Movies
[Sundance Review] Jordan Peele’s ‘Get Out’ Gets it Right!
Jordan Peele made a big impression when he released the trailer to his horror film Get Out which nobody even knew he was working on. The film continues to make news as the secret midnight screening of the Sundance Film Festival. At this point, Get Out can sell itself because it’s great.
Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) goes home with his girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams) to meet her parents, Dean (Bradley Whitford) and Missy (Catherine Keener). Chris is worried that they won’t like her daughter dating a black man, but he has no idea how much worse it is. The family maid and groundskeeper seem unsettled, and when given a chance to speak, they sound very Stepford. Pretty soon any African-American character exhibits this odd behavior, and only the African-American ones.
Also, Missy hypnotizes Chris against his wishes. She is a psychiatrist and has a technique to place him under suggestion. Even if she were only conditioning him to quit smoking, which is what she says, that is wildly unethical. Between the surreal hypnodreams and the bizarre socializing Chris witnesses, Peele establishes a sense of foreboding for the entire film.
[Related] Keep up with all of our 2017 Sundance Film Festival coverage
Musical stings totally work too. Peele has a grasp on all the tropes of horror and uses them in fun ways. Without giving away the ultimate endgame, it’s safe to say Get Out mashes up subgenres like cult, mad scientist and no escape horror.
Race is an issue at the core of Get Out. In a genre where the “token black guy” has historically died first, this is a movie where an African-American essentially gets to be the final girl. We would also root for Chris to free some of the other vulnerable characters he’s met, but perhaps some are too far gone. It’s enough that he exposes it.
Even if there weren’t something insidious (see what I did there, Jason Blum?) going on, it is a fair depiction of white people often trying too hard to show they’re friendlies. All the party guests make awkward racial comments, and there’s a Bingo scene that’s just plain bizarre. Then the third act is just insane. Every little strange thing any character might have said pays off.
It’s odd that anyone might wonder how a comedian could direct a straight horror movie. Most horror movies have comic relief and Get Out is no exception. Chris’s best friend (LilRel Howery) is entirely comic relief, and Chris’s reactions to the strange behavior point out the absurdity of the premise. That’s what gives it more credibility than if it were just drama that pretends not to notice something is off.
Get Out opens February 24 from Universal.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
You must be logged in to post a comment.