In “Get Out," the new horror movie from writer/director Jordan Peele, not everything is as it seems. The film follows Chris (Daniel Kaluuya), a bright aspiring photographer, as he spends the weekend with his girlfriend, Rose, and her parents. “Do they know I’m black?” Chris asks as he’s packing for the trip. Rose laughs it off, reassuring him that her parents are some of the most accepting people in the world. As the young couple arrives, it becomes increasingly apparent to Chris that, even though Rose’s family isn’t "traditionally racist" in the slightest, he still feels uncomfortable being around them. What doesn’t help are the numerous other black people who the family hires as house staff. Although they share the same ethnicity, Chris find that he has no connection with them at all and that they all act unnaturally. Completely perplexed by their behavior, Chris snaps a photo of one the black men there, upon which blood starts pouring from the man’s nose. The man, who we were introduced to as Logan, begins advancing towards Chris, screaming that he needs to “get out."
This is just the beginning of the nightmares that Chris discovers hiding in the family’s twisted secret. To avoid spoiling the plot, as that would be a complete disservice to Peele and this talent team of film-makers, I will refrain from going further into the plot. Instead, I would like to focus on the family that takes the center spotlight of most of the film’s creepiness. This isn’t your regular “old, white racist people who hate black people” kind of family. Instead, they are the complete opposite. They find joy in voting for Obama and talk very excitedly about Jesse Owens and Tiger Woods. Every single person at the “social gathering” that the family throws later in the film seek out Chris and try desperately to connect with him.
The film explores these actions of, what director Peele calls, “liberal racism." A form of racism that black people experience every day. It isn’t an openly violent or bigoted form of racism, but instead it is submissive and can be seen in everyday conversations. It is how different races of people react to each other in different way solely on the color of their skin. The family’s initial comments don’t particularly bother Chris. However, a run-in with a police officer who asks for Chris’s license, even though he wasn’t driving, prompts Rose to look at her family’s comments and ponder, “What’s the difference?”
And I guess that is the final question that this film left me with: What is the difference? Are liberal whites more justified in their comments because they “would’ve voted for Obama a third time”? Or are they perpetuating the same practice they claim to protest. “Get Out” is a racial horror movie that couldn’t have been released at a better time. With a little more than a month into the Trump administration, racial tensions have only been on the rise. Hopefully, instead of discussing what makes us different, this scathing piece of horror satire will propel people to put down their arms and question if they really treat each other equally.
