Get Out

Title: Get Out
Director: Jordan Peele
Studio: Monkeypaw Productions
Run Time: 104 minutes
Genres: Horror, Suspense
Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford
Where to Find It: Website
Rating:

When Chris, a young African-American man, visits his white girlfriend's family estate, he becomes ensnared in the more sinister, real reason for the invitation. At first, Chris reads the family's overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter's interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he could have never imagined. This speculative thriller from Blumhouse and the mind of Jordan Peele is equal parts gripping thriller and provocative commentary.

Review

For the spooky season I thought it would be fun to re-watch a horror film that really impressed me the first time I watched it a few years back. Get Out made a splash when it was first released during the Trump era, it was the directorial debut of comedian Jordan Peele and centers on issues of race in the United States. The terrifying face of whiteness weren’t Neo-Nazis or backwater hillbillies, but instead were affluent white liberals, or WASPs.

The story follows an African-American man named Chris, who goes with his girlfriend Rose to meet her family. He is nervous about the visit and how he will be received as a black man dating a white woman. His worries are dismissed because Rose’s family is not racist, in fact, they are liberals. Chris finds the home and the people there disconcerting as he experiences escalating micro-aggressions from the otherwise congenial old folks that he meets. Growing up in the 1990s and 2000s, it was not uncommon to hear people say that “they don’t see color” and that we were living in “a post-racial society.” Over twenty years later, of course, that perception has proven to be false, and dangerously so in recent years.

Racism and prejudice never really went away, but it was a comforting idea to believe that America had moved past its racist roots because it didn’t appear as overtly as before. Ultimately the dismissal of there being a problem in itself became a problem, and we need only look to the recent resurgence of white nationalism in the last few years to see that.

The uncomfortable atmosphere in the film is palpable and ramps up as the movie progressed. As a viewer, I felt very real dread for what was to come knowing that Chris was helpless in his situation. The film veers into the realms of speculative fiction with a phantasmagorical undercurrent. Upon re-watching the film I noticed a lot more of what was going on, subtle cues, intentional dialogue choices, and foreshadowing for events to happen later. I also paid far more attention to Chris’ traumatic back story, which is briefly explored and seems like a distraction but is a core part of humanizing Chris’ character in the midst of a dehumanizing space.

The intense story has moments of reprieve with surprisingly grim comedy, highlighting the ways that black bodies are fetishized and commodified, the lack of attention toward missing people of color, and the common but often ignored knowledge that a black person is not safe in white spaces. The comedic moments from Chris’ best friend Rod provided a much-needed break from all the tension during key moments in the story.

I remember being blown away the first time I watched this film and I still feel the same way now after revisiting it. The film is at once a mirror held up to American society and a love letter to classic horror films, most notably the works of Ira Levin. Peele expertly used the themes of alienation in films like Rosemary’s Baby and the Stepford Wives and filters them through the lens of race, presenting a frankly terrifying glimpse into the experience of black Americans in a “post-racial” America.

Rewatching this film cements it as one of the greats in my mind, and a movie that I’ll never forget. The anxiety that I felt during the final moments of the film is unmatched, and it speaks to Peele’s strength as a storyteller able to evoke a visceral response to a very real threat that I think many Americans can recognize.