Movie Review: Get Out
Ref: Get Out
Before I begin, I’ll provide some of my background experience with horror films. I’ve been watching them with my dad ever since I was kid and because of this, I’ve grown very numb to the typical tricks of horror films (cheap jumpscares, poorly lit situations, the usual, you name it) Being very interested in psychology and really the overall makeup of the human mind and its functions, I feel that creating horror films and even horror games has to have more elements within the realm of psychological impact than anything else. It’s one thing to be startled by cheap jumpscares that make you freak for like 2 seconds afterwards and then it’s a completely different thing when you feel yourself drowning in subscious fear that is completely made up by the atmosphere and aura of the horror film itself, taking into account the impact on the mind, the level of tension, and the overall build up of atmosphere where all of the elements of the film play a huge role in messing with your head and with not just sudden shrieks of noise or pop-ups in your face (again, this is a personal opinion). With that being said, please note that I may come off as a party-pooper for said horror films and tend to be more critical with horror films/games in general.
I believe that Get Out was a good film in general (as a horror film it lacked in many areas but I will get to that in a later point). I feel like it was a film that we needed, it was a film that made a statement about us as a society and the role that race plays in it. You cannot take race and ethnicity out of the picture when discussing this film because that was the intention of its creation (I think so). It successfully goes against the typical “stereotypes” of horror films, working especially against minority characters where they are seen as side/minor characters and are literally thrown into the arms of death for the majority of the time. This film depicts a black protagonist that [SPOILER ALERT] survives in a horror film and (finally!) there is justice served for him at the end. Within the film itself, there are constant racial innuendos that are fit in both discreetly and non-discreetly. Many usages of microaggressions within the film play a good role in establishing the statement of our society that we are constantly trying to NOT be offensive or say the wrong things due to the skin-color, race, and or ethnicity of another person, in this case, to Chris because he is a black man. A good example of this would be the conversation between Chris and Rose’s Dad near the beginning of the film where he brings up the topic of wanting to vote for Obama for a third term in order to establish that he is NOT racist. It’s such an important thing for people to be recognized as “non-racist” and “non-discriminatory” because we would associate that with being a “good person” and even a “humanitarian” and so Jordan Peele allows the audience to get a 3rd perspective on this constant fighting with oneself in order to be recognized as such (and in a comedic way at that).
My favorite scene from the movie is the scene were Rose’s brother Jeremy and Chris are talking about martial arts with small implications of racial tension and microaggressions. He makes statements about the physique of Chris as a black man and is then stopped by Rose and her Father in order to not seem offensive. Now I didn’t enjoy the scene because it implied racial tension but because of the art of acting displayed in it. The acting of both characters was incredible because of the intensity and implied clashing between them expressed in this scene. Caleb Jones does a good job at making the audience feel a sense of dread, uneasiness, and a good amount of uncomfortable strain with his character. One last thing I’d like to add about the topic of race within this film is the idea of culture appropriation and the way that it was displayed to the audience. [SPOILER ALERT] The element of brainwashing and taking over another person’s body is one thing, but what Jordan Peele adds to this is a layer of this constant grabbing for black culture and wanting to be black within American society (he does this in a very discreet way which I find to be appealing). In the scene where Chris is tied up against his will, watching the television screen, the blind man explains that “everyone wants to be like you… you’re strong, fast, and capable…” (I paraphrase with a lack of some important dialogue for context because I can’t go back to watch that one sequence again) implying the existence of culture appropriation (and without accident!).
[You can argue that I am looking too deep into it]
Before I begin, I’ll provide some of my background experience with horror films. I’ve been watching them with my dad ever since I was kid and because of this, I’ve grown very numb to the typical tricks of horror films (cheap jumpscares, poorly lit situations, the usual, you name it) Being very interested in psychology and really the overall makeup of the human mind and its functions, I feel that creating horror films and even horror games has to have more elements within the realm of psychological impact than anything else. It’s one thing to be startled by cheap jumpscares that make you freak for like 2 seconds afterwards and then it’s a completely different thing when you feel yourself drowning in subscious fear that is completely made up by the atmosphere and aura of the horror film itself, taking into account the impact on the mind, the level of tension, and the overall build up of atmosphere where all of the elements of the film play a huge role in messing with your head and with not just sudden shrieks of noise or pop-ups in your face (again, this is a personal opinion). With that being said, please note that I may come off as a party-pooper for said horror films and tend to be more critical with horror films/games in general.
