Get Out (2017)
Do you belong in this neighborhood?
People raved about this movie when it came out. I mean, there was constant “oh it’s the best ever” kind of stuff flying about I feel. Have you ever had one of those movies that gets hyped up so much that you just kind of put it on a back burner and ignore it for a while? That was this movie for me - I knew of it when it came out, it sounded good, and it got so hyped up that I figured it wouldn’t live up to the expectations and set it aside for it to die down. There was one flaw with that plan however: the ending got spoiled on me, and I didn’t set it aside long enough to forget. I have to ask myself though, could it be any more than what could be collected from the trailer? Would I have figured it out without that? Maybe for tonight, we should all just Get Out.
First off, that trailer comes from a long line of trailers that likes to put some shots in there that doesn’t exist on the main run - spooky deer ghost? Where was that when I was watching? It’s not like I took any bathroom breaks or anything! Mostly though, it’s all there - but upon watching it after the movie, I think perhaps this one would be better off just going in blind on to favor the safe side of setting up suspicions - well, that and the trailer I watched showed late-in-the-movie footage, so even out of context it feels like a bit of a poor move (even though it does punch things up a bit using it). I mean, here’s the thing - this movie is a mystery thriller type of movie, and we don’t have a suave gun-totting detective or martial arts problem solver at the helm - this is more modern than that. This is the common man actor spread, stuck into an outrageous situation meant to baffle and perplex while also allowing plenty of commentary to slip in for the people watching it - but that also means regardless of how fast paced the plot and pacing tries to get, it’s always going to feel a bit slow and plodding to the action oriented viewer who just wants something to happen already. Keep that in mind if you decide to watch it - you may be interested, you may be entertained, but you aren’t going to be thrilled in an active non-spook brainy way unless you make it to the final act.
Now, the plot itself is actually pretty good. Sure, there’s more mental psycho-thrillers out there, or perhaps even more mysterious gritty who-dun its floating about - but this plot gives what it needs to be good at what it’s delivering. It doesn’t over-burden with information not relevant. If it’s showing you something, it’s having some form of a reference to the movie and happenings - be it foreshadowing, hinting, or walking hand-in-hand with a character backstory trait or example. This makes things feel pretty natural, but in turn also incredibly bizarre at the same time - which is most likely incredibly intended. The decisions characters make - particularly our lead - seem like intelligent decisions, which isn’t always the case in horror. The character uses his brain, picks up on details and it all helps to clue the watcher in when as you ride along for the duration. By the end, the plot might seem a bit bizarre, but it all makes perfect sense within it’s story and nothing really feels wasted.
Now, with that should come a little caveat towards a few scenes that feel like they may be in there for levity and comedy purposes, but even then most the time it doesn’t feel like a complete waste of time and could be referenced back to as “why did it play out like that” later on. The one scene even self-serves as a sense of comedic disbelief, where the viewer can witness in-movie characters laughing at a situation that they themselves would probably laugh at if someone came up to them with the story. Now, although there is some joking around in here, if something is funny it’s largely in that fish out of water sort of way - the awkward way a character might act or the language they are using. It’s all pretty underfoot compared to the vast amount of normalcy being encroached upon by bizarre highlights of the feeling of wrongness. Tensions run across the movie like a tightrope, and outside of the initial introduction to our two head characters it’s almost a constant thing that there is a sense of unease in what’s going on or how people are acting.
A holiday with the ‘rents, what could go wrong?
The tensions work great for the horror and mystery elements, as they goad you to want to find out more and unravel what’s going on. Here, the actors - again particularly the lead - do a great job of helping along. Even the side characters do great coming off slightly strange or straight up feeling inappropriate with how they speak or act, but the main has an important role. By making the character a smart one, the actor needs to play it that way too - he could be a genius on paper but if the actor plays it like the Pink Panther it’ll be hard to take him as such. Here, even if you aren’t catching on to whats going about, you can witness the main’s shift in expressions as things become stranger and his character actually acknowledges it. It doesn’t feel like his thoughts are coming from nowhere - you see each moment when he’s starting to get suspicious or uneasy even before he has to deliver a line. Combine that with the large amount of normalcy about the rest of the characters as they act oddly in the first place, and it’s just a mystery barrel waiting to explode.
Effects here are pretty light weight. It’s certainly not a blockbuster in how it shows off a budget - with the most elaborate effect a sort of drifting in space effect that gets used pretty well. The biggest effect I would have expected to see was actually a monstrous deer-skeleton in a trailer that I even screen-capped to share for posterity, but unless my eyes are mistaken it just plain isn’t in the movie. Perhaps it’s only in a specific cut (much like the tricycle machine gun in Mr. & Mrs. Smith) or just shot for the trailer, but it kind of saddens me a bit cause it seemed like it would have been a better jump scare moment than some of what they did put in the movie. Costume work is also suitably normal and everyday - which is a testament to authenticity, but also unfortunately not much to really impress the eyes and catch the attention. When violence does crop up, it looks fine, with most the more potentially gruesome stuff left off-screen where it won’t offend the stomach.
Now, the horror element ties in part with the plot, and therefore I can’t really get to far into it without potentially upsetting the balance of enjoyment. What I can talk about however is the different elements of it and how well that went. The movie, unfortunately, isn’t without jump scares. I’d argue that the main culprit moment is a bit dumb (oh look, someone walked by in the background! Better get that loud noise out!), but some of the other moments (creepy person running full boar at you) work a bit better when it ends up being a pscyh-out. The main brunt of the horror is that of the long-running mysterious tensions, crowd surfing about on the awkward interactions and suddenly off moments of acting and events. This part plays out incredibly nice, as it’s blended in and handled in a manner that lets you think while still acknowledging what’s going on. Even then, unless you know what the ending is, you could probably see it heading out in multiple different ways as it goes on, and even up to the end they aren’t shy of playing with your expectations. That being said, I would say this isn’t quite so much frightening to me as much as it is just a well handled tension - it sets a good mood of unease, but I’m also not finding my skin crawling at what’s happening and expecting nightmares from it.
What the heck is that? Where was this in the movie?
All in all, I’m glad that I gave the movie some time to settle before I watched it, because it is in fact quite the good movie when removed from all that astounding levels of hype. It’s put together well, even if it has a few moments that feel perhaps a bit lame and doesn’t really have much as far as effects work going on. The body count is near nothing, but the movie handles it’s tensions well all the way to the final scene and proves to be far more intelligent than the average slasher could hope to be anyways. If you want a good spooky, uneasy mystery than this would be a good candidate - but I would recommend perhaps not watching the trailer first. Just jump in head first and enjoy the ride.