Despite a promising start it's a wasted opportunity at social satire

Rating: 6/10 (26 April 2017)

It's fairly rare these days that a horror movie get's the kind of critical praise that it receives and "Get Out", which marks the directorial debut of Jordan Peele has managed to somehow pull off just that. This having been said, Peele has called his movie a social thriller but let's face facts, it's a Horror movie and a rather mediocre one at that. Starring Daniel Kaluuya, who incidentally I previously know from his role as Tealeaf in the cult British Horror/comedy TV series, "Psychoville". The film centres around a young black man who goes to meet the affluent parents of his white girlfriend. Upon meeting the potential husband to be finds something unsettling about the unnatural friendliness of the father, and as the day progresses he begins to learn some disturbing truths by which time it might already be too late.
Although a tad rough around the edges which I could forgive that being that this was the directorial debut of Jordan Peele, who also wrote the screenplay. It still however gets off to a strong start, and there's an intriguing set-up with a potent air of mystery and a quiet unease which is palpably felt early on. It also easy to see shades of Ira Levin's "The Stepford Wives" and Kevin Smith's "Red State" where I think it's fairly safe to say Peele was influenced by. Serving as a satirical allegory (very much in a similar vein of "The Stepford Wives") of post racial tensions in the U.S., any sharp observations it attempts to make end up playing second fiddle to it's horror movie elements. And even then when those start to come to the fore the movie lacks any real tension. I simply didn't feel as if I was on the edge of my seat quite like I was supposed to be.
The occasional humorous moments with the lead character's best friend doesn't really gel with the whole tone of the movie, and it really beings to lose it in the final third where it descends in to sloppily handled clichÃ© ridden fodder. Worse yet, the family are so aloof and cold within the context of how the story plays out to the point that it's laughable. Add to this a tacked on denouement which given that there was an alternate, original ending and it's more than apparent that it's being clumsily shoehorned in.
Despite all this there are some some wonderful performances with both Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener being unnervingly clean-cut and buttoned down parents, with Stephen Root also on top form. The stand-out however is Daniel Kaluuya who makes for a likable and charismatic protagonist, who manages to understatedly invoke the sense of paranoia and threat that he feels. Sadly although not terrible he really deserved better to work with in terms with than what feels like something of a wasted opportunity. As social commentaries go it just doesn't hold entirely together well as it should. Although to be fair this is not the worst attempt at melding social commentary with the Horror genre, with director Brian Yuzna's awful 1989 effort, "Society" taking the number one spot. This is the "Citizen Kane" of Horror movies in comparison.