This Generation's African-American Horror Epic -- A Darker Blacula For Our Times

Rating: 9/10 (28 February 2018)

Not since Blacula in the early Seventies has a brilliant African-American film electrified the horror audience and changed the way the mainstream audience thinks about race, horror, and the power of storytelling. But where Blacula was patterned after the relatively mild, almost romantic horror films of the early Thirties, GET OUT is a relentlessly terrifying thriller that captures the stifling, shocking paranoia of ROSEMARY'S BABY, THE STEPFORD WIVES, and even darker classics like THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE and A CLOCKWORK ORANGE.
By now everyone knows the basic plot -- a young black man visits his white girlfriend's parents in the luxurious home deep in the country. This journey is an ironic reversal of Marlowe's journey up the Congo in HEART OF DARKNESS. Daniel Kaluuya plays Chris, the innocent victim turned hero who becomes the perfect symbol of the courage, decency, and humanity that white America so often refuses to acknowledge in young black men. No one else has said it, but it seems to me that Kaluuya's performance is strengthened by his uncanny resemblance to a great black actor who left us much too soon -- Howard Rollins. The movie plays with the fact that Chris is much like the black officer Rollins played in A SOLDIER'S STORY -- the honest observer, the courageous truth seeker, the lone survivor. There are moments that seem torn right out of the earlier classic, just in the way Chris shows so much sadness with his eyes as the other black characters are demeaned and humiliated.
But this is not just one man's story. Allison Williams as Rose Armitage is a revelation. Again, it's astonishing the way this gifted and sensationally gorgeous young actress channels the aura of earlier icons. Early in the picture, Rose comes across as exactly the character a young Jane Fonda or Katharine Hepburn might have played. She's the aristocratic ingenue with a prim demeanor and passion lurking underneath, seemingly cool but full of red blood and passion as well as sympathy for the less fortunate. The genius of this movie is that it takes this archetype, so beloved by white liberals, and then transforms the character in ways that are both terrifying and darkly funny.
Catherine Keener as Mama Armitage was equally unforgettable. I'd seen her in a light-hearted comedy, HAMLET 2 with Steve Coogan. I noticed then that she has a way of striking sparks, sounding discordant notes, making the story turn dark just by her very presence. Here she's even more sensational!
This movie is one of those rare classics that feels totally original -- yet at the same time it's full of tributes to earlier films. You can't see Chris tied up in a chair and shedding tears without picturing Alex in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. The use of hypnosis brings back memories of THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE. Nothing ever feels fake or added for effect -- GET OUT just resembles those earlier classics because of its power, style, and depth.
GET OUT is a movie that has no weak spots, no slow scenes, no bad performances. It's the most economical thriller I've ever seen. You will not forget this young man's journey into a uniquely American vision of hell.