Why Get Out is a scary movie

Christos Tsiolkas is a writer second to none in this country, and a dear friend (“Out of Stepford”, May 13-19). It’s always a pleasure to read his film reviews. However, I beg to differ on his assessment of the terror invoked by the film Get Out. The fear here lies in the gaze of the viewer: this is part of the film’s brilliance. Just the set-up alone, a Meet the White Liberal Parents weekend for a black man, had me bone-chilled enough to almost exit the cinema. This film mirrors some of our most disturbing experiences as people of colour with goosebump accuracy. It unearths our most complex and horrifying fears: “becoming” whiteness; the extreme commodification of black skin as wholly dependent on the erasure of blackness. I shall continue to pester Christos about Get Out until he concedes its supreme scariness.

– Maxine Beneba Clarke, Melbourne, Vic