Get In to It: 'Get Out' and New Heroes

Note: I purposely did not include a trailer (as I usually do) at the top of this post because it revealed too much about the movie; it was a spoiler minefield. Better to go into this movie not knowing what's going to happen.

Do you ever stop and think of the cast of a horror movie and the order the victims are picked off, one by one? Types, archetypes, stereotypes. Usually there are "token" characters: "the loudmouth goofball," "the slut," "the bookworm nerd," and "the black guy."

These "types" are picked off early to narrow down to the final duo (usually one girl and one guy, usually white) who survive. Jordan Peele (one half of sketch comedy duo Key & Peele) has made a new horror/dark comedy film Get Out that upends those conventions. The "black guy" is the protagonist/hero of this smart satirical take on race and modern horror, in movies and society at large.

Chris (Daniel Kaluuya, so great in Black Mirror) is a black photographer with an affluent white girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams) who take a weekend trip to Rose's parent's rural mansion to meet for the first time. Clunky, awkward praise of "black people" by the wealthy parents of Rose (played to great, nasty effect by Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener) slowly and smartly veers into creepy, awkward situations that quickly descend into unhinged madness.

"There are plots against people, aren't there?" - Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow), Rosemary's Baby

"If I'm wrong, I'm insane...but if I'm right, it's even worse than if I was wrong." - Joanna Eberhart (Katherine Ross), The Stepford Wives

Writer/director Peele has acknowledged the influence of two Ira Levin book-to-screen adaptations, Rosemary's Baby and The Stepford Wives, to the satirical base and vibe of Get Out. While Rosemary dealt with religion/faith and Stepford with feminism, this film takes on race, in that same fish out of water/"Am I the only one who's not crazy here?" paranoia permeating the whole atmosphere. A lush, manicured, spotless mansion and grounds do not lull Chris into submission, especially when he meets the seemingly catatonic groundskeeper and maid, Walter and Georgina, also black.

Chris's best friend Rod (LilRel Howery), house and dog sitting his place in the city, adds much needed levity and comic relief as a lifeline/reality check, as Chris questions his own sanity during the weekend vacation.

The first half of the film is a solid, slow-burn psychological thriller while the second half dives into a gorier, more traditional horror film, but with a solid streak of satirical smarts. This balancing act could have gone off the rails and produced a lopsided mess of an ending, but Get Out keeps on that tightrope walk all the way to the final shot.

Horror, as a genre, reboots and re-imagines itself more than most film genres do, when it comes to basic conventions. Get Out and its creator Peele are happy to do that.

The survivor is a black man; welcome to a winning new take on an old genre.