“Get Out” is a strongly satirical horror film about an African-American man who visits his white girlfriend’s parents for the weekend. She insists they are not racist, but he very quickly is met with firstly subtle racism of the try-hard type (‘I voted for Obama’) and then increasingly more overt racism. Added to this there are many oddities about the people he meets that eventually make him uncomfortable enough that he wants to leave. That’s when he realises leaving may not be so easy.

Jordan Peele is the director and writer of this story. I have not seen any of his other work as yet, but I found this film to be well directed, achieving a horror which is more atmospheric and without jump-scares (which in my opinion is how horror ought to be done.) The story achieves a creeping unease with both its racism against the protagonist Chris, and the various increasingly odd behaviour surrounding the black staff at the home. His decision to start the story with one of the other victims being abducted, while the old song ‘Run, Rabbit, Run’ plays from the car’s stereo, (indicating a hunter versus prey idea from the very beginning), is a great one. The audience knows right from the start that something is wrong, and we are on the side of Chris’ friend who keeps telling him not to go to his white girlfriend’s house (even if we are not agreeing with his conspiracy theories.) There is humour in the friend’s wild ideas and rambling, adding a necessary relief of tension to the otherwise building drama.

Daniel Kaluuya stars as Chris Washington and is superb in this role. The story needed a strong lead to work, and Kaluuya certainly rises to the occasion. The character has a lot of strong scenes and emotions to convey – from humour, to discomfort, fear, pain and anger. Kaluuya is convincing in whatever he is portraying. The character jokes around with his friend, is loving with his girlfriend, and seems like a nice, polite guy who is doing his best to be polite at her family’s house in spite of covert and overt racism. I found him riveting during the scene where Mrs Armitage hypnotises him into talking about his mother’s death – he conveys the grief and distress, and then the fear, brilliantly. I also liked the fact that Chris Washington is a smart guy, and I say that even though he makes a couple of bad mistakes. I don’t think these are indicative of a poor plot, however. I think the character is depicted as someone who might put up with a lot to make his girlfriend happy. So, when he know Mrs Armitage has hypnotized him without his consent, which is clear professional misconduct for a psychiatrist, a lot of people would have regarded that as a deal breaker. I honestly think it should have been a deal breaker, but I don’t find it unbelievable that he tried to move past it. He cares for his girlfriend and doesn’t want to make her unhappy. Again, after some of the appalling comments at the party (‘black is in fashion’, and poking him before asking his girlfriend if it’s true that the sex is better), it would have been more than reasonable to say ‘I don’t think I want to put up with this, I’m leaving’. If Rose the girlfriend returned his feelings like he thought she should have stood up for him. She kept on making apologetic noises but didn’t suggest they should just leave, which should have been a red flag for Chris.

I’ve seen criticism that Chris ‘turns into an action hero’ in the final act. I don’t think this is fair. Chris is not fighting against trained fighters, but against people who might be as smart or smarter than him but are not any more physically equipped than he is. He knows that if he doesn’t fight, he will die, and taps into the anger of what has happened to fuel him. Ultimately his survival does not occur by his own actions anyway, but by an act of sheer luck.

Catherine Keener plays Mrs Armitage, the psychiatrist. She plays this highly intelligent and manipulative character with a beautifully sinister air. Even before she is outed as a baddy, she always seems to be measuring, assessing, analyzing, while she has a conversation. As I have previously mentioned, her actions are certainly not in keeping with any professional code of conduct. (What I believe is a flaw in the film – I have always been under the impression that a person cannot be hypnotized against their will, and I am not sure I would call whatever she did hypnosis anyway. So, that is something of a hole in the plot.) She has the feel of a spider, sitting in the centre of the web and pulling the strings.

Bradley Whitford is Dean Armitage, the dad, all smiles and smarm. Again there is an early warning sign with him shortly after their arrival at the house, when he goes into a short and rather weird rant about deer, likening them to rats and apparently approving that Rose and Chris collided with and killed a deer by accident on their way to the house. He sees Chris side-eying the black gardener and housekeeper and comes up with a glib excuse for it (which in the end has more truth than you might expect.) While he is showing Chris around he makes the comment ‘it’s such a privilege to experience other cultures’, which is a foreshadowing of the business they run. Whitford is the doctor who performs the surgery at the climax of the story, and, like his wife, is also guilty of professional misconduct, not to mention illegal human experimentation, murder, etc. The ‘bingo’ (ie bidding) session, conducted in total silence, was an especially good moment for him, and the whole scene, essentially a slave auction, was more horrifying due to this.  

Allison Williams is Rose Armitage, the daughter, the girlfriend, and, it turns out, the honey trap. Chris discovers photos of her with numerous African-American men, despite the fact she tells him he’s her first. The character is a real chip off the old block, expertly lying to Chris and acting like she has no idea what is going on up until the climax. Williams is an interesting choice, as she is not overtly sexy, and the character is not shown as such. I think that is a good choice – it means Chris’ attempts to stay with her indicate his caring nature. Had she been more of a bimbo the audience might have been tempted to think Chris is motivated by his libido, and this would lessen Chris’ character as well.

The actors playing the Armitage family worked very well together. It is apparent that the family has played out this situation many times, and everyone knows their assigned roles. The family do their job like a well-oiled machine and the actors all convey that unity of purpose.

I have heard the criticism that this film is racist in itself, of white people. I believe this is a nonsensical criticism, for two reasons. Firstly, the film is supposed to be satirical. A lot of the characters at the party are very stereotyped but I think that is intended. Peele is not intending subtlety. He wants us to know that prejudice, however covert, is very rarely as subtle as those who practise it imagine. The second reason is that people do, in the real world, act like this.  They do exclaim about experiencing ‘other cultures’ as if they are looking at animals in the zoo. They do associate with people based on what’s currently considered trendy (‘black is in fashion’.) This does happen.

“Get Out” is now over six years old, and due to its popularity, has been thoroughly spoilt online. That being said, I consider that, if I sit down to watch it knowing the plot, and I still like it, then it must be a good movie. This is not a gore-fest, not a jump-scare kind of movie. It’s a slow, gradual, build up of unease and tension until the horror of the situation is revealed. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who likes their horror to be atmospheric and slowly creep up on you.