Oh baby, this is a beautiful neighborhood. This is really nice. “Get Out.” Too bad we can’t stay!
Get Out rocked the horror genre as one of the best reviewed films for a debut director. It’s a finely crafted horror film that explores American culture, racism, and the dangers of being black.
Before Viewing
A black man is going with his white girlfriend to meet her parents. His friend worries about him changing as a result. Their car hits some kind of animal on the road. The parents have two black helpers, which seems a little odd, and the boyfriend isn’t sure what’s going on. There is certainly something insidious going on in this suburb. Don’t wait too long to Get Out!
Presented below is the trailer for the film.
Get Out title card.
After Viewing
A young black man Andre (LaKeith Stanfield) is abducted walking through a nice neighborhood by a figure in black. Chris (Daniel Kaluuya), a black man, is nervous about visiting his white girlfriend Rose’s (Allison Williams) family in upstate New York. She tells him it’s no big deal. On the drive up, their car hits a deer. Chris walks back to see if the animal is still alive. A police officer that shows up asks for Chris’s ID, even though Rose was driving. She calls BS and says Chris doesn’t need to show his ID.
At the huge Armitage estate, Chris is introduced to father Dean (Bradley Whitford), mother Missy (Catherine Keener), and two black employees, the groundskeeper Walter (Marcus Henderson) and maid Georgina (Betty Gabriel). Dean, an extremely liberal, suburban man, takes Chris on a tour and expresses how much he hates deer. Rose’s younger brother Jeremy (Caleb Landry Jones) comes home asking Chris questions about fighting.
Rose is appalled by her family’s behavior and apologizes to Chris. That night Chris gets up to have a cigarette and is confronted by Missy who wants to use her psychiatric training to help him quit. She hypnotizes Chris who experiences tunnel vision and falls into a dark void, the “sunken place.” The Armitages have a party the next day where a bunch of their white friends all gawk and say inappropriate sentiments towards Chris, presumably unaware of their tactlessness.
Chris looks back at the dead deer on the side of the road, having flashbacks to his own mother’s death.
At the party Chris sees Andre, who dresses and speaks in a way uncharacteristic for him. Chris calls his friend Rod (Lil Rel Howery), a TSA agent, who believes the black people are being hypnotized by the Armitage’s and turned into sex slaves. Chris snaps a photo of Andre with the flash on, which causes him to snap and shout, “get out” to Chris. Dean says it was a seizure. Chris tells Rose he wants to get out of there. Since the hypnosis, he’s been reliving his mother’s hit and run accident, and the weird goings on make him uncomfortable. She agrees that they can leave
Elsewhere, Dean conducts a silent auction with the party guests, standing next to a large picture of Chris. Returning to the house, Rose is unable to find her car keys and when she does, she reveals that she can’t let Chris leave. He is hypnotized and moved into a game room in the basement where a video instructs him that his body will be used as the vessel for one of the older white men, Jim Hudson (Stephen Root), a blind art dealer. Chris fades in and out of the sunken place.
Chris’s fidgeting has revealed cotton in the armchair hand rests, which he stuffs in his ears to avoid hearing the hypnotic suggestions. When Jeremy comes for him he bashes in the younger man’s skull and then gores Dean with the antlers of a stuffed deer head. On the way out of the house he kills Missy, and accidentally runs over Georgina. Thinking she’s held against her will he takes her in the car, but it turns out she’s Rose’s grandmother in a new body. Chris crashes the car killing the woman.
Rose stalks Chris with a rifle, and he is stopped on the road by Walter, who is her grandfather Roman in a new body. Chris uses the camera flash to “awaken” Walter who takes the gun from Rose and shoots her, then himself. Rose is not dead, so Chris begins to choke her when he hears police sirens approaching. Luckily it’s his friend Rod, who did some investigating and found his friend. They leave Rose, dying on the road as Rod drives Chris back to safety.
“Do they know I’m black?” – Chris
Regardless that he’s black, having random, strange people come up to feel your muscles is not cool.
A lot has been written about Jordan Peele’s directing debut, Get Out, which was lauded as an important and relevant film. The last decade has produced a number of well-received horror films that comment on real-world issues. These include some films reviewed this month including The Purge, which looks at racism and civil unrest, and Men which deals with misogyny and female empowerment. Get Out makes a hearty usage of real-world issues regarding race and race-relations, and presents an insight into the fears of black Americans even in a setting that might be perceived as safe. Just because the film is about issues that affect blacks, doesn’t mean it’s only for them. Get Out is a film that is enjoyed by, and scares, all types of viewers regardless of the color of their skin. Peele does a great job allowing the audience to perceive things from Chris’s point of view which provides further insight into the fears of a community that is underrepresented in horror films.
The film makes many subtle, and some not-so-subtle, allusions to the racism that still exists in America. The opening scene with Andre walking through a white neighborhood, only to be spooked by a car, and eventually abducted by Jeremy, introduces a fear that transcends race. Walking at night in unfamiliar neighborhoods can provide similar reactions to anyone. Chris becomes nervous to meet Rose’s family, partially because meeting the parents of your girlfriend can be scary, but to him, he’s worried at how a white family will react to his blackness. Peele creates more awkward moments for Chris that audiences can also identify with. Dean using the phrase “my man,” or mentioning that he would have voted for Barack Obama a third time if he could come off as trying too hard to seem comfortable with Chris’s blackness. As the family is initially portrayed as a liberal group, this seems like overcompensation. Dean also mentions that he hates deer, which are like rats. This might pass audiences by on the first viewing, but knowing the events of the film, this very much is a thinly veiled code word for black people. Chris thinks this is a little too much as well. As more weird elements start to arise, Chris’s discomfort becomes the audience’s discomfort as it becomes apparent there is more going on than it appears.
