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.
Movies
’28 Years Later’ – Ralph Fiennes, Jodie Comer, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson Join Long Awaited Sequel
Danny Boyle and Alex Garland (Annihilation, Men), the director and writer behind 2002’s hit horror film 28 Days Later, are reteaming for the long-awaited sequel, 28 Years Later. THR reports that the sequel has cast Jodie Comer (Alone in the Dark, “Killing Eve”), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kraven the Hunter), and Ralph Fiennes (The Menu).
The plan is for Garland to write 28 Years Later and Boyle to direct, with Garland also planning on writing at least one more sequel to the franchise – director Nia DaCosta is currently in talks to helm the second installment.
No word on plot details as of this time, or who Comer, Taylor-Johnson, and Fiennes may play.
28 Days Later received a follow up in 2007 with 28 Weeks Later, which was executive produced by Boyle and Garland but directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. Now, the pair hope to launch a new trilogy with 28 Years Later. The plan is for Garland to write all three entries, with Boyle helming the first installment.
Boyle and Garland will also produce alongside original producer Andrew Macdonald and Peter Rice, the former head of Fox Searchlight Pictures, the division of one-time studio Twentieth Century Fox that originally backed the British-made movie and its sequel.
The original film starred Cillian Murphy “as a man who wakes up from a coma after a bicycle accident to find England now a desolate, post-apocalyptic collapse, thanks to a virus that turned its victims into raging killers. The man then navigates the landscape, meeting a survivor played by Naomie Harris and a maniacal army major, played by Christopher Eccleston.”
Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) is on board as executive producer, though the actor isn’t set to appear in the film…yet.
Talks of a third installment in the franchise have been coming and going for the last several years now – at one point, it was going to be titled 28 Months Later – but it looks like this one is finally getting off the ground here in 2024 thanks to this casting news. Stay tuned for more updates soon!
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