Checked out an early showing of Get Out, the new horror suspense paranoia thriller by Jordan Peele of Key and Peele fame. Yes, the comedian wrote and directed (but did not star in) his first film – a ‘black’ horror movie that is the unlikely pairing of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and The Stepford Wives. It’s a really solid, smart, pretty thoughtful, very creepy little horror flick… not perfect but darn good.
The premise is that an interracial couple are going up to visit the girl’s affluent white parents in the country. The boyfriend is justifiably nervous – meeting the parents is one thing but also surprising them with the fact he’s black is something else. But, he’s assured, they are so liberal they’ll be annoying… he’s not really assured… his girlfriend doesn’t quite get it, he thinks.
When they get there, everyone is super nice but maybe a little unconsciously playing on racial references and stereotypes. Being a little too try-hard hip, assuring him a little too much they’d have voted a third time for Obama (something his girlfriend predicted they’d say). They have two black servants which makes the parents very self-conscious… except there’s something not quite right with that groundskeeper and maid….
And that’s where the paranoia and uncertainty set in and I won’t ruin anything other than the basic spoiler that this is swapping gender for race in a spiritual remake of Stepford Wives. Certainly not a 1:1 comparison but that movie will be in your mind if you’ve seen it.
As a genre horror flick, the movie generates some pretty good suspense and scares with only a very small handful of jump scares. The lead characters are smart and only do one really dumb thing but the movie has set that up already and the character knows its dumb. There’s also a good dose of comedy in it from a best friend character who pops in every once in a while to not only affirm what the audience thinks is going on, but he makes it very funny at the right times.
So there was laughter in my theater but there were also a lot of applause moments. The audience was super into this flick and I think it’s going to work well for a receptive audience looking for some tension-release moments.
I do have a few problems though. The movie kind of sags a little in the middle before taking off again. I kind of predicted some of the events and that’s partly due to the trailer but also just my trying to outguess it. I was surprised by the actual reveal of what was going on… unfortunately I didn’t really buy it. On thinking back, there were plenty of hints and justifications… but there’s a core piece of logic that fails. Is that vague enough?
So, yeah, this is a really solid, pretty smart, genuinely suspenseful paranoia thriller/horror flick. I can recommend it fairly highly. I’ve seen better horror movies over the past year but I give credit to a first time director coming off a hit comedy show. You wouldn’t expect it from one half of Key and Peele but he (Peele) pulled it off.
Score: 86