The Armitage’s and their friends have discovered a new scientific breakthrough, the Coagula Process, which allows them to remove 90% of a person’s brain, and replace it with the brain of another person. This allows Dean’s parents, Roman and his wife, to be transplanted into the bodies of Walter and Georgina. It’s a literal appropriation of black identity which these rich, white, elites treat like a new fashion. As one of the party guests says, “black is in fashion.” Hudson, the man who won the bidding for Chris’s body, is truly the only color blind individual within the group. Mostly because he is actually blind, but also because he’s only looking for someone that has eyes. I guess if the Armitage’s offered another body for sale, he’d be just as eager to purchase that one as well. Early this month I looked at The Thing With Two Heads, which is a laughable and exploitative portrayal of racism, with a white man’s head being grafted onto a black man’s body–with the notion to then remove the black man’s head later. Get Out explores a similar process, but in a non-exploitative way. Mostly because Peele is black and is using the film as an allegory for the cultural marginalization of his race.
Dean conducts a silent auction for Chris. The purpose, at this moment, is unknown.
Peele has talked about his creation of the sunken place as a form of marginalization of the black characters. They are pushed into their own heads, with a tunnel vision effect, and are unable to stand up for themselves. Their voice is literally taken away via Missy’s hypnosis as their personna is pushed aside to make way for another consciousness within their body. Why would these individuals want to take over black bodies given the dangers of living as a black person in America? Perhaps in their affluent community of like minded people there is more of a safety net. Maybe black really is in fashion in upstate New York. The most insidious aspect of the entire plan is using Rose as a literal honey pot. She becomes absolutely believable as Chris’s girlfriend. Upset that her parents are being so awkward. Standing up for him against the officer that wants his ID. Sleeping with him, and others before him. Her ability to get close to these men (and perhaps women–a picture of Georgina was in her photo box as well) so convincingly but without forming attachments is truly sociopathic. She makes them believe that she is an ally, while using her wiles to entrap them. It’s really only dumb luck that Chris was able to escape when he did.
As Chris fights his way out of the house, killing Jeremy, Dean, and Missy he is chased by Rose with a rifle (recalling his worry that her father would be on the porch with a shotgun). His escape from hypnosis was thanks to his nervous habit (which he did while unconscious in the sunken place) of scratching at the arms of a chair; a habit he picked up as a young child. This allows him to literally “pick cotton” from the armrests (something attributed to black slaves of the 1800s) to stuff into his ears to avoid hearing the “lies” from the television. He uses his camera flash to zap Walter back to whatever part of the original man still existed. As with Jordy Verrill in Creepshow, Walter uses the last of his remaining mind to shoot Rose and then himself with the rifle. Chris begins to choke the life out of his ex-girlfriend but is shocked by the arrival of a police car. Audiences mind’s immediately jump to the stories of young black men being shot by officers for doing much less than attacking a white woman. The tension from the third act is thankfully released with a rousing cheer as viewers realize it’s Rod in his TSA vehicle, come to save the day. Plus he makes sure to tell Chris, “I told you so.”
For as modern and progressive as Peele’s movie is, Get Out owes a lot to some other classic horror films of the past. Peele himself has mentioned the inspiration of classic films as key elements for his plot. The group of suburbanites, which function much like a coven, grooming their individuals for nefarious purposes, and led by a man named Roman are all elements from Rosemary’s Baby. The Shining is referenced in several ways. Andre mentions that the suburban neighborhood he’s in at the beginning of the film is like a “hedge maze” referring to the maze at the Overlook Hotel. Rod’s understanding of the dangers Chris faces equates him to the Dick Hallorann character who comes to rescue Wendy and Danny. And the Get Out titles are in the same pale blue color as The Shining’s titles. Finally, The Stepford Wives is another film referred to by the conformity and robotic nature of the converts. There even may be a slight nod to Deliverance, with Jeremy playing a song on a ukulele while sitting on the porch when Chris and Rose return from a walk.
Get Out is a powerful and important film in the horror genre for these reasons and others. It marked Peele’s first directorial effort, and still represents his best film to date. Since 2017 he has also created Us and Nope, two other films centered around the black experience in America. Each with their own themes and strangeness.
Much like the deer mounted on the wall, Chris is now a fixture in the game room.
Assorted Musings
- The name Armitage stems from a name in “The Dunwich Horror,” a story by horror writer HP Lovecraft.
- Noticed in this viewing: the guests to the Armitage party all arrive in black cars. They are already inside of “blacks” prior to experiencing the Coagula Procedure.
Having grown up on comics, television and film, “Jovial” Jay feels destined to host podcasts and write blogs related to the union of these nerdy pursuits. Among his other pursuits he administrates and edits stories at the two largest Star Wars fan sites on the ‘net (Rebelscum.com, TheForce.net), and co-hosts the Jedi Journals podcast over at the ForceCast network.