10/28/17 – day twenty-eight of thirty-one days of horror!
I’ve chosen a lot of non-diverse, insensitive, triggering
films this year, so I offer a corrective (or at least a flimsy appeal) with the
inclusion of this year’s superb Get Out. Not many would have predicted that
Jordan Peele of the comedy duo Key and Peele would deliver the surprise horror
hit of the year, but the timing couldn’t have been more perfect for a Stepford
Wives-influenced take on white appropriation of black culture. While there is
some comedy around the edges, Peele keeps things focused on suspense,
discomfort, and smartly gauging the way his bizzaro mystery unfolds, so when
the reveals start happening – reveals that are batshit crazy but undeniably
clever – they land with an impact. The
cast is uniformly great; Daniel Kaluuya ably handles the suspicious protagonist
role, Allison Williams builds on her “Girls” persona in interesting ways, and
the pairing of Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener are perfect as the liberal
intellectual parents who seem painfully unaware of their own racial
entitlement. Yes, it’s a message movie for sure, but what makes Get Out so
great is that despite its painfully on-point social commentary it’s also a fun,
crazy horror movie, and roundly deserving of being this year’s much-hyped
horror hit.
