Recent trends in horror movies have undone the genre's cartoonish reputation. Devoid of either slasher flick sadism or aimless, heavy-handed malevolence, Get Out joins the ranks of modern horror classics that show us the true horror of just existing as a marginalised person.
When Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) asks his girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams) if her parents know that he's black, she laughs him off. "They're not racist." She chides.
But arriving at the enormous family home in the country, its clear that there's something lurking beneath the pleasant exterior. Outright hatred is not the only thing to be afraid of.
Get Out is as much a horror movie as it is a parody of horror movies. The implacable discomfort that marks the first acts of most horror movies finds its uglier twin in the patronising microaggressions that Chris faces when he enters the affluent white enclave. Taken to the logical extreme, the simultaneous fetishisation and devaluation of black lives is rendered an utterly terrifying prospect.
But what Get Out does better than most "horror comedies" - creating such a strong distinction that it seems inaccurate to even ascribe it to a genre - is mix fear and laughs in a way that is utterly compelling and never jarring. The film's yuppie villains are laughable because they're ultimately such boring people, though cunning and tricky. The dynamic that the film strikes is quite astonishing.
A collection of brilliant performances help very much in that regard. As Rose's parents, Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener move effortlessly between cringe-inducing over-earnestness and the ulterior motives that it masks. As Rose's brother Jeremy, Caleb Landry Jones is chilling. And in the lead role Kaluuya is brilliant, summoning real feeling from the depths of the character while wisely never breaking his shell of stoicism.
It's impressive that a film as heavily symbolic and metaphorical as Get Out never comes across as forced. That it's the directorial and feature writing debut for Jordan Peele makes it doubly impressive. It plays with tropes and real world dynamics in intelligent and funny ways, but the audience never finds themselves yanked out of the story by its considerable ambition.
Get Out is a radical statement of pitch black humour that goes to extreme lengths because it has to. In a tense cultural climate where it's inexplicably necessary to state "Black Lives Matter," the film does just that, and it does it on its own terms with very little uncertainty.
Get Out opens in Australian cinemas on Thursday May 4th.
