Greetings, and welcome back to October Horror Fest! Wow, I honestly cannot believe that we are already five days into a spooky month. How crazy is that! As you guys should know, your boy can’t stay away from horror forever, especially after yesterday’s Scooby-Doo. So today, we venture back into the world of the terrifying, with a movie that I have been DYING to check out for the past few years, a film widely regarded as one of greatest of the century. Without further ado, sit back, relax, turn off the lights, grab some Candy and Popcorn, and let’s review…
Get Out
Our story begins in the most American looking suburbs I’ve ever seen. In a scene that still freaks me out to watch, even after seeing how the story unfolds, a man walks along the sidewalk at night. He is obviously nervous, talking away on the phone to someone. He wants to get picked up by whoever he is talking to, but before anything can happen, a car pulls up and starts trailing him. He tries to walk back to get out of dodge, but his plans will not work. BOLTING out of the car is a man in a black knight helmet, choking out the man who was walking down the street. He is dragged into the back of the car, as the vehicle drives off. What a way to start us off, huh?
We cut to a nicely fashioned apartment, as Redbone by Childish Gambino plays. (this is not an important detail, I just really like this song.) This apartment is owned by our boy Chris, a black photographer, who quickly becomes one of my favorite horror movie protagonists ever, I’m not even joking. We cut between Chris and his girlfriend Rose, a white girl who seems to be as sweet as they come. Once Rose enters his apartment, the two chat, and Chris vents to Rose about his nervousness about meeting her family. Rose reveals she hasn’t told the family that he is black, and she is his first black boyfriend, but she says that it shouldn’t matter. And Rose is right, it shouldn’t. However, Chris has a sinking feeling about the trip upstate for the weekend.
The two embark on their journey, and they begin to drive down the road. All is calm as Chris calls his friend Rod, a TSA agent who is by far one of the funniest characters in the entire movie. The two joke with Rose, but before the atmosphere can relax, A DEER jumps out of nowhere and is hit by the car, very VERY much getting me. Chris jumps out of the car to check on the deer, and finds it to be dying. Chris looks absolutely haunted, and it’s easy to see why. The police arrive, and when an officer asks for Chris’s ID, Rose doesn’t let him see it, trying to protect her boyfriend. The pair arrive at the house, and it is INSANE. I cannot understate it enough, the house that they decided to film Get Out at is absolutely gorgeous. As the car pulls in, a black man can be seen raking the yard. Chris meets the parents at the door, and just like their daughter, they seem as nice as can be. The group enters the house, as the camera pans out, showing the man raking the yard just staring blankly at the door…
After some extremely awkward moments with the Armitage parents (Rose’s parents), Rose’s father Dean decides to give Chris a tour of the property. Before this, Chris reveals the incident with the deer, only for Dean to say that he feels deer are a plague. Dean is revealed to be a neurosurgeon, and his wife, Missy, a psychiatrist, explaining the amount of generational wealth in the house. While exploring the house, (and dealing with slight racist comments from Dean), Chris is shown a photograph of Grandpa Armitage, also known as Roman. He was a runner back in the day, and came in 2nd place to none other than Jesse Owens at the Olympics. While having lunch, another servant, a black woman named Georgina, meets Chris. Dean says that he knows that having black servants in a white household is very odd, and he says that Walter (the man from earlier who was tending to the lawn) and Georgina both were hired to take care of his parents, and now he can’t bear to let them go. Georgina begins to pour tea for the group, but when Missy accidentally taps her spoon on her cup, Missy stops. She spills the tea, and in a VERY uncomfortable fashion, excuses herself. Chris starts to get suspicious of the behavior of Walter and Georgina. Soon after, however, Rose’s brother Jeremy arrives, and the group head in to have an even more awkward dinner filled with offhand comments from Jeremy. That night, Rose comforts Chris about everything that is going on, and she blames herself. Chris tells her it isn’t her fault, and the two of them joke about the party coming up the next day, with Rose promising to make sure Chris is okay. The two fall asleep (they are so cute), and all SEEMS peaceful…
The camera picks back up, and it’s dark out. Chris swears he hears noises, so he grabs his camera, puts on some clothes, and goes outside to get some air. While he is walking, Georgina RUNS past in the background in a jumpscare that makes my heart fall into my stomach. It doesn’t get any better, because once Chris gets outside, we see Walter SPRINTING towards him. FULL FORCE, FULL SPRINT. (This is actually a small phobia of mine, so I was DYING here). Walter turns right past him in the nick of time, as Chris sees Georgina admiring herself in the mirror. Heading back inside, Chris is startled by Missy, sitting in her therapist chair. Chris takes a seat across from her, and she tells him about how she uses hypnosis, a conversation that the two had earlier, (as Chris is a smoker, and Dean thought hypnosis could cure the urge), and something that Chris wanted NO PART in. Missy begins spinning her spoon in her teacup, as she turns the conversation onto Chris, asking about what he was doing when his mother died. In one of the most incredible acting moments I have EVER seen, Chris reveals that on the night his mother died, he was watching T.V., too terrified to call for help in a timely fashion. He blames himself. He says all of this while tears pour out of his eyes, and Missy keeps spinning her spoon. At the end of his confession, Missy tells him to “sink into the floor”, and oh my god, he DOES. The younger version of Chris, sitting on his bed on the rainy night that his mother dies, SINKS THROUGH his bed, into a black, inky abyss. Just like 28 Days Later, I will be including a screenshot of this below, because the shot is just that good.
