Originally published on 1/12/2019
I have seen Get Out three times now, with each viewing unearthing greater and greater meaning. This is a film crafted with care and subtlety; Peele took his time with the script and the results speak for themselves. It’s a fantastic film that is endlessly entertaining, with the unique ability to make you laugh and feel eerie at the same time.
Right from the first scene, the film develops a sense of being out of place that builds as the movie progresses. Every joke in the film is lined with a deeper sense of horror that keeps you guessing and makes you reflect on the state of race relations in America.
“Get Out” works as an excellent horror film because of how real it is, of how accurately it’s able to convey American society today. I suspect many will have their own perspectives with the ideas presented in the film, but nevertheless it’s a valuable film for everyone to watch and talk about. This is especially great as this film rewards multiple viewing and watching it with other people might reveal things you may have otherwise missed.
I’m very surprised that a film like this even got made because it deals with the topic of race relations in an extremely risky and ambitious way. This being Peele’s directorial debut is very impressive and I hope it’s the start of an important film career. His new film “Us” is being released in March and I hope it’s just as good if not better; Peele has certainly shown us what he is capable of and I’m excited to see what he has in store next.
My only gripe with this film would be the way the ending sequences play out, they didn’t feel as well written as the other aspects of the film. I’m not referring to the way the film ended, I really enjoyed the ending of the film and would not have preferred the alternate ending of Chris being put in jail. I was more concerned with the action. One scene that stood out to me was where Walter pins down Chris after he crashes the car, and Rose with a gun comes up to him. Chris then uses his phone to take a flash picture of Walter, and as we had previously seen this allows Walter to snap out of the Sunken place and become himself again. However, Rose, even though she seems to be pretty close to the scene, somehow doesn’t notice the flash and hands Walter the gun to finish off Chris, leading to her demise instead. I figured Rose would have seen the flash and have been smart enough to know that Walter would have become himself again, but somehow she doesn’t recognize any of this. In a film that took so much care in every scene, the way some things went down in the end, didn’t feel as well thought out, but these are very minor detractors in an otherwise effective and entertaining film that gives you loads to think about.