I believe that Get Out was a good film in general (as a horror film it lacked in many areas but I will get to that in a later point). I feel like it was a film that we needed, it was a film that made a statement about us as a society and the role that race plays in it. You cannot take race and ethnicity out of the picture when discussing this film because that was the intention of its creation (I think so). It successfully goes against the typical “stereotypes” of horror films, working especially against minority characters where they are seen as side/minor characters and are literally thrown into the arms of death for the majority of the time. This film depicts a black protagonist that [SPOILER ALERT] survives in a horror film and (finally!) there is justice served for him at the end. Within the film itself, there are constant racial innuendos that are fit in both discreetly and non-discreetly. Many usages of microaggressions within the film play a good role in establishing the statement of our society that we are constantly trying to NOT be offensive or say the wrong things due to the skin-color, race, and or ethnicity of another person, in this case, to Chris because he is a black man. A good example of this would be the conversation between Chris and Rose’s Dad near the beginning of the film where he brings up the topic of wanting to vote for Obama for a third term in order to establish that he is NOT racist. It’s such an important thing for people to be recognized as “non-racist” and “non-discriminatory” because we would associate that with being a “good person” and even a “humanitarian” and so Jordan Peele allows the audience to get a 3rd perspective on this constant fighting with oneself in order to be recognized as such (and in a comedic way at that).
My favorite scene from the movie is the scene were Rose’s brother Jeremy and Chris are talking about martial arts with small implications of racial tension and microaggressions. He makes statements about the physique of Chris as a black man and is then stopped by Rose and her Father in order to not seem offensive. Now I didn’t enjoy the scene because it implied racial tension but because of the art of acting displayed in it. The acting of both characters was incredible because of the intensity and implied clashing between them expressed in this scene. Caleb Jones does a good job at making the audience feel a sense of dread, uneasiness, and a good amount of uncomfortable strain with his character. One last thing I’d like to add about the topic of race within this film is the idea of culture appropriation and the way that it was displayed to the audience. [SPOILER ALERT] The element of brainwashing and taking over another person’s body is one thing, but what Jordan Peele adds to this is a layer of this constant grabbing for black culture and wanting to be black within American society (he does this in a very discreet way which I find to be appealing). In the scene where Chris is tied up against his will, watching the television screen, the blind man explains that “everyone wants to be like you… you’re strong, fast, and capable…” (I paraphrase with a lack of some important dialogue for context because I can’t go back to watch that one sequence again) implying the existence of culture appropriation (and without accident!).
[You can argue that I am looking too deep into it]
Now let’s move on to the aspects of the film that I found did not work in it’s favor of being a successful horror movie. I have to say that first off, it did not follow basic logic for a good handful of scenes. I can nit-pick at it and say that if you hit a deer with the front of your car, your right side window should not be broken and that if you hit a woman with the front of your car, when you get out of it, the car should still be rightfully behind the woman and not in front of it (this means that you ran her over and not just hit her). I’ll stop and mention that it relied too heavily on cheap jumpscares and didn’t develop a good atmosphere that created suspense and off-the-edge-of-your-seat anticipation for the next thing, there were more like sporadic drops of jumpscares and sprinkles of “creepiness” created by just the plot itself and nothing more than that. I found the movie to be more funny than it was scary and more enjoyable than it was frightening. The plot itself seemed to be pretty predictable to me and the twists and turns nearing the end of the film threw me off a bit because they were all what I was expecting and nothing more than that. I will say that there is a good amount of intention in the film itself so I don’t hate it, I honestly love it a lot and would gladly watch it, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a horror film per say.
Technicalities, technicalities, technicalities… I enjoyed watching the movie overall because the cinematography was very unique in certain scenes. For the most part, it did a really good job at adding some atmosphere to the film but I felt that for the film as a whole, many of the shots were done either more gracefully or with more thought placed into the beauty of composition and framing instead of the intention of strategically placed for horror (if that makes sense, which it probably did not). I felt like a good handful of the shots were beautifully done and drew out a good balance between the objects and people within the frame but done without the intention of it being scary but more artistic! [I’d love to say more about the cinematography in detail but I can’t go back to watch specific scenes so I’ll just end it here for now]
I loved the film and would recommend people to go and watch it, but I don’t think you should expect to see the best horror film ever made. There were many racial implications which I enjoyed (and many would disagree with me on that but I’m willing to risk having a slightly heated discussion over it if you’d like) because it spoke out on our society and how we see and deal with issues of racism in our communities, so on and so forth. Thanks for making it all the way down here, I would rate the film a good 8/10, leaning towards 8.5/10.
Technicalities, technicalities, technicalities… I enjoyed watching the movie overall because the cinematography was very unique in certain scenes. For the most part, it did a really good job at adding some atmosphere to the film but I felt that for the film as a whole, many of the shots were done either more gracefully or with more thought placed into the beauty of composition and framing instead of the intention of strategically placed for horror (if that makes sense, which it probably did not). I felt like a good handful of the shots were beautifully done and drew out a good balance between the objects and people within the frame but done without the intention of it being scary but more artistic! [I’d love to say more about the cinematography in detail but I can’t go back to watch specific scenes so I’ll just end it here for now]
I loved the film and would recommend people to go and watch it, but I don’t think you should expect to see the best horror film ever made. There were many racial implications which I enjoyed (and many would disagree with me on that but I’m willing to risk having a slightly heated discussion over it if you’d like) because it spoke out on our society and how we see and deal with issues of racism in our communities, so on and so forth. Thanks for making it all the way down here, I would rate the film a good 8/10, leaning towards 8.5/10.
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