Chris enters “The Sunken Place”, where he sees a screen above him, showing what is actually happening in the real world. However, he can’t reach it. He keeps sinking, and sinking, and SINKING…
Chris wakes up with a start, ASSUMING that the experience was all a dream. Chris walks about the property, realizing he doesn’t have a desire to smoke. Following two extremely strange experiences with Georgina and Walter (Walter says that Rose is one of the best out there, a true gem, which of course makes the Horror fan in me put up red alerts around Rose), the party guests arrive. They are all of the white, wealthy elite. When they get out of the car, however, they all hug Walter, although he is SUPPOSEDLY just a servant. Odd. The party obviously is not Chris’s favorite place to be, especially after several of the guests comment on black culture. They almost treat Chris like an anomaly, something to be studied, not a real person. Escaping the claustrophobic party, Chris meets Jim Hudson, a blind art dealer who actually KNOWS Chris’s photography skills! Chris begins to talk with Jim, who honestly seems like the only person at the party with a good-noggin on. He, however, is blind, and still tries his best to relate to Chris.
Chris heads back inside the house, and as he heads upstairs, ALL of the guests downstairs stop talking. They follow Chris’s footsteps with their heads, as he finds his phone has been unplugged. He thinks that Georgina was the one who unplugged it, and he and Rose get into a little argument over this, pressure showing up between the pair. With his phone now charging, Chris calls our boy Rod. Chris says what’s happening, and Rod IMMEDIANTLY thinks it is very, very suspicious. He says that none of the black people at the party are acting right, and Rod 100% believes that they are under some sort of spell (Keep this in mind…). Georgina enters the room after Chris hangs up, and in ANOTHER incredible acting moment, almost begins to interrogate Chris, tears flowing from her eyes after Chris says he is uncomfortable with too many white people around him at one time. Chris rejoins the party, only to meet with another black man, this man being VERY sharply dressed and looking professional. He turns his head, AND OH MY GOD, IT’S THE GUY WHO WAS ABDUCTED IN THE OPENING SCENE! WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!
Chris knows this is weird, and as “Logan” begins to speak, Chris takes a photo with his phone. He forgot the flash, however, and the loud noise startled everyone. Logan, however, looks different. His eyes flash gray, and his normal brown eyes return to the surface. His nose begins to bleed, and in one of the most iconic horror scenes of this century, loses it. He SCREAMS at Chris to “GET OUT!!!”, being dragged away by Jeremy as the rest of the partiers watch. Something bad is going on. In the following scene, “Logan” returns, going back to his professional speech patterns, and apologizes to the family before dismissing himself. Rose takes Chris’s hand and says the two are going on a walk, as one of the most horrific scenes in the movie play out. Chris and Rose build tension out in a clearing in the forest, Chris saying he wants to leave, and it’s up to Rose if she wants to come with him. We cut between the pair and the guests, with a PHOTO OF CHRIS, styled like a coffin photo, next to Dean. Dean conducts a silent auction for Chris, as several of the partiers bid on him, with Jim Hudson coming out on top. We cut back to our couple, as they make up, kissing and promising that they will leave together, making something up to escape the family. (Spoiler warning, my friends, this is the last “happy” scene this movie will have…
The couple makes it back to the house at night, as all the members of the family, including Walter and Georgina, smile at the pair. Upstairs, Chris is able to send the photograph he took of “Logan” to Rod. And, right after, it begins. Rod reveals to Chris that his name is NOT Logan, his real name is ANDRE, who originally lived in Brooklyn. Rod says that Chris has to GO, before Chris’s phone dies. Right after, Chris says to Rose that they have to GO. Rose goes to get her bag, as Chris sees a closet door open in the room. He heads into it, and discovers a red box. (Here we go, guys.)
