Race relations and violent horror

Rating: 6/10 (4 June 2017)

'My parents are not racist', Rose tells her boyfriend Chris when she's planning to introduce him to her mum and dad. She's not planning to tell them Chris is black. Why should she? They're not racist.
Indeed, her parents seem to be more worried about his smoking habit than about his skin colour. But the fact remains that they employ two black servants, who seem rather submissive and not very talkative.
The first part of this film is a clever exploration of race relations. Chris feels that something strange is going on in the household of his girlfriend's parents, but he doesn't know what.
Only in the second half it becomes clear what is going on. The movie changes radically: thriller and horror elements take over. Subtlety makes way for straightforward violence, the viewer is treated to a series of bloody killings, contrasting strongly with the sophisticated observations about race relations.
This is a film with two faces: intelligent drama and bloody horror. You could argue that it's clever to combine both elements, but it's also the weak point. Viewers who don't like horror (like me) are disappointed by the bloody second half, viewers who do, will find the first part boring.