Get Out

Horror is a genre that gets a bad wrap. 

I'd say it's mostly well deserved, but there's always one to two gems per year that are truly great movies and make the whole genre worth it. 

I've given this spiel before so I won't go down well-traveled road, but instead I'll recap. Last year, The Witch appeared to be that film, even though I found it fairly underwhelming (and it didn't age well in my opinion). Others found it magnifiscent though so I'm glad for them. 

The year before that I was very much on the It Follows train, and still am. It's definitely a movie that loses some effect after that initial viewing, as I'm sure Get Out will too, but it's got such great cinematography and original score that I hardly care. 

I feel pretty confident stating that Get Out will likely be that horror film of 2017. It's been getting a lot of buzz because of its subject matter, the high-profile director, Jordan Peele, and the little fact that it's the first film with over 100 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes to still have a 100% rating -- or something like that. 

Aside from all the hubbub and noise, this is the start to what could be a very effective career move for Peele, making him that much more dangerous in Hollywood. Get Out deals with a lot and it does so in a talented, precise way that shows true vision. As much as it's a horror film, it's also a mind trip that will have you blown away at more than a few points and feeling very uncomfortable in others. It sets out to do several jobs and does them all shockingly well.

Getting the very minor things I didn't like out of the way is a simple and short task. For starters, like many films with a "big reveal" this film will undoubtedly lose its effectiveness after the initial viewing. I don't hold that against it, but I don't see this being one that I'll revisit time and time again. There are also some rather heavy handed moments of awkwardness that I feel could have been dialed down. At one point I felt as if the film overplayed its hand and nearly revealed its secret unintentionally and I personally felt like it loses some of its effectiveness if literally every character that our main protagonist, Chris, meets is super weird or "off". Honestly though? That's just my personal preference and as a work of art from Jordan Peele, this is his vision and like I stated above, it works. 

Just looking at this picture makes me uncomfortable...

Probably identical to the look
of many faces in the audience

The rest of the film is insanely captivating and flies by even faster than its quick 143 minute length. It may feel like it's stalling out, but it's definitely not once you realize what's happening. And that's really the film's biggest victory; it earns the hell out of its reveal, even if it's a tad bit too foreshadowed. Get Out is weird as hell throughout the proceedings, but thanks to the awesome climax/conclusion, it rewards that payoff of questioning and uncomfortable scenarios really well. The tone of the film is consistently eerie and weird -- probably one of the most unsettling films I've ever seen. It's very clear that something is off, and with the introduction of race into the equation, it cleverly uses that as almost a disguise (almost) for what's really going on. Are these just a bunch of really awkward white people -- "I absolutely love Tiger Woods!" -- or is something more sinister occurring? The film balances that line with near-perfection and even casually inserts humor at much-needed times. It's a fantastic blend of horror, comedy, and thriller elements and it sways between each organically and to the betterment of the movie. 

Get Out is also an all around directing achievement. The above lends itself more to the story and writing in my eyes, but from a technical and pacing perspective, it's wonderful. I wish there would have been a little bit more effective cinematography outside of just a handful of scenes, but overall these frames are really well captured and edited. Those handful of scenes are doozys though and they're magnificent: claustrophobic and trapped, but eerily beautiful. It's weird to say but the scenes to which I'm referring are almost exactly how I would picture an aspect of the film to be -- which was terrifying in its own right. Incredibly vague I know, but I imagine many will relate and know exactly what I'm talking about. This is also a film that has a solid soundtrack and original score. Nowhere near as perfect as It Follows, but well suited nonetheless. 

Yeah. It gets insane.

Even with the horror genre putting out some real stinkers each year, with far less "great" films than most others, I truly appreciate the hell out of an effective one. More often than not, they're so good that they become highly memorable classics. Get Out is one such film and it will send you on a mind f**k much unlike anything you've seen before. 


CONS

• Almost too awkward at times. When nearly every single character is "off", it seems a little less realistic
• Could have used some better cinematography in its less important scenes

PROS

• Jordan Peele has successfully added "writer" and "director" to his resume in splendid fashion
• Smart, funny, painfully realistic at times -- the social commentary in this one is its own special kind of horror
• Horribly awkward, uncomfortable, and eerie. Sometimes all at once
• Awesome imagery in specific scenes
• Music accompaniment is on point
• Earns its big reveal and ending. Super trippy

Rath's Review Score | 8.5/10