to be one yourself to be frightened by the fears they face. It isn’t merely a matter of observing from a position of privilege and applying sympathy, empathy, or even pity either. Beneath their race-based adversities lurk broader problems like disenfranchisement, gaslighting, altering personal identity to be more popularly acceptable, ignoring inconvenient truths, and avoiding conflict to keep things copacetic. These universal nightmares aren’t exclusive to gender, ethnicity, or orientation. Anyone who can’t see themselves relating to “Master’s” thematic horror is lucky to live a charmed life.

The movie’s symbols aren’t hard to see. Whether she’s the only freshman wearing an overwhelmed expression in a sea of cheerfully relaxed smiles, or sitting next to a backpack on the only empty chair in a crowded room, “Master’s” visuals repeatedly mirror new student Jasmine Moore’s gradual transformation from optimistic to ostracized.

Initially undeterred by the way fellow students treat her as a novelty, Jasmine tries to grin and bear it as best as she can. Upon finding her roommate’s friends making themselves comfortable on her bed, Jasmine attempts to endear herself by playfully inviting everyone to guess who she is. Their answers range from Beyonce to Lizzo to one of the Williams sisters as tolerance slowly leaks out of Jasmine’s disappointed laugh. It’s no coincidence that in the following scene, Jasmine wears her hair inconspicuously straight instead of sticking with the afro that made her silhouette striking.

Gail Bishop encounters similar condescension in a higher circle. Becoming the school’s first Black housemaster should inspire pride as she oversees students in Jasmine’s dorm. But leftover artifacts like a mammy cookie jar and housemaid photo found among her furnishings remind her she may be welcomed, but she may not truly belong. Self-doubt starts sapping formerly rock-solid confidence as casual comments from white peers further the nagging notion that the school may not be as separated from its problematic past as its promotional videos about diversity would have outsiders believe.

Conversely, Gail’s good friend Liv Beckman, a literature professor who is also Black, seems to have acclimated to academia. Although sympathetic to Gail’s growing frustration, Liv adopts an attitude that permits her to enjoy the perks of being a prominent professor. She teaches “The Scarlet Letter” as an allegory about racism, which confounds Jasmine since all of that book’s characters are white.

“Master” doesn’t do the best job of making Gail a maternal mentor to Jasmine. The impact of later scenes requires their relationship to be the strongest throughline in the film. Arguably, it is, but mostly in relation to how coldly other interpersonal interactions are portrayed. “Master” makes curious creative choices with scene structure, which is why we end up with several repetitive sequences of Gail jogging, yet not as many of her and Jasmine bonding.

The movie employs an unusual narrative style as it tells the tale of Jasmine feeling haunted by a legendary witch, and how her escalating mental torment pulls in Gail and Liv at opposite ends. Most of the momentum’s hiccups come from nonlinear editing. “Master” doesn’t make major leaps on its timeline, but it will try techniques such as juxtaposing concurrent scenes featuring the same character.

In one sequence, Jasmine flees from a cloaked figure while the camera also cuts back to clips of her reading worrying notes in a suicide victim’s diary. In a similar setup, two people discuss someone’s death while we simultaneously see shots of them attending a vigil for the same person. There’s no need for these events to be strictly chronological, although the more “Master” pairs two asynchronous threads together, the easier it is to lose sight of what it wants to be seen as important. Jasmine regularly experiences vivid nightmares too, so it isn’t always clear what’s a dream and what’s a quick flashback to something as simple as seeing a certain someone in a hallway.

Different people are going to get different things out of “Master” depending on what they expect and what they’re willing to take away. Hardcore horror fans hoping for uncomplicated supernatural suspense with witches, curses, and ghosts will get less than anyone else. Unlike some thrillers themed around timely topics, it’s impossible to divorce “Master’s” entertainment value from its social relevance because of how integral its commentary is to the horror’s context. There’s little leeway for interpretation to see the supposed witch as anything other than a direct metaphor for a frightening fear that influences your actions and shapes your personality.

Since movies dealing with race can be tricky to talk about, I often imagine having to head off predictable gripes from people whose faces flush red and whose boxers turn brown at words like inclusion, representation, and critical race theory. Then I try to remember that any fright film fan who finds nothing offensive about the confederate flag won’t watch “Master” in the first place. They’ll complain about it, but they won’t watch it.

For anyone open to examinations of experiences outside their everyday norms, and for those who’ve had the unpleasantness of dealing with those circumstances directly, “Master” rings a different bell of dread than a traditional horror film. You certainly don’t need to be a confused college student, a Black woman adjusting to a belittling environment, or an Asian living in Toronto to see “Master’s” message that true terror can traumatize anyone through haunting helplessness and debilitating despair.

Review Score: 70

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