Descent into dystopia
A studio horror film built on a genuinely scary idea? What gives?
Get Out, written and directed by the latter half of the popular sketch duo Key & Peele, is provocative in at least three ways: first, it’s an American studio comedy that is actually
funny – an occurrence only slightly more common than the appearance of Halley’s Comet; second, it’s an American studio horror built on a genuinely frightening idea, which is as rare as a sighting of Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster; third – and this is the most provocative aspect of all – Get Out is an American studio movie about racism told from the perspective of a black man hemmed in and fearful not of the Klan or a garden-variety hillbilly bigot, but of well-meaning middle-class liberals.
The black man is Chris (Daniel Kaluuya), on a weekend trip to meet the parents of his white girlfriend (Allison Williams of Girls), who try a little too hard to be inclusive. The father (Bradley Whitford) mouths “thang” for “thing” and “mayn” for
“man” and makes a point of saying he’d have voted for Obama for a third time.
So far, so awkward. But this family has a black house servant and a black groundskeeper who are far too polite to be human. And don’t go down to the basement, the father warns. There’s a problem with “black mould”.
Without giving too much away, we’re dealing with a bloody satire blending Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner with The Stepford Wives and Night of the Living Dead. The greatest thrills and shocks come from discovering just how far Peele pushes past the central conceit into something impossibly twisted and relentlessly unnerving. During this descent into dystopia, the director remarkably manages to keep the jokes coming. They’re not cheap laughs at the expense of bourgeois honkies, but deeply cutting commentaries on the illusion of a post-racial America that has made peace with its slave-owning past.
If you find yourself feeling slightly rankled by the idea, then the film is aimed directly at you. Your only obligation is to see it.
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