The Walking Black

Rating: 8/10 (6 June 2017)

"Get Out" is a 2017 horror mystery thriller written and directed by Jordan Peele, Emmy winner and one half of the successful comedy duo Key and Peele. Obviously he worked on several other projects as a writer, but when it comes to directing, it is his very first effort and for that it is quite a surprisingly strong achievement, also because there are no co-directors or anything in here. And the cast of this 105-minute film is also not exactly packed with superstars, even if Catherine Keener is of course a 2-time Oscar nominee and fans of Girls will recognize Allison "Marnie" Williams and fans of Transparent or "The West Wing" will recognize Bradley Whitford. But for me that's it I guess, even if I probably should have known that female housekeeper actress for how amazing she was. Lead actor Daniel Kaluuya I cannot say I know at all, even if I have seen "Kick-Ass 2" and "Sicario", so yeah this film proves that you don't need a spectacular cast of big names to come up with a quality piece because this is exactly what this film is and while all the actors are doing basically a good job, I think it is really much more about the writing than the individual performances.
It all starts relatively simple when a young couple drives to the countryside where the (Black) guy is about to meet her parents for the first time after being a couple for 4-5 months. But things take a turn for the dark side fairly quickly, when gruesome dreams, strange behavior by family and employees of the house and a really bizarre social event happen the very same weekend. What is going on? You really should watch for yourself. Lets go on with some spoilers now, so maybe stop reading here if you haven't seen the picture yet. I read that people compared this film to Blair Witch Project, one of my all-time favorites, but I personally saw it more of a modern version of Rosemary's Baby (without babies obviously), also with Williams' character and the doubts if she was in on it all or not. But when there is that scene with the housekeeper and the mobile phone and right after the protagonist tells his girlfriend the housekeeper comes in and apologizes, it becomes pretty obvious what Williams' character is all about. Completely aside from the horror side, this film is also a pretty hilarious take on black-and-white stereotypes. Random mentions of Tiger Woods, a lion cuddly toy on the night desk and there is a lot more to that. Very well-done and all these films that fail when it comes to this admittedly complicated subject can learn a lot from Peele here.
At the end, the film's medical component almost has a touch of Human Centipede and it was pretty hilarious how he kept killing them one by one. Oh yeah speaking about the stereotypes I mentioned earlier, I must admit that the very first scene confused me. I thought it was the main character (or his best friend) and a bit of a preview, but apparently it was another character entirely. So much for one Black guy looking like the next to us Whites. I just mentioned the best friend and he is the one who brings most of the comedic value here, even if that gardener running wildly at night was also pretty hilarious for some reason. Of course, there was a moment here and there that I did not like too much, like the hypnosis scene early on or the blind guy introducing himself or the way that the best friend really does come out of nowhere to be the savior at the very end or the previously mentioned very first scene that was okay, but I did not really see the connection, even if the scene itself was pretty strong. I guess it was supposed to show us how they get these Blacks!? Anyway, this first scene also shows that there will be several jump scares, so it is up to you to decide if you like them. But even if I am not the biggest fan of these, I must say they all worked fairly nicely and they also made sense which is even more important. The girl sitting next to me at the theaters really was shaken every single jump scare. But there is nonetheless depth to this film, not just the race aspects that were pretty smart, but you also find many metaphors and symbolisms in here like the way they kill the deer early on and how he eventually kills Whitford's character with the deer head. So all in all, this film was a delight and I would almost call it a must-see. One of 2017's very best from what I have seen so far and a tense thrill ride for 100 minutes. What are you waiting for? Best to be watched at a theater or at least with lights out entirely.