Comedian and writer Jordan Peele shocked the whole country by releasing his first film, “Get Out.” On the surface, it’s about a young interracial couple visiting the white girlfriend’s parents, but it’s really about a black man in a white nightmare. Daniel Kaluuya plays Chris Washington the black boyfriend meeting his girlfriend, Rose’s parents. The film is advertised as being a horror film, but Jordan Peele mixes in his comedic wit to the fright.
The movie begins with Rose and Chris traveling to meet her parents who live in a secluded suburban neighborhood. On their way to the parents, the couple hit and kill a deer. The death of the deer reminds Chris of his mother’s death from his youth. The couple arrive and meet Rose’s parents, Dean and Missy. Dean and Missy are quick to question the new boyfriend and remind him of the numerous times that they voted for Obama. The first interaction with the parents was very uncomfortable, the kind of awkward interactions that a black person might have to deal with it. In Rose’s eyes, you see that she is opened to her family’s racial microaggressions for the first time.
Missy is a hypnotherapist offers to hypnotize Chris to cure him from his addiction of nicotine. Chris right away is concerned by the situation, but just passes it off as a family oddity. He tries to act cool, but he believes that he has actually been hypnotized by the mother. Chris then realizes that one of the family’s neighbors is a black man who’s been missing from his own neighborhood for months. The young missing man is married to a white woman twice his age, but the marriage seems to be against his will. Chris knows that there is something very wrong. He discovers that Rose’s family is running a ring in which they lure young black people into their home and hypnotize them. Once they are hypnotized, the family auctions them off to middle-aged, white suburban neighbors who are able to live in the black people’s healthy bodies through surgery.
The movie was able to balance out the screams and fear with its comedic counterparts. It still has the frights you need, but the scariest part of the movie is its realistic depiction of racism. Jordan Peele was able to make a movie that sheds light on this issue but through a new and obscure way. Peele plans to write and direct four more horror films in the next decade with society playing the role of villains.
“The best and scariest monsters in the world are human beings and what we are capable of, especially when we get together,” Peele said to Huffington Post.
I would highly recommend seeing this movie even if you aren’t a fan of horror movies. “Get Out” is certain to be one of the most highly acclaimed movies of the year and this is surely not that last of Jordan Peele as a director.
