If Black Mirror was a movie

Rating: 8/10 (18 February 2018)

When you think of the Oscars, you think of big, sweepy dramas like Saving Private Ryan, or big, extravagant musicals like Chicago, but when was the last time you thought of a Horror movie for Best Picture? If you can't remember any, it's because horror movies rarely made the cut, much less win the Best Picture award. Past nominees from this genre includes The Exorcist, Jaws, Sixth Sense, Black Swan, The Silence of the Lambs (the only winner so far), and now we have a new addition to this prestigious list: Get Out.
Get Out tells the story of Chris who's whisked away for the weekend by his girlfriend so he can meet her parents. His nerves are understandable because aside from the possible awkward and tense first meeting, factoring in their interracial relationship, he doesn't just worry if they'll like him for who he is but also for what he is, an African-American. The feeling of uneasiness never escaped him as later his nervousness is converted to fear for his life when things start to unravel as to what the true purpose of the trip was for.
I browsed the reception of the movie and it's praises all around and is one of the most buzzed about nominee this year. Of it's four nominations (Picture, Actor, Director, Screenplay), I would have to agree most with the Best Actor nod for Daniel Kaluuya who I remember and loved from one of my favorite Black Mirror episodes: '15 Million Merits', and just yesterday hated (in a good way) as W'Kabi in Black Panther. While he won't probably win (there wasn't enough that can be done with the role compared to Timothee Chalamet's Elio or Gary Oldman's Churchill), those scenes were he cries on point just takes your breath away. As for the rest of the nominations, it might just be me but I don't get the extreme love for it, which includes a 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I get that it's breaking barriers, the symbolism (some of which I got only after reading up on the movie) but to me it's just another horror movie. Maybe I've seen too much of Blumhouse Production movies such as all Purge installments, Insidious, Sinister and Paranormal Activity that's why I'm lumping it with the rest of them. It might win due to it's popularity but if we're talking overall production, it doesn't hold a spoon (pun intended for those who've seen it) at least against CMBYN and Darkest Hour.