HALLOWEEN HANGOVER: GET OUT (2017) ** ½

I’ve heard so much about Jordan Peele’s Get Out for over a year now that I finally had to get off my ass and watch it.  Maybe I should’ve seen it when it first came out because it left me kind of cold.  After months of non-stop hype, huge box office numbers, and even Oscar nominations (and one win for Best Screenplay!?!?!), I guess I was expecting… more?

Allison Williams brings her African-American boyfriend Daniel Kaluuya to meet her parents (Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener).  After they get all the awkwardness out of the way, Kaluuya still feels out of place, especially when he notices that the only other black people around (the maid and the groundskeeper) act a little off.  Eventually, he comes to realize there is something sinister going on and that Williams’ family have plans for him.  

The horror elements are more subdued and subtler than I expected.  Peele instead goes for more of a paranoiac slow burn.  It’s also more of a social statement than full-blown horror movie, which left this die-hard horror fan a tad disappointed.  The horror elements don’t really take off until the last reel, which is admittedly gripping.  It’s just that by then it’s too little, too late.  Because of that, I think Get Out might’ve worked better as a short or as part of a horror anthology.  Heck, it would’ve played like gangbusters at 80 minutes, but at 104 minutes, it just a long way to go to get to the good stuff.

Peele won an Oscar for Best Screenplay, but that’s more confounding than anything as there’s nothing here that really seems all that Oscar worthy.  Especially when it’s essentially just a modernized version of The Stepford Wives.  There’s also nothing particularly scary about it either, unless you count the uncomfortable scenes of our hero interacting with his girlfriend’s family as “scary”.

The performers really carry the movie, even when it’s dragging its feet during the middle section.  Kayuula has a strong screen presence and has a lot of chemistry with Williams.  Whitford and Keener are excellent as they pretty much steal the whole show as the nutzo parents.  

Peele is currently producing a new redo of The Twilight Zone.  I think he’s perfectly suited to the job as he has a keen knack for springing last-minute plot twists.  With the tighter time frame of a television show, I think he’s capable of delivering something memorable.  With Get Out, it’s just dawdles way too much until it gets to its well-executed finale.