Now Streaming: A Coming-of-Age Southern Gothic Classic Viewers Call “Spellbinding”
Lately, I’ve been in the mood to watch coming-of-age films, and as someone who grew up reading Judy Blume and is a horror fan, I’m lucky that there’s an entire subgenre of films that explore the terror and mystery that is adolescence. I’m particularly interested in coming-of-age films that deal with the supernatural (think: Talk to Me, The Craft, Thelma). In these films, the adults are ineffective or untrustworthy, our protagonists are dealing with the unknown, and they’re also realizing that knowledge, good or bad, comes with consequences. And there’s no supernatural coming-of-age film that captures all of this better than Eve’s Bayou.
If it’s been on your watchlist for a while or you need an excuse to watch it again, now is a great time to revisit it. Eve’s Bayou is currently streaming on Prime Video, Plex, and Peacock. Released in 1997, Eve’s Bayou is Kasi Lemmons’ directorial debut (fun fact: she starred in The Silence of the Lambs and Candyman), which is impressive considering this is a gorgeous, super-layered film with a fantastic cast.
Eve’s Bayou follows Eve Batiste (a very young Jurnee Smollett), an observant ten-year-old girl living in a mansion with her family in Louisiana in the 1960s. Like most children, Eve is jealous of her siblings, especially her older sister, Cisely (Meagan Goode). Her father, Louis (Samuel L. Jackson), is a popular and well-respected doctor who tends to spend a little more time with his younger patients than his wife, Roz (Lynn Whitfield). Eve’s aunt Mozelle (Debbi Morgan), a psychic who practices a form of voodoo-rooted spiritualism, lives with the family. After catching her father with another woman at a party, Eve’s seemingly idyllic family begins to fall apart over the course of one summer.
On Letterboxd, viewers call Eve’s Bayou “spellbinding” with its “gorgeous” setting and incredible performances, especially Smollett’s. As this viewer put it, she “acts way above her years,” and they’re right. Smollett’s performance is remarkable considering how mature the subject matter is, and she captures what it’s like to be in that strange space between childhood and adulthood, when you’re still too powerless to do anything, too young to fully understand the world around you, and yet you’re fearless enough to do anything to make things right.
Watch the trailer below:
In some ways, Eve’s Bayou reminds me a lot of Atonement, a film that should absolutely be classified as a horror movie as well. It’s a stunning exploration of adolescence, gender, sexuality, religion, and family, and I think we should discuss it more when we are talk about coming-of-age films, especially in the horror genre.
I love Eve’s Bayou and I really encourage those of you who haven’t seen it to watch, especially since it’s streaming on Prime Video, Plex, and Peacock. And if you’re a fan and enjoy collecting physical media, this is a reminder that there’s a gorgeous collector’s edition available on The Criterion Collection as well, which we covered here.
And as always, let me know your thoughts: @ashjenexi on Instagram and X.
Categorized:Streaming News