It’s not often that a horror movie generates buzz at a bastion of independent film like the Sundance Film Festival, but Get Out from Key & Peele alum Jordan Peele is getting a lot of positive reviews as the Secret screening for Sundance 2017.
Written and directed by Jordan Peele (Keanu), the film is a horror/ social satire in the same style as The Stepford Wives. It takes a modern view of racial and class issues not from the perspective of racial hatred, but from the more subtle horror to be found in white upper-class liberal possessive tendencies and how hard they cling to their perceived tolerance.
The film stars Daniel Kaluuya (Black Mirror) as Chris. Chris and his girlfriend Rose, played by Allison Williams (Girls), have decided to visit her parents for the first time. Chris is understandably nervous about meeting them and their thoughts on the interracial relationship, but they seem warm and cordial upon first meeting. The parents are played by Bradley Whitford (The West Wing) as Dean and Catherine Keener (Capote) as Missy. As Chris deals with the overly friendly family and their neighbors, he notices strange behavior from the small handful of black people that he sees, who are all servants in the homes of these rich families.
Things become more ominous as the behavior he witnesses begins to get progressively stranger and he uncovers that there are several missing people from the area and that they are all black. His paranoia is peaked when the subtle racial slights and comments that he’s been receiving might be preludes to something more horrifying.
The audiences and critics at Sundance have given the film high praise for its script and direction by Peele as well as the performances of the cast including Kaluuya. They’ve noted the subtlety to the horror along with its satisfying scenes of violence. The films combination of social satire and horror are themes that seem to resonate as well. One thing is for sure: This is not Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.
Get Out will be in theaters February 24, 2017.
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