GET OUT

Some of the best horror movies go beyond simple scared to engage in social issues or commentary.  Get Out, written and directed by Jordan Peele, adds a layer of racial knowledge and concern to the horror genre -- with terrific results.

Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) and Rose Armitage (Allison Williams) have been dating for a while, and it's time for the event most boyfriends dread: meeting her parents.  He's concerned that she hasn't told them he's black, but she insists it's no big deal.  So the two leave the city for the suburbs, with Chris staying in touch with his TSA agent buddy Rod (LilRey Howery) by phone.

At first, things are expectedly awkward with the parents.  Dean Armitage (Bradley Whitford) is a slightly dorky guy who keeps calling Chris "my man."  Missy Armitage (Catherine Keener) is concerned that Chris smokes around their daughter.  They're both very accomplished -- he's a neurosurgeon, she's a psychiatrist specializing in hypnosis -- and live in a pretty isolated home.  It's not thrilling for Chris, but he can handle it.

But little things seem to keep building on each other.  The Armitages' black groundskeeper Walter (Marcus Henderson) and maid Georgina (Betty Gabriel) seem a bit... off.  Rose's brother Jeremy (Caleb Landry Jones) seems a bit aggressive towards Chris.  When there's a big family gathering, the Armitages all seem to treat Chris differently, as he tells Rose, it's like they never met a black man who didn't work for them.  And Missy had hypnotized Chris without his consent, leaving him without the desire to smoke -- along with who knows other effects.

Get Out works pretty well.  The movie takes the discomfort of being black in a largely white group of people (even if they all say they all would have voted for Obama a third time and Tiger Woods is the greatest) and builds it into a borderline paranoia with something behind it.  Daniel Kaluuya is a fine horror lead, and the rest of the cast do a good job of being almost indefinably off.  Get Out is a creepy, interesting horror movie.

Overall grade: B+
Reviewed by James Lynch