Get Out

Image courtesy of Universal 

    A week ago in my Film 100 class we watched the film Get Out (2017) by Jordan Peele. I am not typically a fan of suspense or horror films, but the way this movie was directed, the script, and the acting really impressed me. I was entertained the entire movie as every line seemed to serve the overall plot. Plus, the mix between suspense and humor made some scenes memorable. Just a warning though, I will be discussing spoilers regarding the movie. So, for those who have not seen the movie yet and do not want spoilers I advice against reading on. 

    Anyways, the movie was basically about a man named Chris visiting his girlfriend Rose's family. Being an African-American, Chris is not sure how Rose's white family will react when they meet him. The family seems normal at first as the mother and father are somewhat welcoming of Chris, but the family has two housekeepers who are both African-American. When coming inside the house from smoking, Chris runs into Rose's mom who hypnotises Chris so he can stop smoking. Since that moment, Chris unwantingly dives deeper into the secrets behind Rose's family. All seems to start getting worse for him when he attends the family party Rose's family is hosting that weekend. During his experience, Chris stays connected with his friend, Rob, during this time as Rob watches over Chris' dog and apartment while he's staying with his girlfriend.

    One scene that really got to me was when the family decided to play bingo after Chris was attacked by Logan. All it took to get Logan off was the flash being on while Chris was taking a photo of him. Logan jumps at Chris demanding him to "Get Out!". To ease the situation, Rose and Chris went on a walk while the family plays bingo. Yet, this was not ordinary bingo. First of all, every bingo sheet had bingo on it and people were raising their sheets like they were at an auction. Secondly, Rose's dad was standing next to a large image of Chris while displaying numbers using his hands. With the camera widening to showcase the entire situation, the plot of the movie became clear to me. What the director, Peele, did further to make this scene more memorable was making the setting and clothung choices dark colors. The chairs, picture stand, and gazebo were all black. Furthermore, everyone in the scene wore at least one black article of clothing. The expressions of the people seemed professional despit them supposedly being family. As a whole, this scene opened my eyes to the fact that Chris was being raffled off. Considering the housekeepers and Logan all seemed weirds as though they had been hypnotized, it appeared that the mother hypnotizes people of color and they auction them off. The clarity within this scene is what made my jaw drop, as all of a sudden everything was coming together. But despite that, what I figured the ending would be turned out to be completely different. 

Image courtesy of Universal 

    Now, I'm not going to give away the ending. I'm just going to end off this week's blog post describing the mise-en-scène of this movie. This movie really played around with connecting themes, forshadowing, lighting, camera angles, and a specific color sceme. A lot of dark colors, mostly browns and blacks, are seen throughout the movie, especially furniture and the characters' clothing. There are a lot of closeup camera angles whith the characters too, especially during important scenes. Furthermore, either natural light or a yellowish omnious lighting is used besides from during the really important spooky scenes. During the really spooky scenes, such as when Rose's mother hypotises Chris, the lighting has a low-key affect to it. As for foreshadowing and connecting themes, I may spoil the movie too much if I start explaining those, but I found the connection between the deer and Chris to be rather interesting. The relationship is so suttle, but once understood it explains the movie well. With everything Peele put into this movie, this is a movie I will not forget for a while. I highly reccomend this film to anyone, even those who are not a fan of suspense as Rob provides great comedy during the film to help keep it light. Also, I wonder what other pieces of information I would pick up on if I rewatched the film. So, for those who have already seen this movie I reccomend you rewatch it to enjoy the setting a bit more and take in any details you might have missed prior.