“Do they know that I’m black?” Chris Washington asks Rose Armitage with a hint of worry in his voice.
“Mom and Dad, my black boyfriend will be coming up this weekend,” Armitage jokingly responded. “I don’t want you to be shocked that he’s a black man.”
Washington and Armitage, played by Daniel Kaluuya and Allison Williams respectively, star in writer and director Jordan Peele’s new horror-comedy film “Get Out.” The film, which premiered on Feb. 24, follows Washington, the protagonist, as he visits his Caucasian girlfriend’s family for the weekend.
When people hear the name Jordan Peele, they often attribute him to his numerous sketches on Comedy Central with Keegan-Michael Key. After the 2016 movie “Keanu,” it seemed that despite the end to the hilariously famous sketches on “Key & Peele,” the two would forever live their days down as comedians.
However, “Get Out” shows a slightly different side to Peele as the movie unfolds. Many are used to his witty light-hearted comedy, but in this movie, audiences get a glimpse of a darker side to this comedian.
In a 2015 interview on Rotten Tomatoes, Peele said that he’s “obsessed with the link between horror and comedy,” and thinks the two are closely related. “Get Out” provides a satire that audiences regularly see from his comedic work.
Unlike previous movies promoting biracial relationships, such as “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?,” this new flick gives audiences a fresh taste of the cold hard truth — racism still exists. Despite Armitage’s comfort, a small part of Washington still fears what her parents may think of him.
With all the steps made toward racial diversity, it may seem that Peele’s crafted world is in the past. Yet, the world still experiences racial bias today. In a 2015 Pew Research Center study of a biracial group, white people were preferred by at least 45 percent of the candidates in the group study, while only 35 percent of those interviewed gave preference to black people. In the study, Pew asked single-raced adults for their input on dating people of an opposite single race or a multiracial person included their own race. The research shows that racial bias still exists and affects who people date today.
Hopefully, audiences will get to see more of Peele’s creative mind revealed as a director. His approach to dark satire in horror films definitely earned “Get Out” a spot in movie history and his subtle jabs at modern racism bring to light ideas that are a rare sight in movies today.
“Get Out,” is a psychological thriller, and a must-see for audiences of all demographics and backgrounds.
