Review of Get Out (2017) by Chesterftof — 15 Jan 2018

Generally considered one of the best movies of 2017, it’s rather safe to name ‘Get Out’ as the best horror film of the year. It’s only real competition would be ‘IT’, maybe ‘mother!’ (it’s proven to be rather divisive), and if you want to count it as a horror film, ‘The Shape of Water’. Excluding IT, there is actually a theme linking these recent horror successes. They each have more to them than simply being scary. Whether it be a message you can interpret, dazzling visuals or splashes of comedy, they each bring something else to the table.

Directed, surprisingly enough, by Jordan Peele, famous for his hilarious sketch comedy, Get Out is a genuine surprise. Based on the director, I’d made the assumption that this film would be a generic horror comedy, presumably relishing in over-the-top jumpscares and gore. Instead, what I found myself watching was somewhat of a mystery. Jordan Peele himself said that the film ‘can’t be put into a genre box’, and he’s right; it could arguably be a horror film, a suspenseful thriller, a comedy, a mystery or a pretentious commentary of race relations in America. Mercifully, I didn’t interpret it as the latter.

Originally conceived following Barack Obama’s second election, the film tackles a subject of race-relations rarely noticed: the opposite of racism. And I’m not talking about ‘reverse-racism’. Many white characters in this film actually love black people so much, they want to become them. Knowing it was written during Obama’s second term, that makes sense. Watching it now, with President Trump in office, gives it a different spin. Regardless of how you interpreted the antagonists, they were probably the most ‘human’ villain in horror in recent memory. Ignoring some questionable science, they were depressingly human.

The cinematography was a pleasant surprise. Shots, while rarely astounding, strongly added to the mood. Throughout the film, they felt as though they were getting closer, until we are unable to escape the situation we’ve been thrust into. Also, at times, we can see background characters watching our protagonist without his knowledge. Tension is present throughout, whether it be due to a nervous comment we aren’t sure how to react to, or somebody brandishing a weapon, the audience can rarely relax, leaving you tired when the credits roll.

The characters are each rather interesting. Obviously, the family is all rather one-note, but they play that one note so sweetly, I can’t bring myself to complain. The exception to this is Rose (Allison Williams). This character shifts so jarringly, I briefly thought it was someone else in her body. Daniel Kaluuya’s portrayal of Chris was also wonderful, and rather believable. Ultimately, the featured roles stole the show, however. Both Marcus Henderson and Keith Stanfield were brilliant, but Betty Gabriel’s Georgina was flawless. While the ‘saying things in an overly happy way to be creepy’ trope has been played out a bit, the cast in this film manage to make it unsettling again.

My main issue with the film is that it doesn’t seem to think the audience is particularly bright. Much of the racial ‘undertones’ are forced upon us, lest we miss the point of the film. There’s also occasional recaps of past events in conversations between Rose and Chris. The audience doesn’t need to be told why something is awkward, or strange; we can work it out. It’s both more rewarding for the viewer, and saves time in the film. This comes to a head when Chris finally works out what’s going on. We see literal flashbacks to previous events, as though we’d have somehow forgotten the things we’d seen half an hour prior.

With that said, however, it does highlight something that pleases me greatly. This is a mystery you can actually solve if you’re paying attention. It’s teased earlier in the film that the family’s grandfather was not only a runner, but that he lost to a black man. It’s not too large a leap to find the character’s envy. Perhaps others are like this? We also learn the parents’ occupations rather early, too. The party scene is utterly littered with clues, to the point of it becoming painfully obvious looking back.

To conclude, I feel this film was an exceptionally successful film. With a budget of merely 4.5 million dollars, Jordan Peele has told not only a highly enjoyable horror (or thriller, or comedy..) film, but an interesting commentary on society today. It also manages to avoid persecuting the viewer, regardless of their race, as I feared it may end up doing. I am quite happy giving this a high 8/10. If you’re looking for an alternative to a crowd-pleasing horror film such as ‘IT’, I recommend Get Out. At the moment, the film has made a profit of 250 million dollars at the box office, and it deserves every one of them.