The Terrifying Horror Movie On Netflix That’s One Of The Best Of The Decade
Jordan Peele’s Get Out is currently streaming on Netflix, and if you’ve ever had any doubts about a comedian’s ability to tell a compelling horror story, this movie is an absolute must-see.
Though this psychological horror story marks Peele’s directorial debut, years of writing sketch comedy alongside Keegan-Michael Key, who introduced him to producer Sean McKittrick, proved to us that he knew how to tell the unsettling and subversive story that Get Out has to tell. Not only did this horror flick win countless accolades for Best Original Screenplay, it was a massive critical and commercial success as well.
Get Out, Jordan Peele’s directorial debut, is available to watch on Netflix.
Get Out centers on protagonist Chris Washington, a young black photographer who is invited by his girlfriend Rose Armitage, to visit her family in upstate New York. Rose comes from an affluent white family, and Chris is concerned about how their interracial relationship will be received by her mother and father. Rose’s father, Dean, is a neurosurgeon, and her mother, Missy, is a hypnotherapist who offers to help with Chris’ smoking addiction.
Though the hypnotherapy session does, in fact, curb Chris’ desire to smoke, he realizes that something more sinister is going on after visiting a spot called the “Sunken Place.” During the Armitage’s annual family get-together, Chris is introduced to Jim Hudson, who is an art dealer who has gone blind in his old age, but expresses interest in his photography skills.
Though we don’t know what’s currently at stake at this point in Get Out, we are left unsettled after everybody remarks about Chris’ physical attributes as if they want something from him.
Upon its release, Get Out earned over $255 million against its modest budget of $4.5 million, and has received universal critical acclaim for its pacing, cinematography, screenplay, and subversive nature.
Get Out starts to make sense when we learn that the Armitage family engages in experimental surgeries in which they transplant brains from a desired physical specimen into the body of somebody who would benefit from their genetic advantage. In this case, Chris’ eyesight is something that Jim wants.
What makes Get Out so unsettling is not only its unique twist of psychological horror, but rather how it subverts our views on race relations in modern America. The Armitage family aren’t the typical villains that you’d expect in a film that boasts racial commentary. Lanre Bakare of The Guardian sums it up perfectly when he says that Get Out “exposes a liberal ignorance and hubris that has been allowed to fester.”
In other words, we’re not dealing with blatant outward racism, but instead experience a more subtle portrayal of complacent arrogance from Get Out’s villains.
Upon its release, Get Out earned over $255 million against its modest budget of $4.5 million, and has received universal critical acclaim for its pacing, cinematography, screenplay, and subversive nature. It’s clear that Jordan Peele knows how to tell one heck of a story because his directorial debut has a 98 percent critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes against an audience score of 86 percent.
Get Out was the movie that Jordan Peele was born to write. His comedic instinct, and his clear affinity and appreciation for the horror genre make a perfect recipe for a film that’s truly unsettling…
Commenting on his transition from comedy to horror, Jordan Peele makes it sound so easy. Making a movie like Get Out seems like an effortless and natural progression, and Peele maintains that working in comedy gave him the training he needed to make an effective horror movie. In his own words, he said that horror and comedy are more parallel than one would think because they both rely on pacing hinge on reveals.
In many ways, good horror is comedy without a punchline. Think about all of the sketches that Jordan Peele worked on with Keegan-Michael Key before he penned the script for Get Out. A lot of the humor that we appreciate can be stopped dead in its tracks and become uncomfortable if a punchline isn’t part of the equation.
In hindsight, Get Out was the movie that Jordan Peele was born to write. His comedic instinct, and his clear affinity and appreciation for the horror genre make a perfect recipe for a film that’s truly unsettling while also giving a new and unique voice to the genre that only a comedian could bring to the table.
If you want to experience the “Sunken Place” while sinking into your sofa in horror, then Get Out is just the right movie to get under your skin. But beware before hitting play, because even though Chris Washington’s brain is at stake, Get Out is a far cry from a mindless film, and will leave you thinking about its message long after the final credits roll across the screen.
