Get Out

After watching the trailer for Get Out, I was very excited and nearly flew through the ceiling when I found out it was directed by Jordan Peele. I've been watching the Peele brothers and their sketches for two years now and for me personally they are the funniest comedians not only in America but in the world, and I know very well how big movie fans they are and horror is one of their favorite genres. Keegan-Michael Key has made it into acting, where he recently surprised in the comedy Why Him and is set to star in next year's Predator, and Jordan just took the director's chair and is tearing up records in every aspect with his debut. Not only has it already grossed thirty times its budget, but its ratings (83% from 25k people makes Get Out the highest rated horror film of the last 30 years, even beating The Exorcist, and that's saying a hell of a lot). The Dublin cinema was packed with both seniors and teens and surprisingly no one ran out of the theatre. But now to the film. Get Out has only one downside, and that is the longer running time, otherwise everything is absolutely brilliant and creatively playful. Not much happens in the first half, but from the beginning the film carries a mysterious and disturbing atmosphere, where every member of the family is special in some way, even strange,but after the arrival of a major and very unsettling twist (the last time a twist like that killed me was in The Visit) the film picks up the pace densely, more twists and turns appear, and a lot of humour starts to build up, taken care of by a black policeman (and he was really funny! ) and surprisingly, it's also very fitting here, culminating in a very intense and gritty killing spree that will give you flashbacks to both SAW 3 and Inside, but it's all carried out in digestible standards, i.e. the killings are spectacular but don't involve much gore, which I don't mind at all in this film. The playful cinematography and excellent acting by all involved is also a big plus. I personally feel Get Out has a cult status carrying the statuette for best paranoid horror film ever. A well-deserved success and I hope you enjoy it in the cinemas next month as much as I did. 95% (21/03/2017)

Good, but I think that it’s been way overhyped in America as a result of the racial tone, which resonates more across the pond than in here. What’s interesting, though, is that in the film itself, the racial lines are not that broad and the “raciscm” of the villains is rather superficial. What I find thought-provoking is the controversy about whether the villains make instruments out of the blacks simply because of racism, or because. in many aspects (at least in some cases), they consider them better. But I’m not sure whether that controversy is intentional or whether the script is not entirely clear on what it wants to say. The basic concept is pretty cheesy, certainly more than I had expected. There’s also less horror than I had expected, and more comedy. The comedic moments, in particular, were pretty irritating. I have nothing a priori against comedy elements in horror, but here they clearly disrupted the paranoid atmosphere (laughter doesn’t go very well with it) and, to my taste, the humour was very simple, though effective. Instead of that, I would have welcomed a broader explanation of the mechanism of what is actually happening to those black people, because the film addresses it only very roughly, to the point that it gave me a messy impression. And I was also slightly disappointed that it was missing a surprising moment. Yeah, the premise overall is original, but the plot moves within relatively predictable lines – I figured out the one relatively big twist ten minutes in advance. Things should have got moving after that, but instead, they were over pretty quickly. The comment may sound too critical, but that’s because I was really convinced I was going to see the best horror film in recent years. Not even by chance, but it is certainly a good film. Edit: After the second viewing my quibbles have disappeared. It’s awesome! The explanations of the events turned out to be enough and the second time you can really enjoy those little nuances in the performances that show that the whole thing is excellently thought-out. (28/04/2017)

A feature-length episode of Black Mirror, which the wave of last year's Moonlight and related racial themes nonsensically elevated to the level of a battle for Oscars. Daniel Kaluuya authentically experiences all the sensitive and menacing moments in the role of the main protagonist, and I am very glad to see the underappreciated Allison Williams in a leading role, but it's not enough. An interesting concept is not sufficient for an entire film, and after all the reviews, I inevitably expected a foundation of a new direction or at least a surprisingly well-guided genre film. However, nothing lies beneath this slightly superficial portrayal with its one-sided point. (21/02/2018)

Earning USD 150 million at the US box office with a budget of less than five million dollars? Jason Blum is the man. And it seems that a new age of black directing talent is at hand. The atmosphere of Get Out is reminiscent of the works of Stephen King, and had it been based on one of his books, it would have been one of the best King adaptations ever. The psychological horror formula, intensely and courageously built on the sensitive issue of racism, will send chills down your spine. Flawlessly directed with intelligent social insight, the movie is effective thanks both to the tension between the characters and purely genre elements (jump scares, raising of the tension using visual tricks). If it had a cleverer ending, it would be a work with precision reaching the level of Shyamalan’s famous trilogy. [ArcLight Santa Monica] (30/03/2017)

There's a bit of a nervous director's claw in the horror scenes, and as a result the finale doesn't destroy you as much as it should, but up until that point it's such an apt and poignant escalation of the "black mask" issue that it's just impossible not to enjoy it. I'm rooting for commercial success to the hilt. As the cliché goes: it makes it real. Tarantino must have snorted with delight at this one. (29/04/2017)