Get Out wrings horror out of an ever-present ugly reality
As in David Mitchell's brilliant 2015 horror film "It Follows", the opening scene of "Get Out" (2017, USA) sets the tone of the entire film, in which we see a hapless victim being beleaguered by a hostile or malignant entity in a seemingly pitiless environment. If "It Follows" derives horror from teenagers' sexual promiscuity, "Get Out" finds horror in another not-so-pleasant aspect of human life - racism. In particular, living as a black in America. Once again, monsters come not in the form of some hideous other-worldly creatures, but in the form of what we thought to be close and dear to us - family, friends, fiance(e).
Written and directed by sketch comedian Jordan Peele, this Sundance-premiered debut work is potent, chilling and disturbing (and even funny at times!), choosing to tackle a subject that, up until now, is considered to be unlikely for a horror film. Who would've thought that, in cinematic terms, terror and anxiety can be wringed out of racial prejudice (Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" is out of the question here)? That hypnosis can be a sublime form of slavery and captivity? And doesn't anyone find it refreshing to see a black person who actually made it until a horror film's very end, bloodied yet unbowed (just think of how Jason gorily dispatched those poor black guys in parts 7 and 8 of "Friday the 13th")?
When the black guy Chris (Daniel Kaluuya), a promising young photographer, was brought to the family lakeside estate of his white girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams), he was assured that the latter's parents (Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener) are liberal enough to look beyond skin-color (it was even mentioned that if only possible, they "would have voted Obama for a third term"). True enough, it seems, because mom and dad welcome the guest (and possible son-in-law) with smiles and embraces (ingeniously framed by the director in long static shot, rather than in intimate close-ups), making Chris immediately feel that he's part of the family. But as proven more than once by films that explore potential captor-captive relationships, such outward show of geniality is at best skin-deep, serving only to mask some sinister motives. And this, Chris gets to learn without exception soon enough into the film. That Rose's father and mother are a neuro-surgeon and a hypnotherapist, respectively, isn't mere character garnishments, but can in fact serve as deadly weapons against their unsuspecting guest.
Chris can't even take comfort in the fact that there are other blacks in his girlfriend's household, for they function as servants whose behavior seems to be rather odd and hostile. Their mere presence as servants already invites suspicion, as if to say that after all these years, blacks do still suffer from slavery. This is something that Rose's father seems to acknowledge, as he rationalizes that fact to Chris in one scene, having sensed that the latter may have entertained such thoughts after being introduced to the household help. As the night wears on, it ultimately dawns upon Chris that his invitation to his girlfriend's household may just be a point of no return for him. In a visual representation that resembles that seen in Jonathan Glazer's "Under the Skin", Chris is placed in a "sinking" trap where escape looks to be "enigmatically" impossible.
"Get Out" is remarkably effective both as a horror film and as a social commentary. As a horror movie, it delivers genuine chills and thrills and maintains an atmosphere of uneasiness and dread over something "yet-to-be-known" all throughout, without ever attempting to shrink back or tease away from it. As a social commentary, it couldn't have been more relevant: it puts across its view of the reality of living as a black person in contemporary America with razor-sharp precision and conviction, by way of the tropes of the horror genre. The horror here isn't something coming from a supernatural or otherworldly realm, but can be as real as the day's news headlines, always confronting us in our face. As the main character in the eye of this chaotic storm of racial prejudice, Kaluuya's performance as Chris embodies apprehension, confusion, fear and anxiety of finding oneself navigating a hostile world by the mere fact of one's skin-color.
There may be tolerance, but not necessarily acceptance. Or as the film's tagline succintly says: Just because you're invited, doesn't mean you're welcome.
Though I was thinking that making Chris a relentless "executioner" in the last act may do more harm than good to his heretofore standing as a sympathetic captive, but probably one shouldn't really take the carnage in a literal sense. (Even if technically speaking, as a specimen of the horror genre, such a grisly denouement should be inevitable.) Perhaps, our black hero's violent fight-back against his captors is the film's symbolic way of putting an end to the racial prejudice that's still prevalent in modern-day society, despite all our claims of progressiveness and liberalism.