Chris begins flipping through the pictures in the box, and sees ROSE. In every picture she is with another black person, in every photo, it looks like she is dating them. Chris keeps flipping and flipping, until he sees WALTER and Rose. He flips to the next, and sees GEORGINA with Rose. Guys, Chris needs to GET OUT, NOW. Rose enters back into the room, and Chris tries to maintain his cool. Rose begins to “look” for the keys, as Chris’s anxiety grows.
Downstairs, Jeremy blocks the door. Missy has her cup, as Chris begins to continuously ask Rose to find the keys. We see Dean in the next room, as he tells Chris how much of a mistake it is to waste a mind. Dean reveals his god complex, as Chris SCREAMS for Rose to find the keys. In a moment that I knew was coming, but still shook me to my core, Rose reveals the keys, her voice becoming emotionless, saying Chris knows she can’t give them to her. Chris rushes Jeremy, but before he can fight, Missy taps her spoon, and Chris falls to the floor, sinking into the Sunken Place. He watches through the screen, as he falls further and further.
We cut to Rod, who is using his TSA skills for the best to uncover the truth. He searches for Andre on Google, as he falls further and further into the rabbit hole (Rod is my GOAT btw guys, him and Chris are the BEST.) We cut back to Chris, as he is in the basement of the house. A commercial plays on the T.V., as Chris is strapped to an armchair. Roman Armitage appears on the T.V. Roman reveals the order his family made, and the “Coagula” procedure, a transplanting of the brains of the white elite (the partiers) into black people’s bodies to acquire their desirable physical characteristics, leaving the host’s consciousness trapped in the sunken place. He also drops one of the most iconic lines in the film, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” If it wasn’t messed up enough already, is it now? The T.V. cuts to the spoon spinning in the cup, as Chris passes out once again.
We cut back to Rod, who is now talking to the police. Rod gives them the whole theory, WHICH IS CORRECT BY THE WAY, on how Rose and her family are abducting black men from around the neighborhood, corrupting their minds. The police, however, laugh in Rod’s face, in typical horror movie fashion. UGH. Rod gets back to his apartment, and calls Chris. Rose answers on Chris’s phone, and we see in ANOTHER incredible acting moment, Rose talking to Rod, her voice latent with worry about Chris. Rod keeps asking about Chris, but Rose doesn’t give anything away. However, her face is completely emotionless. Rod knows she is lying (in the funniest way ever), and begins to record her. Rose turns the conversation on Rod, though, by confronting him about him SUPPOSEDLY wanting sexual relations with Rose. Our boy Rod is PISSED, and hangs up, and in another absolutely hilarious performance, says Rose is a genius manipulator. Chris wakes up in the basement again, as the T.V. shows footage of Jim Hudson, talking to him rather casually. They talk over the intercom, as Jim reveals that he wants to take over Chris for his EYESIGHT. He doesn’t care about his skin color, he just wants his eyes, seeming to be “genuinely” interested in Chris as a person. Jim explains the procedure once more. Phase 1 is hypnosis, Phase 2 is explaining the procedure, and Phase 3 is transplantation of the brain. A sliver of consciousness will be left, but it will be in the Sunken Place. Chris will be able to see and hear, but he will be a passenger in his own body.
