Throughout this breakdown of Get Out we’ll cover all the nitty gritty from racism and American politics to Emmet Till, Rosa Parks, Frankenstein and technology. We’ll also unfold how horror has evolved in order to contribute to the critique of society and stay relevant. Spoilers ahead!

Get Out is a phenomenal movie that plays with the theme of underlying racism in today’s society. The fear of the horror movie is driven by the idea of people playing with your conscious, the ability to control somebody. We see this underlying theme when Rose leads her boyfriend of 5 months to her parents house, because of the colour of his skin they view him as property. After we discover the parents are in a racist cult that kidnaps and takes control of African American men the plot starts thickening (duh). We learn that the dad (a neuroscientist) not only forcefully kidnaps these men but physically takes control of their brain by tweaking some nerves. The patients still have a consciousness but can’t control themselves, they’re simply a “passenger” in there life. For some of us this is just a horror, something we can only experience in our nightmares. For others it was actually a reality. The movie is obviously playing with the idea of racism in society, knowing this we can connect it to the enslavement of African Americans in the 19th, 18th and 17th century. Slaves were completely controlled by their owners, they couldn’t choose when to eat, sleep, what to wear or what they wanted to do. The owning of slaves breaks just about every human rights law and somehow at the time it was legal. Similar to the movie, slaves were sadly just a “passenger” in their life. So in conclusion, the fear that drives this movie is that we may one day become a “passenger” in our life.

I think what makes this film even more frightening is that there are real people out there who have the same mindset and motivations of the family. The family’s motivation to kill or rather take control was focused on people of colour. A scene nearing the end of the film exposes the reasoning behind controlling POC, one woman said “they’re in fashion” and an other said it was because of there “physical structure”. It was almost like they were viewing the people as property, something that was disposable. No matter who you are, that mindset should terrify you.

One reason this movie was so successful was because it was introduced in a way that could relate to everybody. It starts off with Rose taking Chris to her parents house for the first time. Chris’s main worry is if her parents will accept him for who he is. Something we can all relate too, the worry of acceptance. This relatability is what hooks the audience in, you instantly make a connection with Chris’s character.

Another interesting technique that the film uses is the setting. When they arrive at Rose’s parents house it becomes obvious it’s a predominately white suburban neighbourhood. Most horror movies use the suburban neighbourhood as a victim of some kind of monster, but with this film the neighbourhood seems to be the source of horror. The plot has barely begun at this point and the audience is already weary and unsure of what to expect.

If you have watched the movie, you are already aware of “the Sunken Place”. In an interview, Jordan Peele comments on this term and says “We’re all in the Sunken Place … the Sunken Place means we’re marginalized. No matter how hard we scream, the system silences us.” This adds a lot of powerful context to the movie, it reveals the films exploration of cultural appropriation and America’s racism. This technique of tying modern and historical pasts into symbols throughout the movie is very frequently used.

This film is webbed with historical and modern day context. An example of this is the use of technology and the symbols they represent. We were discussing in class the significant yet hidden use of the camera in the movie, more accurately the phone camera and flash. When the people in the “Sunken Place” have their pictures taken with flash they become conscious for a split second. Like we talked about before, the “Sunken Place” is a symbol for marginalization and how the system silences people. Therefor, if the camera flash is used to pull people out of the “Sunken Place” it represents the power of social media and technology’s ability to let those who are marginalized be heard. Similar to social media nowadays, it’s essentially a platform used by millions to speak and spread truth. We can even go as far as connecting it to Emmet Till, a boy who’s story was told through a picture. This picture is what inspire Rosa Parks, and what is said to have sparked the civil rights movement.

As the movie comes to an end, the flashing lights of a police car reflect onto Chris’s bloodied body. He is surrounded by the carcass of Rose, the groundskeeper and maid. My first thought was, “here we go again another POC getting blamed for something they didn’t do”. I was so frustrated that the movie had come to this, after everything that Chris had gone through he was going to be arrested. But, to my surprise it was his TSA friend coming to his rescue. Relieved that Chris wasn’t going to jail, I reflected on my initial reaction. Why did I assume that the cops were going to arrest him? Is the world that messed up that I assumed the worst, and assumed the same old narrative? After some research I found I wasn’t alone in this presumption. In fact, the director Jordan Peele was initially going to end the move like that, with Chris sitting in jail looking at a full life sentence. As relieved as I was that he didn’t go that route, I also feel like that would have been so impactful. Don’t get me wrong the movie is already so powerful, but Chris getting arrested would have been the cherry on top of the ice cream. It would have made the audience so incredibly frustrated, and maybe inspired somebody to make some sort of change in either their perspective or somebody else’s.

This movie is so different than any other, the classics don’t even come close to it. Classic horrors such as Frankenstein use similar themes like acceptance, but besides that they don’t really come close to Get Out. The film is just so unique whether it be the deceitful characters, gut wrenching plot twists, unsettling settings and use of sound. Nowadays, classics like Frankenstein have pretty predictable plots and horror techniques. Even though the classics may not be as mature as today’s movies, Frankenstein, Psycho, and Halloween walked so Get Out could run.

Saying this, horror movies has to evolve to keep its relevance in society. Whether that be using increasingly deceitful characters or dealing with greater conflicts and themes. If Get Out where to be about some paranormal world and had nothing to do with racism it probably would not have done as well. The themes have to be relevant to society otherwise they will have no significance or make impact on people’s life’s and perspectives. Since Get Out does deal with such a predominate issue in our society it was able to relate to so many people, and make such a great impact.