There is something inherently unsettling about an elite university’s aura of vanity.
Few other contemporary locations summon such a sense of reverence, exclusivity and historical angst — especially if the college is somewhere in brisk New England and adorned with the Ivy League distinction.
Through an unnerving blend of supernatural horror and psychological drama, fiercely talented writer-director Mariama Diallo’s debut feature “Master” reflects on the roots and customs of one such illustrious school of eerily beautiful stone buildings and handsomely dim, wood-heavy chambers.
It’s a fictional prototype called Ancaster, erected near where the Salem witch trials were once carried out.
Diallo knows exactly what makes the grounds and hallways of these often lily-white institutions spine-tingling as she dissects their historical footprint, real and imagined, through the ghosts of those who left it.The result is a stylish, sometimes terrifying genre film that shares DNA with Nia DaCosta’s “Candyman,
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