Red Pill

Powerful and provocative, Red Pill by Tony Award winner Tonya Pinkins, is a gripping sociopolitical horror flick that found me sitting at the edge of my seat, crying and laughing at the same time, and then watching it again, immediately after the credits rolled. Rich with metaphor, satire, and the merging of history with contemporary issues, Red Pill breaks the mold of horror filmmaking. The multicultural cast of award-winning actors delivers nuanced and scintillating performances. Codified with sociocultural and political references, and teeming with symbolic imagery, Red Pill is a poetic feast. A brilliant and iconic work of art, Red Pill evokes conversation on issues critical to American history. Cutting edge and courageous filmmaking. Fantastical. Intellectual. Sophisticated. Surreal and yet so real.

I'm not a fan of horror films; there's enough horror in the world and this genre causes me so much anxiety. I watched Red Pill because I am such a Pinkins fan. It stunned me that this film was something of a cross between a great art house film and a scary but rivating commentary on the extremes of racism in America. What I found most interesting were the stretches of dialog that addressed so many realities of that racism. I have to applaud, as well, the reversal of roles, turning the white guy into the icky, misogynistic product of white supremacy. Nothing could be clearer on the whole history of this country than this film. And, yes, it was scary af! This is what a film by a Black writer/director can be when there are no whites to put their I-know-better-than-you-how-to-tell-your-story spin on it. Please, let us see more films by Black writers, directors, and producers.

Tonya Pinkins' film RED PILL is an artistic and, at times, even poetic yet muscular story that we all just went through. It is the nightmare we still can't wake up from. A collection of relatively ordinary people who want to improve their world drive into the rural South to Get Out the Vote before the 2020 election, and they walk right into a horror movie.

Folks, we have just been through this. Maybe this can help us wake up from the nightmare, or maybe not -- maybe it will just help us describe the nightmare more effectively. We laugh, we cry, if we survive it the credits roll. Using expert story-telling and ferocious images, Pinkins has made our nightmare materialize on the screen in red-hot terror, no let-up. The cast displays an energy that drags the viewer through some periods of jaw clenching that actually tired me out but thinking back on the last few years, I came to think of this as a catharsis. Two thumbs up and trembling.

There aren't dead spaces in this film. The viewer is either scared or anticipating feeling scared. The film begins with the illusion of comfort. We see aerial shots of a beautiful Virginia countryside in the fall season. The comfort turns to discomfort as we face death, desperation, and confusion with the characters. I don't want to tell you the story. I want to tell you the significance of this film. I understand that fans of Jordan Peele's "Get Out" will venture to see this film. But keep in mind that this is a flick for horror fans but much more. Red Pill brings in contemporary and historical themes including White women and Black women with issues of betrayal, Trumpism, and Black solidarity, while pushing in glimpses of enslavement of Africans. From 1619, there has been red blood in the Virginia soil from enslaved Africans. How fitting that the film connects horror with realistic fiction.

...and that was just tonight's news!

Merging truth with fiction in art is a talent. In the case of Tonya Pinkins' Red Pill she is borderline seer.

Red Pill pulls no punches coaxing iconic imagery we see on a daily basis, and magnifying the true horrors behind the history.

Riveting. Cutting-edge. Must see over and over and over like the the endless realities of hate playing before us in our history books.