THE PICKET — A horror movie from Jordan Peele. Go ahead and read that again, but you saw it right. Peele, from the comedic duo Key and Peele, made a horror film as part of his directorial debut. You know what’s even more shocking? It’s fantastic!
Get Out follows the story of Chris Washington, a young black man who visits his girlfriend’s family estate. But there’s one catch, her parents don’t know he’s black. As the weekend passes, Chris learns that several of the community’s black residents have gone missing over the years
What makes Get Out so fantastic isn’t just how great a horror film it is, but how well it tackles racism. We’ve all seen films that talk about overt racism through its undertones. Peele takes a different approach by tackling more passive racism head-on throughout the film’s 103-minute runtime.
Peele pokes fun at how some liberal Americans nervously try to show they aren’t racist whenever they sit down to talk to an African American. Throughout the film, people randomly throw phrases like “I would’ve voted for Obama a third term,” at Chris as they introduce themselves. The father character of the film ends almost every awkward encounter by calling Chris either “man” or “brother.”
As the film progresses, it slowly becomes more of a thriller than dark comedy. Peele clearly drew inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock with his choice is musical cues, uncomfortable camera angles, and close-up shots of characters.
Peele managed to (for the most part) avoid the many clichés that plague the horror and thriller genres throughout his film. Luckily for audiences everywhere, there’s no overuse of cheap jump scares or annoyingly incompetent characters. Also, the film’s twist toward the end is so unexpected that it’s comical (in a good way).
I loved Get Out in a way that I haven’t loved a horror movie in a long time. It’s a fantastic addition to the genre and it makes me proud to be a horror movie buff. The scares were genuine, the jokes landed perfectly, and the social commentary hit so hard that it pushed some people to even leave the theater during my viewing of the film. I would recommend this movie to everyone I know and I’ll definitely be buying a Blu-ray copy for myself later this year. Get Out is definitely a pick-it!
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Edward Smith is a reporter for the Picket and can be contacted at esmith08@rams.shepherd.edu
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