LOS ANGELES — It was supposed to be a corrective to #OscarsSoWhite. The blistering story of a slave revolt that was directed and written by a black artist, Nate Parker, who also stars in the lead role, “The Birth of a Nation” had been positioned as a balm for an industry long criticized for sidelining minorities.

Instead, the film has become clouded by the disclosure of tragic details in a nearly two-decade-old case in which Mr. Parker was accused — and later acquitted — of raping a fellow student while at Penn State. The episode was already known, including by the studio backing the film, but on Tuesday Variety gave it new life by revealing that Mr. Parker’s accuser committed suicide in 2012 at the age of 30.

That disclosure, combined with the revelation of explicit details from the case and a Facebook post by Mr. Parker saying that he had not known about the suicide and was filled with sorrow, prompted a torrent of vitriol against Mr. Parker on social media. It also sent Fox Searchlight, which paid a record $17.5 million to acquire “The Birth of a Nation,” into battle position. There were calls to boycott the film, and in Los Angeles a smattering of posters for “The Birth of a Nation,” depicting Mr. Parker as the rebellion leader Nat Turner, were altered to read “Rapist?” by a street artist. Meanwhile, prominent figures like Spike Lee who had championed the film went silent, speaking volumes.

And the controversy may worsen: As more people will discover when they see the film, which is scheduled to open on Oct. 7 in more than 1,500 theaters, Mr. Parker’s script uses gang rape as a central story point, though the attack is not explicitly shown. The film looks at the slave revolt Turner led in Virginia in 1831, but a storytelling device — the brutal assault by white men on Turner’s wife — feeds a rage that sets the rebellion in motion.