Welcome Change
‘Get Out’ was a relief from some of the more stressful movies that I’ve been watching for past few days. And this being a horror movie, in spite of being called a good one, I wasn’t expecting much out of it but it definitely exceeded my expectations.
The movie starts in a traditional fashion where a man walks alone in an avenue and gets abducted. The opening looked very much like ‘IT’, which by the way was definition of a bad film. Little did I knew that it should be seen as a black man being abducted, rather than a man being abducted.
Post that the movie progressed really well. There was no jump scare of any sort. After a good thirty minutes you see a deer being run over by the protagonist’s car. May be that’s the only one. Even when Rose (Allison Williams) wants to introduce Daniel Kaluuya (Chris Washington) to her parents it doesn’t look like a horror film. By that time I had forgotten that I was watching a horror film. It looked like a proper drama.
On second viewing there were many scenes which made even more sense. My favourite sequence when I watched the first time was the when Chris gets introduced by Rose to the Armitage’s. That’s the first time the eeriness starts. First the groundskeeper, then the servant lady and third the brother. What we don’t notice is Missy’s (Catherine Keener) eeriness to an extent. But the best of it is Dean (a brilliant, Bradley Whitford). His first reference about the black people, the Jessie Owens episode was so craftily written and acted even better. Look how effortlessly it’s masked by the mention of Hitler. But actually Dean too is a type of Nazi.
Not only that, we see Missy trying out her spoon therapy. So the Chekhov’s gun too was actually there. It’s not that she comes out of the blue and hypnotizes Chris. Another clue given is when Dean says that the nearest house is across the lake, so they have total privacy. But what I loved the best was one of the points which came up during discussion on why Rose doesn’t give out the ID so easily. May be it could be because of the fact that it’d be easy for the police to found out if Chris goes missing. Brilliant, ain’t it.
I think the casting directors had to be appreciated for having Chris Washington and Allison Williams in the lead. Chris had such innocent smile that you instantly like him and Allison is so believable. Till the point she shows off the keys it’s hard to imagine her being villain. But it doesn’t end up with only the leads. Every single character had acted so well. Special mention to Betty Gabriel.
The best thing about the movie is that it didn’t linger on the thought that ‘you’re black, I sympathize with you’ but had a genuine story line. I failed to catch so many instance first. When Rose’s parents hit about their dismay I failed to catch. Only when his brother came into the picture I thought about it. But again it’s great writing because it’s a typical American family set up with bad ass brothers. Everyone else seemed genuine. Only when Chris gets up at night and Rose’s mother hypnotises her the movie means business.
The director used the horror film template too well. The best way to scare people is not by showing the monster but by making thinking about it. Here we didn’t know what the motive of those people is, so we were constantly intrigued. That was a good suspense to maintain, which lasted for more than half of the movie’s length. And even when we know it, there was still an element of surprise to know how the protagonist would survive. Loved that idea. Above all, the climax was best. Because I thought it’d end up being an anti-climax but it didn’t. TS – motherfuckin’ – A. That’s the best part.
constantscribbles 