Part 2: “Get Out” flips the script
WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR “GET OUT.”
This article is a sequel to last week’s column on common tropes in classic horror and will reference ideas established there, so make sure you’ve read that article before reading this one.
When “Get Out” was released in 2017, it took the world by storm. The directorial debut of sketch comedian Jordan Peele — known for “Mad TV” and “Key & Peele” — quickly became one of the most profitable films of that year, eventually being nominated for four Oscars and winning one: Best Original Screenplay.
The film’s outstanding success came as a surprise for many, not only because of the director’s creative background and relative inexperience, but also the film’s subject matter.
“Get Out” is a so-called “social thriller” that deals heavily with topics such as racism, benevolence and the insidiousness of discrimination — something that, if you’ve read my previous columns, would seem markedly out of place in the self-censoring world of Hollywood, and almost inconceivably out of place in the conservative conception of classic horror I established last week.
You would think this film is doomed to the realm of arthouse cinema, widely praised but rarely distributed. Yet, it somehow seems to have struck a chord with nearly everyone.
A large part of this can be attributed to the creative chops of Peele. His directing style has been praised as “remarkably assured and confident” by Vox’s Alissa Wilkinson and as something that may be “the greatest talent of this fascinating actor and writer” by critic Brian Tallerico.
But I’d argue that as much, if not more, of the film’s widespread success has to do with the script’s spin on common horror movie messaging.
In last week’s column, I discussed how common tropes of the so-called “classic” horror genre that existed in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s projected an overall conservative message. These films associated common deviations from cultural norms, such as sex before marriage or embracing nonwhite identities, with horrendous outcomes such as the creation of murderers or being murdered oneself.
“Get Out” projects almost the exact opposite message, and does so from the very beginning. When Black protagonist Chris Washington arrives at the family home of his white girlfriend Rose Armitage, we, as the audience, are struck by the size of the family’s estate, and by extension, how seemingly normal her parents are.
Much is made of Washington’s concerns over Armitage’s parents’ reaction to their daughter dating a Black man, but these worries are ultimately assuaged by her parents being quite kind to him — even if they do make somewhat tactless comments about the successes of Black figures such Jesse Owens and former President Barack Obama.
While there is some space for the audience’s concern surrounding these wealthy, white landowners having a primarily Black staff, the film actually preempts this by having Armitage’s father mention that these particular workers have been with them for years, and he practically considers them family himself.
In short, every pain is taken to make the Armitages appear as older liberals of the most conventional sort. They’re perhaps a little out of touch with the intricacies of modern American race relations, but their hearts are ultimately in the right place, even with their wealth.
In personality, they’re the very model of traditional normalcy, and their wealth and education paint them as authority figures. They effectively embody what is projected as “good” by classic horror movies.
However, the Armitages are the villains of the story, and quite horrific ones at that.
As is revealed in the third act, their family has been using experimental neurosurgery and hypnotherapy for generations to transplant the consciousnesses of white bidders into Black bodies. Their twisted practice successfully forces victims to spend the rest of their lives watching in paralyzed agony as someone else pilots their body.
While their motives are supposedly noble — giving aging parents another chance at life with their children or a blind man the gift of sight — the way their motivation implicitly places white lives above Black ones is clear.
In other words, instead of reassuring white audiences of their conventional morality, “Get Out” reflects them in the villain. Rather than enforcing normalcy, it attempts to tear it down, showing that even egalitarian liberalism and conventionally noble motivations can continue systems of hatred and oppression.
