Award Season Series: “Get Out” (2017)

Initial release date: February 24, 2017

Streaming services: HBO Max/various PVOD services

For this award season review, I selected a film that’s a rarity for the awards season - a horror-thriller. Throughout the years, there have been only six films (including this one) that have been nominated for a Best Picture Oscar - “The Exorcist,” “Jaws,” “The Silence of the Lambs,” “The Sixth Sense” and “Black Swan” - with “Silence of the Lambs” the only one to win the Best Picture Oscar.

So, for this review I wanted to take a look at the 2017 film “Get Out,” the directorial debut of Jordan Peele.

Now that Chris and his girlfriend, Rose, have reached the meet-the-parents milestone of dating, she invites him for a weekend getaway with her parents, Missy and Dean.

At first, Chris reads the family’s overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with her daughter’s interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries leads him to a truth that he never could have imagined.

“Get Out” (2017) is a masterful blend of social commentary, psychological horror and suspenseful storytelling. While the film does a great job creating intense suspense through its uncomfortable “meet the parents” premise, it can also have a few moments that can give you a bit of a chuckle, mainly from the supporting character Rod (Chris’ best friend).

Unlike many horror films that feature overt villains, “Get Out” explores the unsettling nature of “masked racism.” Throughout the horror film, we also see how wealthy white individuals mask their prejudice behind progressive facades (primarily during the first half of the film before things begin to get really twisted).

“Get Out” has been widely recognized for its great blending of horror, social thriller and satirical comedy, which together creates a very unique, tense and thought-provoking experience. The film focuses on the horror of losing one’s sense of self, particularly through the terrifying “Sunken Place” concept. The hypnosis scene, where the “Sunken Place” concept begins, is frequently cited as one of the most haunting and powerful moments of this film - and I definitely agree that this moment really stands out.

While the previously mentioned hypnosis scene is, without a doubt, one of the most memorable moments of this film, there’s a scene where all the noise at the garden party suddenly stops and everyone stares at Chris as he moves away from the party. This scene creates a palpable sense of unease and is one of the many stand out

moments.

There’s also the “bingo” auction scene where it’s slowly revealed that everyone playing the “game” is actually auctioning for Chris’ body. Now, while this entire scene has a major impact in the film and is quite suspenseful, this scene actually becomes more intense and eerie as the film’s main twist is eventually revealed.

Jordan Peele’s 2017 directorial debut, “Get Out,” is widely analyzed as a landmark in “social horror,” blending psychological thriller elements with sharp satirical commentary on race in America.

“Get Out” achieved massive critical acclaim, most notably winning the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. It was also nominated for Best Director, Best Picture and Best Actor. Some of the film’s other accolades include, nominations for the Independent Spirit Awards, Golden Globes, the BAFTA Awards and so much more.

MPA: Rated R for violence, bloody images, and language including sexual references   (runtime 104 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc9pZmkNf34

• Daniel Kaluuya was given the lead role on the spot after nailing his audition. Writer, co-producer, and director Jordan Peele said Kaluuya did about five takes of a key scene, in which his character needs to cry, and each was so perfect that the single tear came down at the exact same time for each take.

• The opening of the film is partially inspired by the opening of Halloween (1978), which Jordan Peele described as a subversion of "the perfect white neighborhood."

• (at around 30 mins) Director Jordan Peele asserted that the scene where Walter (Marcus Henderson) is running at Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) and the audience at full speed is a nod toward the power of depth in films. He cited North by Northwest (1959) as an example of this technique, stating, "Somebody running at you or towards you just creates a visceral and physical reaction for the audience."

• Due to the success of this film, Jordan Peele became the first African-American film writer, producer, and director to write, produce and direct a film debut that earned more than $200 million in non-inflation adjusted world wide box office ticket sales.

• Lil Rel Howery (Chris' best friend Rod) ad-libbed the majority of his funny lines.

• Director Jordan Peele said after winning the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, he originally wrote more than 200 drafts for the film before coming up with the script that was used for the final production.

• This is the sixth horror film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, after The Exorcist (1973), Jaws (1975), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), The Sixth Sense (1999), and Black Swan (2010). Of these six, only The Silence of the Lambs has won.

• For the Sunken Place sequences, a mixture of practical effects and CGI were used. Daniel Kaluuya was attached to wires and floating in front of a black background.

• This film stayed in the U.S. box-office Top 10 for its first two months of release.

• Jordan Peele cited horror classics like Night of the Living Dead (1968), Rosemary's Baby (1968), and The Stepford Wives (1975) as inspirations for creating this film.

• 2017 became the first year ever that the horror genre had reached $1 billion in ticket sales at the U.S. box office thanks to this film, It (2017), Split (2016), Annabelle: Creation (2017), Jigsaw (2017), It Comes at Night (2017), and Happy Death Day (2017).