Our Past Has Eyes

Angela Banks is on her way to a new life in Atlanta, Georgia as a corporate lawyer for a major American airline. She’s listening to a news broadcast describing a wave of machete attacks happening in the South. Suddenly, she gets a flat tire in a part of rural North Carolina that hasn’t left the days of “Sundown Towns” behind.

When she stops at a nearby gas station, she’s met with racism and violence. Her cries for help are answered by unexpected and supernatural saviors. The ghosts of slaves unleash 400 years of pent-up anger and justice on Angela’s would-be rapists. Once they’re done, the store is filled with the blood of the attackers, while Angela makes her escape with the help of a passing traveler.

While the two women ponder the “reality” of Angela’s salvation, her rescuer, Renee Sinclair, signals her belief in the supernatural nature of the incident. Renee reflects on tales told by her great, great, great grandmother, a former slave, about the “spirits of black folks who can’t rest because of what was done to them… and when the time was right… the chickens would be coming home to roost.”

Just then, another news broadcast on the radio detailing that all the victims in the recent attacks have been linked to white nationalist organizations.