(His girlfriend's family is all-smiles to an unsuspecting Daniel Kaluuya in Jordan Peele's "Get Out")
Written and directed by sketch comedian Jordan Peele, this Sundance-premiered debut work is potent, chilling and disturbing (and even funny at times!), choosing to tackle a subject that, up until now, is considered to be unlikely for a horror film. Who would've thought that, in cinematic terms, terror and anxiety can be wringed out of racial prejudice (Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" is out of the question here)? That hypnosis can be a sublime form of slavery and captivity? And doesn't anyone find it refreshing to see a black person who actually made it until a horror film's very end, bloodied yet unbowed (just think of how Jason gorily dispatched those poor black guys in parts 7 and 8 of "Friday the 13th")?
When the black guy Chris (Daniel Kaluuya), a promising young photographer, was brought to the family lakeside estate of his white girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams), he was assured that the latter's parents (Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener) are liberal enough to look beyond skin-color (it was even mentioned that if only possible, they "would have voted Obama for a third term"). True enough, it seems, because mom and dad welcome the guest (and possible son-in-law) with smiles and embraces (ingeniously framed by the director in long static shot, rather than in intimate close-ups), making Chris immediately feel that he's part of the family. But as proven more than once by films that explore potential captor-captive relationships, such outward show of geniality is at best skin-deep, serving only to mask some sinister motives. And this, Chris gets to learn without exception soon enough into the film. That Rose's father and mother are a neuro-surgeon and a hypnotherapist, respectively, isn't mere character garnishments, but can in fact serve as deadly weapons against their unsuspecting guest.
Chris can't even take comfort in the fact that there are other blacks in his girlfriend's household, for they function as servants whose behavior seems to be rather odd and hostile. Their mere presence as servants already invites suspicion, as if to say that after all these years, blacks do still suffer from slavery. This is something that Rose's father seems to acknowledge, as he rationalizes that fact to Chris in one scene, having sensed that the latter may have entertained such thoughts after being introduced to the household help. As the night wears on, it ultimately dawns upon Chris that his invitation to his girlfriend's household may just be a point of no return for him. In a visual representation that resembles that seen in Jonathan Glazer's "Under the Skin", Chris is placed in a "sinking" trap where escape looks to be "enigmatically" impossible.
"Get Out" is remarkably effective both as a horror film and as a social commentary. As a horror movie, it delivers genuine chills and thrills and maintains an atmosphere of uneasiness and dread over something "yet-to-be-known" all throughout, without ever attempting to shrink back or tease away from it. As a social commentary, it couldn't have been more relevant: it puts across its view of the reality of living as a black person in contemporary America with razor-sharp precision and conviction, by way of the tropes of the horror genre. The horror here isn't something coming from a supernatural or otherworldly realm, but can be as real as the day's news headlines, always confronting us in our face. As the main character in the eye of this chaotic storm of racial prejudice, Kaluuya's performance as Chris embodies apprehension, confusion, fear and anxiety of finding oneself navigating a hostile world by the mere fact of one's skin-color.
There may be tolerance, but not necessarily acceptance. Or as the film's tagline succintly says: Just because you're invited, doesn't mean you're welcome.
Though I was thinking that making Chris a relentless "executioner" in the last act may do more harm than good to his heretofore standing as a sympathetic captive, but probably one shouldn't really take the carnage in a literal sense. (Even if technically speaking, as a specimen of the horror genre, such a grisly denouement should be inevitable.) Perhaps, our black hero's violent fight-back against his captors is the film's symbolic way of putting an end to the racial prejudice that's still prevalent in modern-day society, despite all our claims of progressiveness and liberalism.
(His girlfriend's family is all-smiles to an unsuspecting Daniel Kaluuya in Jordan Peele's "Get Out")
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