Noseeums embraces the Southern Gothic tradition

Courtesy of Quiver Distribution

At the beginning of director Raven Carter's Noseeums, a female voiceover says, "The land, the land knows you, even when you are lost." That voice belongs to the movie's protagonist, an anthropology student named Ember (Aleigh Burt). During this haunting opening, we see an image of Ember plummeting backwards, surrounded by a swarm of insects. It's clear from the outset that this is a movie that will interrogate past traumas and history. It's also a movie deeply rooted in the Southern Gothic tradition for its portrayal of ghosts and the way that the past resurfaces and continually interacts with the present.

Initially, Ember doesn't know much about her past. She was uprooted from her childhood home in Florida's backwoods for reasons she can't quite remember, though she's tormented by nightmares of white violence against a black couple. At school, she frequently code switches and hangs out with a group of white students, especially her ex named Paul (Quinn Cote), Abigail (Tabby Getsy), and Lexi (Jessie Roddy). She does this to the dismay of one of her only black friends, Jasmine (Chase Johnson). After Jasmine practically begs Ember to hang out with her, Ember opts for the more popular white students instead and tells Jasmine to "stay black," though you get a sense that she's the one who needs to hear that, not Jasmine. This one scene says a lot about the social dynamics and how little Ember knows about her personal history and identity.

Meanwhile, Ember's Asian roommate, Tessa (Jasmine Gia Nguyen), invites Ember to join she, Abigail, and Lexi for a fun weekend near Florida's Aucilla River at a remote lake house that's been in Abigail's family for several generations. Soon after, Ember's nightmares worsen, and she sees ghostly apparitions. It's obvious that this land has a disturbing and bloody history, though Ember can't piece it together at first, even as the nightmares persist.

However, once Ember meets a local handyman named Earl (Tyler Bibb) and Papa Boyd (Kyle Johnson), she starts to realize her personal connection to the property and the injustice that occurred on the land, rooted in slavery and land grabs. Ember's awakening, so to speak, clashes with that of her friends. At one point, Abigail questions why she has to care about the past when she has no connection to it. Yet she continually mistreats Ember and it's clear she enjoys the number of Florida properties that her father owns and the signs of privilege within her family. It's this constant clash between the past and the present and Ember's broader conflict with her friends that are some of the film's strongest elements.

The film's other strength lies in its cinematography. Because this is so much a film about land and history, the natural world absolutely must be present and feel like a character. That's very much the case here. There are constant shots of the sprawling land that surrounds the lake house, including the trees and the water. The natural world is depicted as a living, breathing setting throughout Carter's film, with its own weight and history.

As the narrative pushes forward, and as Ember learns more about her heritage, the movie transforms into a possession film. Here, some of the effects aren't quite up to the task and sometimes weigh down the intention. Again, the movie's best moments happen when Ember is pitted against her friends who refuse to acknowledge the uglier aspects of history. The real horror pertains to college students so comfortable in their privilege that they won't even acknowledge the past or their supposed friend's concerns.

Noseeums is unapologetic in how it addresses race and why it's important to confront the sins of the past. If you enjoy films like Eve's Bayou or Southern Gothic literature, then this movie is worth a watch. It grapples with ghosts, trauma, and appropriation, all with a Southern Gothic aesthetic.

Noseeums releases on digital platforms and VOD on February 27.

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