By now, you’ve probably heard about Get Out.
The intelligent American horror film has been the talk of the town in Hollywood and has become the first film by a first-time African-American director to pass $100 million at the box office.
That director is Jordan Peele, one half of comedy duo Key and Peele, and he also wrote the film.
From the very beginning, Get Out is just plain unnerving.
Main characters Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya, Sicario) and Rose Armitage (Allison Williams, TV’s Girls) are on their first trip to meet Rose’s well-to-do white parents.
On the way there, they hit a deer with their car – the first of only a few jump scares in the film.
But that first shock sets up the rest of the film – something is not quite right at the Armitages.
When the couple arrive at their destination they find the African-American house staff acting very strangely and Rose’s parents also seeming off-kilter.
The parents are perfectly cast, with Bradley Whitford (The Cabin in the Woods) and Catherine Keener (Capote) wringing out prolonged stares and condescending smiles for all their worth.
Chris struggles to place it, but it is again obvious that something is off with the way African-American and white folk are interacting in this remote country estate, exacerbated even further at a creepy garden party.
Peele himself is of mixed (African-American and Anglo) race and it is clear that race relations and cultural misappropriation are important themes for him.
The whole film is a giant metaphor, but it’s not until closer to the end we see just how far that metaphor stretches.
It’s not a horror of jumps, screeching music or gore – Get Out is a horror of the mind.
Its terror lies in not knowing what you’re dealing with and being unable to avoid it – all while keeping up appearances for fear of causing offence.
It moves at a great pace and also has some hilarious moments.
The audience will be completely down for the ride and find it nigh-on-impossible not to cheer vocally during the climactic and inevitable showdown.
Get Out and see it.
