I just came back from seeing it, and thought it lived up to the hype.
For anyone who (like me) has a weak stomach for gore, the last half hour features some bloody violence. (Up until that point it’s a non-violent suspense movie.) However, by this stage in the movie you have an idea of what’s coming, and can look away if need be. My trick is to focus on one of the upper corners of the screen; my peripheral vision gives me a good enough idea of what’s going on while sparing me the details. From what I could tell it did not seem gratuitous or extreme for a horror movie.
A minor thing that impressed about Get Out was the handling of the main character’s cellphone. It’s a cliche of modern thrillers/horror movies that for some reason the characters can’t use their cellphones to call for help. In Get Out Chris isn’t able to fully charge his cellphone, but he is using it for most of the movie. When it finally goes dead on him, it’s at a tense moment but doesn’t really make much difference to the plot. While Chris could have called 911 at almost any point in the movie – and near the very end he actually does – it’s made clear that the authorities wouldn’t believe his story. And once blood has been shed, Chris knows he’s more likely to be seen as a criminal than a victim trying to defend himself. In the end, it’s a relief to Chris when the police don’t show up.
When the procedure is explained to Chris he’s told that due to the parts of his brain left intact his consciousness will to some extent still be “in there” and he’ll be able to perceive what’s happening around him. We see not just with Georgina but also Walter and Logan/Andre that the original person still has some very limited ability to react. We actually see the two men regain more active control over their bodies than Georgina does, although with both of them they’re first triggered by the camera flash.
The accident with the deer also helps to explain why Chris is second-guessing himself for much of the movie (he’s knows he’s been shaken up and is perhaps being oversensitive) and why he stops to help Georgina at the end even though he knows this is dangerous for him.
I’d add to this that the Armitages and their friends are capable of admiring the physical beauty and strength of black people, but only in the way that one might admire the beauty or strength of a wild animal. Late in the movie it also struck me that “buck” has been used as a slur for black men. While Chris is neither rude nor stupid, a racist might well see him as a “black buck” type because he’s muscular and is dating a while woman. The woman at the party who feels his arm and asks Rose if it’s “better” with him seems to be fetishizing him as a “buck”.
The whole movie brings to mind Paul Mooney’s quote: “Everybody wants to be black, but nobody wants to be black.”
They were playing up the servant routine to put on a show for Chris. However, if you think about it, they were also acting like how stereotypical old people act. Like Grandpa out there mowing the grass with a manual mower just because he can.
It was funny for me to see this thread bumped, because I was talking about it IRL the other day. Something that’s stuck with me about the movie is, as I mentioned above, the fact that it’s a relief when the police don’t show up at the end because it’s clear to the viewer that this would not go well for Chris.*
I’m not a horror fan and don’t watch a lot of horror movies, but I’m familiar with tropes. Some of these tropes are rather sexist (e.g. damsel in distress) but, the type of female character I’m most likely to identify with in a slasher flick – a white woman with brown hair who’s sensible, reasonably intelligent and brave, and not overtly sexy or “girly” – has a good chance of beating the (usually male) killer. She’s likely to be the “FinalGirl” who will manage to elude the killer until the end of the movie, where she’ll either be rescued or may even kill the killer herself. The “Final Girl” would be happy to see the police arrive.
So would Rose Armitage. At the end of Get Out, it briefly looks like she is going to be able to pass herself off as a “Final Girl” and get away with everything. She fails only because the authorities don’t show up. It’s stuck with me that while I’m not as beautiful or wealthy as the Rose character, this is a privilege we share. Not just in the movies but in real life a white woman can reasonably expect that she’s more likely to seem like an innocent victim to the authorities than a black man. Unlike Rose I am certainly not looking to abuse this aspect of white (female) privilege, but that’s not the point: it’s there, whether I want it or not, and black men have to live with that.
Yeah, and some of their weird “zombielike” behavior, like Walter running around the yard at night and his awkward conversation about Rose with Chris make perfect sense when you realize they have the brains of the Armitage grandparents.
*An alternate ending was shot where Chris is in fact arrested and goes to prison, but it comforted by the knowledge that he stopped the Armitages.)
I saw this last night, I enjoyed it, though I was looking for a more traditional horror movie. I did like how Chris fought back and had brains, which isn’t normal for a lot of movies. But would he have gone to prison for what happened? There has to be plenty of evidence around to back up his story. There’s the recordings and such of what they were planning on doing to him.
I’m surprised I haven’t heard of this movie outside of the horror circles. I don’t think any of my friends have seen it.
