My Review of Get Out (2017) directed by Jordan Peele

 I've never been a big horror movie fan, but I got my horror-movie go-to list. This movie and any other with Jordan Peele's name on it is on that list. As soon as the previews for this film came out I was curious and seeing this film when it was released was an experience. This is one of the few movies that gets scarier when you see it the second time and you are in on it. From what I understand, this movie and Us (2019) are part of a larger story of a sinister conspiracy.

Chris and his girlfriend Rose plan a weekend at Rose's parents' house. Chris is nervous because he's black and Rose and her parents are white, but she reassures him that it's fine. On first meeting the parents are overly-friendly, but the black workers at the house are noticeably uncanny in their speech and mannerisms. After a run-in with Rose's hypnotist mom, things go down-hill for Chris.

This film being the commentary that it was on the dawning of the Trump-era has been talked about. The look at racism among white leftists that this film meditates on has been talked about. I want to focus on the idea of being in a situation where there is no sanctuary. Where those who you thought were friendly allies were actually not only enemies, but in some cases the masterminds. One wonders what a Denmark Vesey or Toussaint L'Ouveture would have thought about this film. For me, the most agonizing part of this movie was when Chris thought he was with a friend and we know that was not the case.

I should also comment briefly on the hero of the film: Lil' Rel Howery playing the role of Chris' best friend Rod. Rod is the character every horror movie needs. Yes he's funny, but the fact that remains that while the antagonists were one step ahead of Chris, Rod was one step ahead of everybody! Howery gave that star-turn performance here.

This movie holds up so well because despite the fantastical elements, so much of it is rooted in the bitter truth that people carry in their hearts due to the myth of white supremacy. Peele originally conceived of this movie as a meta-commentary of the treatment of black horror film-fan by mainstream horror cinema generally. But of course, if you've read James Baldwin's review of The Exorcist in his book The Devil Finds Work then you know that the ideas of Get Out had a long relevance before Peele wrote the script and as long as the dual ideologies of whiteness and anti-blackness exist, not simply Chris but the whole country is doomed to be trapped in the sunken place. Oh, and the ending was geniusly subversive allusion to Othello.