Us

Rating: Null/10 (24 October 2019)

I've read reviews saying that the racism is "palpable" in Get Out - a film that's been credited with creating a new genre: "socio-horror". What's really most "palpable" is something found in basically every horror movie ever made: an emotional state of anxiety and the perception of being vulnerable in a threatening situation. Where it differs, it differs in a way that is detrimental to social progress and understanding.
Get Out is basically about black people being baited and trapped by white people who want to take over their bodies. The white family at the center of the crime ring is comprised of a shallow woman, Rose who fetishizes black men as boyfriends (literally choosing them online like merchandise), her calculating 'smart-type' hyper-opinionated surgeon father, her icy-cold psychiatrist mother who pretends to be caring, and her conceited brother who is just barely able to mask his racist loathing behind his self-loathing. The movie starts with a scene where the brother, Jeremy kidnaps a black man off the street in a white suburb at night, knocking him out with a choke hold and then stuffing him in the trunk of his car. But for the most part, black people are brought in one by one in the 'friendly' context of a (fake) relationship to be auctioned off and have most of their brain transplanted with the brain of a rich white person who doesn't have long to live or has some physical limitation. The family and the people in their social circle are shown as being passive-aggressive, manipulative fakers who are outwardly supportive of black people and black 'issues' in a manner so contrived it appears strange, and the premise is offered that they want black people for their "superior genes"; the coveting of black people apparently not just a problem with the shallow girlfriend but with the entire community. No better explanation is ever offered.
When Chris, Rose's latest catch, is brought around and introduced to the white people, he meets a former pro-golfer who knows and "loves" Tiger (Woods) and wants to see Chris' golf swing, a woman with her wheelchair-bound geriatric husband who remarks how handsome he is and feels up his bicep with undisguised intimacy, asking Rose if it (sex) really is better (with a black man), a man who remarks that "black is in fashion", etc. The only real-seeming interaction he has is with a blind art dealer (yeah, right... a blind art dealer) who remarks that Chris' photography work is good (he thinks) and says that unfortunately he himself didn't have the artist's eye even before he lost his eyesight. He will later buy Chris at auction and tell him that he wants him for his eye.
The trouble is racist people feel revolted by the people they're prejudiced against, and perceive their traits as being constitutionally defective and loathsome. No bigoted person would give high praise to the "superior genes" and qualities of a member of the hated race, and they would regard the possibility of inhabiting the body of that person as horrifying and repugnant. The action in the first three minutes of the film when Jeremy assaults and kidnaps the black man in the street is the only credible part. The premise guiding the rest of the film is not believable and it undermines understanding of what actually occurs in the minds and social groups of prejudiced people by presenting them as being covetous of the people they hate.
This bad premise is also problematic because it's similar in ways to common situations we experience. What if the people who hate you could really just be jealous of you on some level? That's sometimes the trouble in the ordinary conflicts people have, and it has appeal as an explanation because it makes you feel more certain of yourself and less ostracized or stressed out. When you're seeking an explanation for why someone seems to be after you, you're tempted to go for the one that confirms that you're OK (or better). But hatefully prejudiced people are an immediate threat to be feared and their violence is direct and unambiguous. They're truly antagonizing and angry, and they despise anyone belonging to the hated race; they're not looking for ways to be just like them, let alone inhabit their bodies.
Using a core of circumstances and feelings that are commonly experienced in ordinary social situations to build an irrational concept of covetous racism is an extreme disservice to a real social problem that has thrived for as long as there have been different races of our species to hate each other. There's a big difference between fears that have a true life-threatening basis and common social fears that generally need to be set aside so we can get along; mashing them together exaggerates the importance of common social fears and legitimizes an overblown response to them. In the continual Us vs Them conflict, this is about Us and the irrational ways we try to elevate ourselves and our tribe above Them.