Why everyone is talking about Get Out

So we shouldn’t be surprised that Peele’s first feature is a horror movie, rather than some extended sketch in the vein of Key & Peele, his comedy series with collaborator Keegan-Michael Key.

And what a first feature it is — more accomplished than anything you’d expect from a newbie director. It manages to both embrace its genre and inject fresh blood with its cerebral but unpretentious approach.

But if you’re someone who usually avoids horror films like an “Instagram celebrity” avoids a real job, make an exception for Get Out.

It doesn’t rely on gore or schlock or loads of violence, its genius is in the expectation of something, or everything, going wrong.

Peele plays the suspense like a maestro wielding a Stradivarius — each tightly wound string used to create a sense of foreboding and anticipation that Hitchcock himself would’ve been jealous of. He also uses well-placed bursts of humour to undercut the horror, giving the audience a moment to breathe, and some much-needed laughs.

Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) is a twenty-something Brooklyn photographer. He’s also African-American and about to visit his white girlfriend Rose’s (Allison Williams) family in the middle of the woods. She assures him that her family will have no problem with the colour of his skin because her neurosurgeon father Dean (Bradley Whitford) “would’ve voted for Obama a third time if he could”.

On the way there, their car hits a deer and the police arrive. Even though Chris wasn’t driving, the (white) police officer asks for his ID. Rose protests, saying he’s done nothing wrong but Chris is resigned to extra scrutiny from law enforcement. It’s the little things that add up to the bigger injustice.

When he arrives at the gorgeous colonial house, Rose’s parents seem every bit the kind of harmless progressive middle class folks who would welcome some adorable bi-racial grandkids. But in between the “my mans” and showing off travel trinkets from exotic lands, something doesn’t smell right.

When Chris calls his friend Rod (Lil Rey Howery) and tells him about all the bizarre stuff, including a midnight hypnosis session from Rose’s mum (Catherine Keener) that he may or may not have dreamt, Rod is immediately full of seemingly outlandish theories about black sex slaves. Rod’s the one who warned Chris not to go to the “white girl’s” house.

But that’s the thing — Rod’s paranoia is not so paranoid.

One of the reasons Get Out has had such amazing word of mouth is its biting social commentary in the decidedly not-post-racial America.

A common retort African-Americans might hear about their grievances is that they’re “blowing things out of proportion” or that they’re “being paranoid”.

Get Out firmly says no, the struggle is real. It takes those 300-plus years of pain and morphs it into a black person’s worst nightmare, the most horrible thing that could happen to them while surrounded by white people in the sticks.

Perhaps the most thought-provoking aspect of Get Out is that its villains are not Trump-voting rednecks with one remaining tooth and a Confederate flag nailed to the front door — they’re affluent liberals with post-grad degrees.

Made on a budget of $4.5 million, Get Out is already an unqualified success by taking almost $200 million at the US box office. It’s unlikely to make a huge international splash given its specific subject matter but it has heralded the arrival of Peele as someone with a distinctive and ambitious creative vision.

With really great performances from Kaluuya and Williams (in a role that will go a long way to her shedding her Girls tag) and plenty of indelible scenes (you’ll never associate Fruit Loops with childhood again), Get Out isn’t just a clever parable about race-relations in America. But that is what elevates it to an unmissable film.

Rating: 4/5

Get Out is in cinemas from Thursday, May 4.

Continue the conversation on Twitter with @wenleima.