Weigh that evidence against the fact that a lot of very wealthy people in very powerful positions have a vested interest in not having the scheme uncovered, and add to THAT the bias of the judicial system against black men, and I’d say Chris had a very good chance of dying in prison.
I’d say you’re right if it was just the family who was dead, but there’s a lot of evidence that seems to be too hard to get rid of. There’s the white guy with part of his skull removed, or at least cut in to. Both of the older black people would show some signs of brain work.
That’s some major cover up to think that those people could roll in before any cops got there, take everything away, and not have anyone suspicions seems a bit much. That’s a lot of people to have in on it too if any cops show up. I’m not saying it would be easy for him, but it would be a lot easier in this case over it just being a small family in on it.
Which is exactly what they said about the Rodney King case. And so many more.
That’s why this movie resonates with audiences. The details you talk about are exactly the sorts of things that black audiences expect to see dismissed as outlandish or swept under the rug. If the cops find Chris at that scene, the safe bet is that he’s going to jail, and will probably be killed in there through the connections of the powerful people involved in the scheme. For a lot of people, this is VERY close to their daily reality.
For me, it feels a part in the details of the last twenty minutes…It’s so smart and engaging and then in the climax the hands are just thrown up and Peele says “Eh, it’s a horror move, go with it”
How did he get the cotton in his ears? His hands are literally strapped down. If Chris had been established as a contortionist…sure… but he wasn’t. And how does he get so much cotton into both of his ears to block all sound and have it go unnoticed by the son? The answer: plot reasons.
Why is the surgery started before Chris is prepped? The answer: plot reasons.
Daughter can’t hear fight scene going on 20 feet from her because of headphones… but can hear light thud from a car hitting a woman 50 yards away.
It just becomes a mess of cliches and garbage in those final minutes which gets kind of redeemed by the great misdirect of the flashing police lights on Chris and the butt-puckering realization that it is probably going to be the racist cop from earlier… but OH- It’s his buddy and the movie ends on a joke. And you get to sigh in relief.
I’m in a chair with arms. I just tried it out: even if I keep my wrists touching the arms of the chair, I can bend down and touch my fingers to my ears. Presumably if I had enough motivation I could shove a crapload of cotton deep inside each ear. And it’s not clear that sound must be 100% blocked; having it muffled may suffice.
I’m not sure about all those. The surgery is a hot mess; I excused that because the surgeon is clear a first class nutcase. With the music, maybe the thud happened during a break between songs? I don’t remember.
I don’t think any of these are the giant plot holes you think they are.
Never said they were plot holes. They are story weaknesses and make something that had been building quite well into…stock cliches. You can make any excuses you want… but the fact that you have to make excuses means they are real flaws.
Also while we’re at it… the blind art dealer wanting Chris didn’t really make sense.
“I want your eye”…that’s not how that works…we all know that right? Unless that is an unexplained aspect of the transference–that since the original person is still there, the new host can tap into old skills. It would have made more sense for Chris to be an up and coming photographer and the art dealer/failed artist was taking him over in order to be the success that eluded him.
Nice try. “Fiction” or not, Peele has shown what he really thinks of his white friends and family. If they delude themselves that he doesn’t really despise them, that’s their choice.
I know he’s half white, but he wouldn’t be the first mulatto to idealize his black heritage while secretly hating the white family that actually raised him.
Barack Obama looooved his drunken bum of a deadbeat dad who never cared about him at all, but was quick to throw his white grandmother (the woman who actually raised him) under the bus as a racist during the 2008 campaign.
Uh, no. The fact that I “made excuses” means that you made flimsy criticisms, not that they’re real flaws. The idea that a defense of a movie necessarily means it’s a flawed movie is absurd, as I’m sure you’ll see on reflection.
We know the original person is still in there. Why is it a stretch (excuse me, an “excuse”) to think that the blind art dealer believes, whether correctly or superstitiously, that he’ll be able to access that original person’s aesthetic sensibilities?
But wait, I’m disagreeing with you again. More proof of the movie’s flaws!
This is kind of a repulsive view of race relations. The idea that Peele’s white family will be mad at him for saying that some white people are racist is ridiculous, and shows a deep lack of understanding of how a white person can think about racism in a nuanced fashion.
OK, some discussion of race relations is obviously going to be part of this thread, and it’s fair to ask how that relates to the director’s own family. But this:
is quite clearly over the line for political potshots. And on looking back over the previous posts, it looks like astorian was bringing up the line of discussion he was just for the purpose of leading up to this potshot. That’s enough, I think, to make this an official Warning. Do not drag political potshots into CS (or indeed, into any other forum other than GD, Elections, or the Pit).
