Earlier this year at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, Amazon Studios premiered Master, a thriller starring Regina Hall that examines the horrors of living on campus as the lone Black woman in a dorm that’s supposedly haunted...while definitely being racist. It was one of the more intriguing films I took in during my virtual Sundance journey this year, and highlighted why I’d been clocking Hall’s progress on-screen. She’s hilarious, but she takes it there in this performance, and we have an exclusive early look at the trailer ahead of its release in select theaters and streaming on Prime Video on March 18.
Hall plays Gail Bishop, the first Black woman to serve as “Master” of a residence hall at Ancaster College, a school with a long history of rich white benefactors who wanted to keep this long tradition alive. Bishop, while finding her way as Master, realizes that a Black freshman, Jasmine (portrayed by Zoe Renee, previously seen on The CW’s Black Lightning and in BET’s The Quad), is having issues navigating her time at Ancaster as a lone Black freshman in a dorm full of classmates who look at her a certain way, as well as butting heads with one of her teachers (Amber Gray). As Bishop tries to get to the root of the issues with Jasmine, she starts to see Ancaster for what it really is.
Monster is both written and directed by Mariama Diallo. [Ed note: This is Diallo’s directorial debut.] Many are praising Hall’s work in the film specifically; again, I’m here to hype anything Hall, but honestly, she’s taking it deeper than she did with 2018’s Support Our Girls, with material that looks at how Black women have to maneuver through this system specifically.
Master hits Prime Video and select theaters on March 18. For more on the film, as well as the poster and stills from the film, keep reading.
In writer-director Mariama Diallo’s debut feature, Master, three women strive to find their place at a prestigious New England university whose frosty elitism may disguise something more sinister. Professor Gail Bishop (Regina Hall) has recently been promoted to “Master” of a residence hall, the first time at storied Ancaster College that a Black woman has held the post. Determined to breathe new life into a centuries-old tradition, Gail soon finds herself wrapped up in the trials and tribulations of Jasmine Moore (Zoe Renee), an energetic and optimistic Black freshman. Jasmine’s time at Ancaster hits a snag early on when she’s assigned a dorm room that is rumored to be haunted. Things get worse when Jasmine clashes in the classroom with Liv Beckman (Amber Gray), a professor in the middle of her own racially charged tenure review. As Gail tries to maintain order and fulfill the duties of a Master, the cracks begin to show in Ancaster’s once-immaculate facade. After a career spent fighting to make it into Ancaster’s inner circle, Gail is confronted with the horrifying prospect of what lies beneath, her question ultimately becoming not whether the school is haunted, but by whom.
