Review of Get Out (2017) by Nick C — 19 Jun 2017

Now here is a great horror film. Probably surprising, considering it's from the mind of Jordan Peele, a comedian best known for Key & Peele on Comedy Central. Apparently he has a knack for horror, as well. It throws away all of the disgusting, demeaning horror flicks that have defined the genre for the last decade; all of the movies that must strip away their own dignity and bring themselves to such grisly, low levels in a cheap attempt to get a scare. This movie is scarier than all of them, and earns its scares.

It stars Daniel Kaluuya as Chris, a young black man who is going up to visit his white girlfriend's family. His girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams), and her parents are white, middle-class, liberals, who "would have voted for Obama a third time" if they could. Even so, Chris picks up what he perceives to be the subtle racism present in even these families. Of course, this being a horror film, it turns out to be something much more sinister.

This movie is branded as a "horror-comedy," which I would disagree with. Sure, there's some comic relief, mostly thanks to one character, but this is a horror film, and even more so a mystery. And when the mystery is finally revealed towards the end, it makes everything that happened before it all the more creepy. After this revelation occurs is when the movie becomes a classical horror film, and the final act is done smartly and very entertainingly.

The way this movie tackles racism is also very smart. Unlike last year's overblown Zootopia, this film deals with serious political issues without forgetting to make a movie. Subtle racism is the theme here; not the blatant racism found in the KKK or the alt-right, but in everyday, middle-class, even liberal folks who try so hard to accept African-Americans that they end up simply making them more uncomfortable. It takes the concept of subtle racism and builds a fantasy out of it; a sort of "what if" question kind of film that takes a real element in our society and imagines a creative backstory behind it. This film isn't as politically charged as you might think, though; there is smart social commentary, but not so much that it becomes an ideological preach. There's a really good, scary story here that compliments its message rather than exclusively becoming it.

The end of the film is fun, entertaining, and thrilling, like any good horror movie ending should be - think Halloween and The Shining. It's not, as the trailers seem to be trying to make us think, a weird, random, nonsensical ghost story. It's neither supernatural nor a slasher; Peele comes up with a unique horror concept that lends itself to one of the best horror movies in recent years. It's not gloomy, depressing, or demeaning; even in its darkest moments, there's fun, excitement, thrills, and, in the most classical sense of the word, horror.

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Rating: 4/4.