Something Bad Is Coming. Run.

In his debut as a feature film writer/director, Jordan Peele (known from Comedy Central’s, Key & Peele) orchestrated a commentary on racism in America, making a powerful statement by targeting not the racists themselves within this nation, but the accepting, caring liberals who “would have voted Obama a third term.” The striking cinematography caught my eye and that is when I began picking up the clues…

As hesitant as one can be while walking into a theater to attend a horror film, I sat down with my bowl of popcorn curled up in a ball in preparation to have several heart attacks; however, an hour and forty-four minutes later, I was already making plans to see this film a second time. What made this film so incredible for me was the audience interaction with the film. Get Out is a film most worthy of the big screen, surrounded by an audience of strangers, who will react in ways that will alter your movie-going experience. The person on your left tensed up in fear is only a few seats away from the girl still laughing at Rod’s (Lil Rey Howery) blatant remark about white people. For those of you who aren’t very into the whole “scary movie” thing, Lil Rey will help your nerves out.

Betty Gabriel as Georgina

So a horror movie, huh? You know the drill: a helpless young female home alone late at night hears a strange noise coming from the closet, and as she slowly creeps towards it, you are screaming (silently in your head, or maybe out loud if you just cannot contain yourself), “NO, NOT THAT DOOR!” Your sense of paranoia lies in fear of a murderous being or psychotic killer. Get Out completely changes the way of approaching a film classified as horror, with the monster hiding in the closet not being an alien from space or a masked killer, but a monster that is quite too relatable. Jordan Peele tests the conventions of the horror genre by bringing in an unexpected monster: white people themselves. You are under an intense sense of paranoia the entire film, not screaming “Don’t open that door” or “Look out behind you,” but rather thinking about Chris’s actions: “Why is he with all of those white people?” and “How does he not see through all of this!” If you are however looking to see some conventional horror, there is plenty of it, with a few jump scares here and there, and from the mysterious house keeper, Georgina, played by Betty Gabriel, known from her role in The Purge films, to the surprisingly gory ending. Also, you would think that Catherine Keener was a hypnotist in her past life, perfectly nailing the eerie character of the mother, Missy Armitage. As she tricks Chris into The Sunken Place, after seeing the film you might believe you are down there as well. The Sunken Place is only one in a sea of metaphors used by Peele, and it is pretty rewarding discovering each new one.

Peele's striking cinematography

Watching Get Out is like solving a puzzle, and each time you see it, more pieces to the are added. Peele’s master-mind hid tons of subtle clues and symbols in the words, actions, and clothing of the characters. America and its colors are a reoccurring motif, most blatantly seen in the red, white, and blue outfits of Allison Williams and Daniel Kaluuya, which together form the American flag. 

Also, the eerie musical score justifies the horror conventions of the film by building suspense. The song that plays during both the opening and closing credits is titled Sikiliza Kwa Wahenga, a Swahili phrase that translates to "listen to your ancestors." The song's lyrics mean "Something bad is coming. Run.” Through these many subtle clues adding up to the unintentional racism of America, Jordan Peele successfully illustrates the beastly nature of white Americans by subverting horror conventions to portray the seemingly harmless white person as the monster. You may jump out of your seat, but you definitely don’t want to get out of that theater.