Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Movie Review: GET OUT

When Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) has to go to visit his girlfriend's parents home he worries that they don't know he is black and that this might cause problems. Yet, upon meeting them, they appear more than welcoming until strange occurrences in the house and things that happen to him start freaking him out, ultimately leading to the discovery of a terrible mystery.


Get Out is possibly the culmination of the last few years of great horror and finally solidifies Blumhouse Productions as one of the main protagonists of the modern horror golden age. It also introduced the movie-going public to the mind of writer/director Jordan Peele and his stunning sensibilities in genre filmmaking.

What is possibly the most indicative aspect of this film's incredible success is the meshing of both horror and comedy tones. As in all in great genre clashes, it makes the comedy and the horror work together and function on the same beats. That is something that is rarely found. When it works, it works to incredible effect. There are moments where the tension is building to incredible stress levels and it gets released with comedy beats that are genuinely funny, laugh out loud moments as much as they are fu*king creepy twisted moments that add to the white-knuckled thriller aspect of the film.

The picture is intense. Really intense. It does not let you breathe for a second and I loved every moment of it, it always had me on the tip of my toes. I did not know what was coming next. Sometimes, I didn't know whether to laugh or to be scared and it just got me to this place of being totally locked into it with my body. It affected me physically and that is one of the best compliments you could ever give to a motion picture. Peele knows every trick in the box of how to play the audience and he rarely ever makes a false step in guiding us through the story. The scene weave is flawless and every new bit of information is delivered at the perfectly right time and escalates to twists and twists on twists which never lost me and actually ratcheted up the tension.

It is clear that there were a lot of influences moving Peele around and it is a testament to his cinematic ability that they are never bluntly thrown at your face. Instead, they are used in a complementary way to bring us a delicious mix of everything. Edgar Wright, Quentin Tarantino, and Roman Polanski all transpire beautifully through this film, yet possibly the best homage that we get is to Alfred Hitchcock. On one side we see the homages and the subtle similarities that only make the film better, on the other it just made me remember why Hitchock was and is the best and why his lessons are universal.

There isn't much to point out here on the negative side. The film flows and hits you without having any stumbles on the way. There are little moments where the quirky, off beat atmosphere gets amplified to 110% and you may start to feel a little overwhelmed, but it picks up immediately and doesn't really leave any trace of that on the film. I think that cutting it by 10 or so minutes could have benefited the film in making it even more hard hitting as there are little moments that drag and a couple of plot beats that are explained to the audience shamelessly when they could have been entrusted to work it out by themselves.

Get Out is a hard hitting comedy/horror, incredibly original and fresh and made with a stunning craft in filmmaking, especially considering this is a feature debut. It scared me, it made me laugh out loud, and it made me sweat, a lot. I really enjoyed it.

James' Score: 8.5/10

Make sure to check us out and like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Instagram for all of our reviews, news, trailers, and much, much more!!!

1 comment: