In an age where most horror movies feel unoriginal and repetitive, Get Out easily ranks as one of the best of the decade mainly due to its winning combination of a real script and moments that don’t feel forced so when the suspense hits us, it makes it all the more powerful.
It stars Daniel Kaluuya as Chris and Allison Williams Rose, an interracial couple who decide to visit her parents for a weekend at their estate in New York. Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener costar as her parents who run a very interesting home so to speak.
They have a couple of black servants who may or may not appear to what they are cracked up to be and on this particular weekend, there’s a huge family gathering in which all of the members seem to welcome their relationship but he suspects there’s something going on deeper beneath the surface in terms of their bizarre demeanors.
Rose’s mother is a therapist of sorts and she tries to put Chris under a weird form of hypnosis and once he’s in, he enters a literal world not unlike that of the Twilight Zone. It makes for some genuinely creepy and effective scenes.
Perhaps one of the best elements of the film is Lil Rel Howery as Chris’ best friend, an airport security guard who provides much of the comic relief and steals virtually every scene he’s in. I would like to see a movie about his character.
It felt great to be seeing a horror movie that creates characters, evokes haunting atmosphere, provides moments of wickedly dark humor and actually tells a story instead of hammering the audience with mindless, cheap thrills. Another thing it does well is play on certain racial themes and finds a good balance between making social commentaries and being comical all at the same time without stepping over into taboo.
Writer/director Jordan Peele of Keanu fame has crafted an intelligent, suspenseful, hilarious psychological thriller. Looking for something that plays against expectations and still be enjoyable? You bet.
Grade: A-
(Rated R for violence, bloody images, and language including sexual references.)
