Year: 2017
Genre : Social Thriller
I first heard about 'Get Out' on IHorror.com a couple of months back when there were some very loud noises coming out of the States on it's release regarding how good it was. It seem's to have had a very limited release over here the UK, and as it wasn't showing at our regular haunt the Light Cinema, we headed over to nineties haunt Showcase Walsall to see if it actually lived up to the hype.
'Get Out' opens with black actor Keith Stanfield being followed by a car in a middle class American suburb late at night. As the car slows down, Flanagan and Allen's 'Run Rabbit Run' can be heard coming from inside, and the audience almost instantaneously know that race relations are going to play a big part in the film. Shortly thereafter, the film moves onto introducing the films protagonist Chris Washington, and his 'butter wouldn't melt in her mouth' girlfriend played by Allison Williams. Chris and his other half pay a visit to her parents house during the annual family gathering, but Chris can't help but notice that black people working for her parents, they are unusually submissive in nature and almost robotic in the way they conduct themselves on a day to day basis...
I honestly can't write anything else about the plot without giving away an absolute bucket load of spoilers. Sorry...
Make no mistake, newcomer to the director's chair Jordan Peel has really pulled out all the stops with 'Get Out' and for a first effort, this is an outstanding piece of cinema. It's not a horror film in the traditional sense of the word, even though it produced by the same guy that was behind 'Insidious' and 'Ouija'. There are no haunted houses here, and I think I counted but one single jump scare. Also, unlike what I call 'made for the masses' horror films, 'Get Out' is broken up with some very funny comedic moments that are a welcome break from the underlying sinister tone of the rest of the film. In terms of structure, this film ticks all the boxes.
At it's core 'Get Out' is a social commentary about the post Obama covert racism of middle class America. Director Peel is fully aware that as well as the 'out and out proud to be white' Deep South Trump voters, there are swathes of middle classes who although do not openly profess to being racist, still strongly believe that black people are inferior to white, and to this day, belong on a plantation or serving dinner to the liberally racist middle class Trump voter of the Mid West.
I really enjoyed this film. Its ideas were original, it was unsettling but not a traditional way, and it serves as food for thought for the rest of the world looking in on modern America. An easy five stars, and my favourite film of the year so far.
