Regina Hall’s newest movie, “Master,” will have the hairs on the back of your neck standing up if the new trailer is anything to go by.
Directed by Mariama Diallo, Hall stars as Professor Gail Bishop, the first Black woman to hold the title of residence hall Master at the prestigious Ancaster College.
Professor Bishop finds herself drawn to freshman Jasmine Moore (Zoe Renee), who lives in one of the college’s haunted rooms. Jasmine also clashes with Professor Liv Beckman (Amber Gray), who is caught up in her own racially charged tenure review. Gail tries to keep things together in her new role as “Master,” but the school’s dark past refuses to die.
Speaking to IndieWire, Diallo says the movie tackles the concept that “horror films made by Black artists are being received as kind of teaching tools for non-Black artists to receive” as novelties.
“How could I never make a film and not talk about my perspective? Then we’re doomed,” Diallo said. “I am glad to be able to now add my voice and say what the hell I want to say.”
Speaking to Teen Vogue last month, Diallo came that the concept of the movie all began with the title.
“I found it so evocative, interesting, and multifaceted in terms of its multiple definitions,” she explained.
“So that was the first little spark, and then I knew that I wanted to follow a character who was a Black woman who had been named “master,” in this academic sense, and see how that forced change on her or did not force change on her behavior and her perspective. She continued, “I would also think about this kind of snowy Northeastern campus, where it feels like as you’re going towards that first semester in late August, it’s just like this descent into a very isolating, forbidding feeling. It gets cold. It gets dark, your friends get pulled away, it gets lonely and then experiencing that slow slide to the darkest of winter. That’s such a visceral experience at those places that started to swirl around these different ideas as well.”
“Master” will be available in theaters and globally on Prime Video March 18.