Chris looks down at the chair, and realizes that his fingernails scratching the armrests of the chair during his time in the Sunken Place has caused some of the cotton to come out of the chair. The image of the spoon and cup comes back onto the T.V., as Chris falls back into unconsciousness. Upstairs, we see Dean and Jeremy in full doctor’s gear, as in ANOTHER disgusting scene, Dean begins to cut Jim’s head open, revealing his brain, and preparing him for the transplant. Jeremy heads down to the basement with a wheelchair, undoing the straps on Chris’s body. Little does Jeremy know, however, that this is CHRIS WASHINGTON. IT BEGINS NOW!!! Jeremy looks up to see CHRIS running at him, bludgeoning him over the head twice, as Jeremy falls to the floor. It is revealed that Chris blocked the trigger of the spoon by using the cotton to plug his ears. LETS GO. (This is a very intentional detail by director Jordan Peele, as Chris picks cotton to ESCAPE his enslavement). Chris looks at the deer head hung on the wall, as we see the disgusting procedure continue upstairs. Dean leaves the room to look for Jeremy, UNTIL CHRIS COMES RUNNING AT HIM WITH THE DEER HEAD, IMPALING DEAN THROUGH THE THROAT! (At this point, I was up pumping my fists into the air at our boy’s escape). As Dean falls dead, he knocks over a lamp in the room, and a fire begins.
Heading downstairs, Chris sees Georgina, who runs away, terrified. Our boy, covered in blood, encounters Missy. They both run for the cup and spoon on the table, but Chris knocks it out of the way first. Missy rushes him with a pair of scissors, AND OUR BOY BLOCKS IT WITH HIS OWN HAND. The scissors impale his hand, AND HE USES HIS HAND TO SLICE MISSY’S EYE, KILLING HER. WHATTTTTT. Jeremy appears, still alive, and tries to choke Chris, repeatedly kicking the front door closed to stop his escape. However, this is Chris. He waits until Jeremy kicks again, AND USES THE SCISSORS TO STAB HIS LEG. As smoke begins to fill the house, Chris repeatedly kicks Jeremy’s head, putting an end to his life. He steals his car keys, and BOLTS.
Upstairs, Rose looks at NCAA prospects, eagerly hunting for her next victim. Outside, Chris gets into the car and calls the police, driving before accidentally HITTING Georgina. However, Chris doesn’t have the heart to leave her the way he left his mother when he was young. He gets out, grabs Georgina, and drives off with her. Rose exits the flaming house with a deer hunting rifle, heading after Chris. Rose reveals that Georgina has the mind of her grandmother, and Georgina attacks Chris, causing the car to crash. She is KILLED in the process. With no time to react, a dazed Chris exits the car and begins to limp away, as Rose fires at him. Walter appears, who has the brain of Roman Armitage, Rose’s grandfather. He sprints at Chris, tackling him. However, in one act of bravery, Chris uses his phone to take a picture of Walter. Walter stands up, taking the gun from Rose so he can kill Chris himself. However, HE TURNS IT ON ROSE, shooting her in the stomach. She drops to the floor, as Walter turns back to Chris, ready to shoot up. However, rather than keep living in torture, the original man who was Walter turns the gun on himself, shooting himself in the head. In “one last scare” (thanks Randy!) Rose sits back up, trying to get her hands on the gun. Rose tries her manipulation one last time, telling Chris she’s sorry. Chris doesn’t believe her, and starts to choke her. Rose, the psychopath she is, begins to smile, excited at turning Chris into a cold blooded murder. Not having it in him to kill her, however, he drops his hands.
JUST THEN, sirens appear. The police are here. My heart dropped into my stomach, FULLY expecting the cops to arrest Chris (there is an alternate ending, fully filmed, where this happens. Chris is taken away and put in jail, and when Rod tries to visit him to get the names of the other blacks under mind control, Chris says he finished it, fully content in prison as long as he ended the suffering of those being controlled, and ended the Armitages. However, that is NOT this story!) (Also, remember how I said that the movie didn’t have any more happy scenes? Well…..) Rose uses the last of her strength to ask for help, but it won’t come. In one of the most iconic and CATHARTIC horror movie endings, coming out of the cop car… IS ROD!!!!!! He utilized his TSA skills to track down his best friend, and Chris gets into the car. Rod jokingly says “I told you so”, as the two friends speed into the distance, leaving Rose to bleed out. Chris looks out of the window, still filled with fear, but he is safe. The case is closed. Chris got out…
THAT WAS GET OUT!!! Guys, I HOPE that you enjoyed this one. This is by far one of my favorite horror films I’ve seen. There are SO many hidden details, SO much for me to talk about. UGH, it’s amazing. I HEAVILY recommend the breakdown of this film by the Deep Dive on YouTube, run by Erik Voss from New Rockstars. God, this movie is SO SO SO good. PLEASE watch this one! It’s time for all of us to head to bed now, my friends, but before you go, always remember, trust your instincts… GET OUT…
