REVIEW: “Get Out”

 

We interrupt this profound psychological horror film to bring you a deleted scene from ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ 

To begin I’ll say that as a White/Caucasian male, if there was one thing I took away from this film in hopes that the same message was reached by others…all these years and I had no idea that WHITE PEOPLE ARE SCARY AS F**K.

This movie will most likely elicit two very different reactions from its audience members: some will be absolutely terrified with their heart pounding out of their chest…while others will be confused over when the movie will actually start being “scary”. And it is here where ‘Get Out’ becomes a Rorschach test where the differences between what white viewers see and non-white viewers see are stark. And this is important.

You see, every once in a while a horror film is released that not only scares the bejesus out of its audience members but manages to provide thought provoking commentary of its era. Films like ‘Invasion Of The Body Snatchers’, ‘Night Of The Living Dead’, ‘The Stepford Wives’, and ‘They Live’ were products of their decade. It seems ‘GET OUT’ is best suited for this era following the departure of the first black U.S. President, an increase in police shootings, the “Black Lives Matter” movement, and the incumbent president whose campaign was built on fervent racism from White Middle America. Given this, you’d be quick to assume the villains in a 2017 horror film about racial tension would at one point casually explain their pride in the legacy of the Confederate flag while wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat and polishing their stockpile of AR-15 assault rifles. But this is where ‘Get Out’ flips convention on its side by avoiding Hollywood’s archetypal depiction of racism in favor of a rather unexpected form of bigotry: white liberalism.

Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) is an intelligent young black photographer who is invited to spend the weekend with his girlfriend, Rose Armitage (Allison Williams) at her parents home in upstate New York. Chris is concerned that his white girlfriend has not told her parents Dean and Missy (Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener) of his ethnicity but Rose reassures that they are extremely progressive and “would’ve voted for Obama for a third time”. Upon arriving, Chris finds the Armitages to be hospitable albeit awkward but largely innocuous.

Chris takes notice of the family’s black maid Georgina (Betty Gabriel) and the black groundskeeper Walter (Marcus Henderson), both whose strange behavior infrequently switches from being eerily reticent to overwhelmingly intense. Later at a garden party, Chris is approached by friends and neighbors of the family who show bizarrely enthusiastic interest in his ethnicity, before recognizing the party’s other black guest (Lakeith Stanfield) as an old acquaintance yet displaying the same eccentric behavior as Georgina and Walter. Chris quickly begins to suspect that something is very wrong at the Armitage estate, but is he correct or is it just his paranoid imagination?

As I’ve mentioned, ‘Get Out’ will no doubt invoke divisiveness that will leave many feeling uneasy, especially over a topic that many are scared to discuss in fear of backlash. But that’s just it; the film WANTS you to be uncomfortable…it wants EVERYONE to be uncomfortable: For Black/P.O.C. viewers, it plays on an institutionalized fear of hospitable, progressive White people being just as distrusted and sinister as flagrantly racist Whites. For White viewers, it’s painfully awkward to watch the perfectly normal Chris interact with White people who attempt to use urban slang, name-drop that they know Tiger Woods, and candidly ask him “So, is it true Blacks are…bigger?”

Peele mixes psychological horror with dark comedy and sharp satire wit, but don’t expect any humor akin to his collaborative work with Keegan-Michael Key. The humorous moments feature Chris’ TSA officer friend Rod (Lil Rel Howery) whose comedic moments provide a refreshing relief from tension. The biting satire aims its crosshairs at the “Liberal Elite”, albeit in good humor. The Armitage family is shown to be socially progressive and all-inclusive, with Dean and Missy being proud Obama-philes while Rose jumps into SJW-mode the moment she senses any racial prejudice — and yet it’s their overt progressiveness that paradoxically makes them just as racist.

It’s absolutely shocking that this is Peele’s first film he’s ever directed–technically speaking from a director’s standpoint, it has the mark of a veteran filmmaker. He knows how to use shadows, wide shots, and atmosphere; he knows how to use color properly for symbolic purposes without making it painfully obvious. The cinematography pays heavy homage to Stanley Kubrick while the quick cuts to exacerbate tension is a page taken right out of Alfred Hitchcock. Everyone–EVERYONE–is well cast in their roles; Daniel Kaluuya performance as Chris is so likable, charming, and relatable that put him in the same league as actors Chiwetel Ejiofor and Giancarlo Esposito. Allison Williams is fantastic as Rose which he manages to flex her acting muscle outside of HBO’s ‘Girls’, while Bradley Whitfield and Catherine Keener absolutely SHINE in their respective roles as the Armitages.

Now it’s not without its flaws: the music started out ok but I noticed the filmmakers gave into the cliche horror movie trope of using a “musical sting” during jump scares which is unbelievably cheap. I’ll also be one of the few to admit that the third act completely falls apart and I was a little disappointed in the ending. I won’t spoil anything but I can’t help but feel the ending was reshot at the request of the studio, which would explain why it drastically shifts in tone from the buildup.

All things considered, I could honestly talk for days about this movie, and this review didn’t even convey 1/3 of the thoughts I’ve conceived since the end credits rolled. Let me just put it like this — It’s March, and I’m already declaring this film to be ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES OF 2017. Seriously. Now as I’ve said, many of you will find the movie to be conventionally scary while others will dissect it like a Salvador Dali painting…either way, that has the makings of a horror classic and it’s entertaining as hell.

OVERALL RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️