Get Out was a surprise critical and commercial box-office success earlier this year, seemingly coming out of nowhere to make a lasting impression. Although its themes borrow liberally from disparate film predecessors, primarily Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and The Stepford Wives, the movie as a whole is a welcome breath of fresh air in the overwhelmingly formulaic U.S. film industry. It’s principally marketed as a horror film, and while it certainly has its share of thrills, it’s more of a Black Mirror alternate-universe mindgame than a typical gory, blood-soaked horror flick.
The movie follows an eventful weekend for a 20-something African American man named Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) as he travels with his white girlfriend (Allison Williams) to visit her family for the first time in their insular rich, white, country community. Upon arriving, he makes a series of disturbing discoveries about his girlfriend’s family and their neighbors that sends him on a downward spiral he has to fight to escape. The film succeeds in part because we’re just as clueless as Chris, trying to think the best of people before coming to the horrible realization that we really should have been preparing for the worst.
Peele’s script and direction are excellent, aided by stellar performances from his leads as well as strong supporting turns from Bradley Whitford and the always great Catherine Keener. His story keeps viewers on edge, constantly unsure about what’s coming next but anxious to find out. My only minor gripe was that the ending seemed a bit abrupt after so much escalating terror, but that’s likely because I was so invested in Peele’s world by the final act that I wanted it to last longer.
The Blu-ray is suitably technically proficient, with great image quality and chillingly immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Bonus features include an assortment of deleted scenes which are mostly just longer versions of scenes in the final cut, and while they don’t add much, they do have an illuminating commentary track by Peele where he discusses why the changes were made. That track is used to best effect during an alternate ending where he reveals that the outcome of our last election led to the change in ending. The disc also includes a brief featurette examining the horror aspects of the film, as well as a Q&A discussion with the cast filmed after an early theatrical screening in Chicago.
