"Finally, a film that caters to my white liberal guilt!" This was my exact thought when I saw the first trailer for Get Out. My second thought was, "I really want to see this film; it looks really good and intriguing," (paraphrasing a bit there), thus proving that I may not have learned my lesson from hyping myself up for A Cure For Wellness.
Photographer Chris has been seeing his girlfriend Rose for several months, and the two of them are taking a trip to meet Rose's family. Chris is nervous about this, not just for the obvious reasons of meeting the parents but also because he is black and Rose is white, and he is worried about any racial tensions that might occur. Rose assures him that everything will be find though, and her parents certainly do seem accepting of Chris - perhaps a little too accepting. This and several other things - Rose's mother's determination to hypnotize Chris to cure his smoking; the strange behaviour of their friends and neighbours; and the even stranger behaviour of the few other black people around, including the two "household staff" apparently employed by Rose's family - all start to make Chris suspicious. What is really going on with Rose's family and friends, and where does Chris - willingly or unwillingly - fit into all of it?
Now this is a horror movie. Get Out was written and directed by Jordan Peele, an American comedian, and while I've not seen any of his work prior to this I've been told by people whose opinions I trust that he's good and from this film alone I can believe it. On one level, the film takes a mundane - if somewhat nervewracking - experience (in this case, meeting your girl/boyfriend's parents), and then turns it on its head in totally unexpected and horrifying ways. On another level, it takes the issue of race relations and presents them in a way that means you can't help but think about them, regardless of whether you've ever done so in the past. If you've seen the trailer then you might think that you already know everything that happens, what with so many trailers just being mini-versions of the films themselves lately, but believe me, things go even deeper than what the trailer shows, and there are twists that even I, with my notorious plot-predicting abilities, did not see coming - and stuff like that's always going to be a plus for me.
Get Out keeps its audience engaged by keeping the dramatic irony to a minimum as well. There's only two brief scenes - one at the very beginning and one about halfway through - that truly hint at what's actually going on, but even they only tell the audience a tiny bit of what is going on and not the full picture. For most of the movie's running time we're as much in the dark as to what's going on as Chris is - there's definitely something sinister and creepy going on, but we can't quite put our finger on it. Another of my favourite horror-comedies is The 'Burbs, and for a lot of the film I found myself thinking back to the plot of that film and wondering if a similar scenario was going to play out here - is there really something rotten in this seemingly perfect suburban life, or is it all just in our heads?
Another of the movie's strong points is its use of music, sound and silence. The opening scene, for example, might seem innocuous enough at first, but things get worrying when we hear the old tune Run, Rabbit Run playing on a car stereo, which instantly suggests something far more sinister is going on. Get Out also utilizes a tremendous horror movie string orchestra in times of suspense, tension and terror, but what really struck me in the film were the silences. Rather than having incidental music and sound filling up every spare moment of the film, Peele hasn't been afraid to leave parts of the film utterly silent, which both highlights the isolation that its main character feels and also makes the sudden noises that end the silences seem louder and more shocking.
I was mildly worried about the inclusion of Chris' TSA friend as the comic relief character who kept popping up throughout the film, and by the end I figured it was even money as to whether he was going to get a Scatman Crothers climax by the end, but without revealing whether that was the case I will say they kept the ending realistic and without any deus ex machinas popping up to spoil everything, while still managing to reveal another unexpected twist to stop us from getting complacent. The gore does ramp up in the final act of the film, but it's realistic and understandable (although it does expose one of the film's few flaws, the whole "peaceful main character starts off unable to fight or stomach gore; ends up violently fighting for his life" trope).
Get Out is definitely a film to watch - not just because it's a damn good horror film, but because it also makes its audience think. It presents the usual fears and problems relating to racism in the 21st century and puts an even more sinister spin on them, and that too means that the film is worth watching. It's another of those films that's meant to make its audience uncomfortable, and to question themselves as to why afterwards.
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