Now that Chris and his girlfriend, Rose have reached the meet-the-parents milestone of dating, she invites him for a weekend getaway in her parent’s home upstate.
At first, Chris reads the family’s overly accommodating behaviour as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he could have never imagined.
'Get Out' is written and directed by Jordan Peele, and stars Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, Catherine Keener and Caleb Landry Jones.
The 'Get Out' competition has now closed. Winners will be announced shortly.
Competition opens at 5pm AEST on Sunday 6th August 2017 and closes at 11:59pm AEST on Sunday 13th August 2017. Five winners will be chosen at random on Monday 14th August 2017. To successfully win, entrants must fulfil the above entry conditions before the time the competition closes. Current members/followers are eligible to enter the competition. Only one entry per person. Only one winner per household. To be a valid winner, the entrant must not have won a prize from SWITCH within the last 28 days. Each winner will receive one Blu-ray copy of 'Get Out'. By entering, you agree to receive occasional emails from SWITCH in the future. If you decide to unsubscribe from these updates, any further entries will not be applicable. Only Australian residents are eligible to enter.
'Get Out' is available on Blu-ray, Digital and DVD on Wednesday the 9th August 2017 from Universal Sony.
Writer Ira Levin (author of novels that include ‘Rosemary’s Baby’, ‘The Stepford Wives’, and ‘The Boys from Brazil’) was a master not just at thinking up highly suspenseful plots, but also at the art of maintaining suspense over the course of a book. His writing style, functional though it appears to be, conceals a delicate craftsmanship, especially in the way he accumulates little details and uses them to create menace. This means that though all his books contain a frisson-generating twist (or a few minor twists and one major surprise), most of them survive multiple readings. It’s possible to revisit them even after their secrets have been digested.
Director Jordan Peele’s debut film ‘Get Out’ is essentially Ira Levin-lite. While the film provides a lot of Levin-like clever social commentary (middle-class white liberals can be just as unsettling to African Americans with their admiration and hubris as racist police can be with their distrust and badges) and little clues, the film isn’t that scary and is more amusing rather than funny (despite one key character played purely for broad comedy). Peele never really attempts to make Chris seem paranoid - the strangeness at the estate just escalates steadily as Chris tries to figure out what is happening. Peele’s directorial style is neither good nor bad, neither delights nor enrages; it is simply hypnotic, like the rhythmic scraping of a spoon against a tea cup. Cinematographer Toby Oliver does manage some satisfying symmetry in several shots and the “the sunken place” is the visual highlight of the film.
Despite all the praise 'Get Out' has received, I left the cinema appreciating the social critiques and satire but also with the rueful feeling one might get from watching what seems to be a Test cricket match - and discovering, in the very last inning, that it was only a domestic first-class cricket match after all.