Traditional Meets Innovative

Rating: 8/10 (3 March 2019)

The feeling of being watched is a classic element in most horror movies but in Get Out (2017), written and directed by Jordan Peele, the audience gets to live vicariously through the main character Chris as he has an intensely different experience meeting his new girlfriend's parents. This film has the classic jump scare elements sprinkled in to the suspense the audience experiences waiting for something triggering to happen to confirm our suspicions about the family. Throughout the film, Peele uses quick cuts and the nondiegetic music of a screeching violin, which is later realized as a leitmotif, to not warn the viewers that there is more going on with this family that we can imagine. We forced to align with Chris and his emotions by not being fully omniscient in many aspects. Even though the viewers see things such as the silent auction, we are unaware of the true meaning of what being bought entails. Each twist and turn of the plot is just as much of a surprise to us as it is to him.
The last few scenes of the movie seem to hone in to the classic horror elements. In addition to the unveiling that Chris' girlfriend is also in on his capture, these scenes are where the blood and killings are displayed in true horror fashion. The blood from the brain surgery in addition to the blood from the killings of the parents, brother, girlfriend, housekeeper and groundskeeper, helps the movie come full circle in ending with the gruesome imagery of a horror movie. This film keeps the audience constantly on the edge of their seat while hoping Chris can find some way out of this monstrous house.