A young African-American photographer by the name of Chris Washington is drug out to his girlfriend's parents' house to spend the weekend and meet the family. Chris feels unwelcome, considering there are only three other African-Americans on the farm, and two of them work on it. As the weekend progresses, Chris starts noticing some weird things around the farm and when he snaps a picture of one of the family members, the man freaks out.
The sense of uneasiness is in the air and it continues to grow as Chris finds out the strange truth of what is really going on in this place.
Once in a while a movie comes along that takes a genre by the scruff of the neck and vigorously shakes it into a new shape.
This is so with Get Out, a horror movie (so the marketing blurb says) that lobs a few horror tropes into a lean and mean 104 minute thriller. But it is really a social observation on the insidiousness of racism. It comes out the other end as a unique movie offering.
It borrows from Pacific Heights, Psycho, Michael Haneke's astonishing Party Games and sub-horror-porn like Saw without ever being any of them.
Without resorting to spoilers its one gigantic twist from start to finish that realises the fears of a young black American guy on a trip to the country to meet his wealthy WASP girlfriend's family on a celebration weekend. Every sentence uttered by every character becomes a retrospective clue as to what the outcome will be.
Given it's described as a 'horror' you can expect a deal of nasty stuff in a climactic ending. What director and screenwriter Jordan Peele (amazingly a debut outing) most cleverly does is apply Hitchcockian tension so that 89 minutes of tension are realised in a mere 15 minutes of terror in such a way that the nasty bits don't (as so often is the case) outstay their welcome.
Superb performances all round from the five principal actors, but especially boyfriend and girlfriend Daniel Kaluuya and Allison Williams (Girls).
It's should be no surprise that this has been both BAFTA and Golden Globes nominated, but it is because this genre rarely reaches this level of critical acclaim.
At the 90th Academy Awards, it won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, and was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Kaluuya. It also earned five nominations at the 23rd Critics' Choice Awards, two at the 75th Golden Globe Awards (Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Actor – Comedy or Musical for Kaluuya) and two at the 71st British Academy Film Awards (Best Actor in a Leading Role for Kaluuya and Best Original Screenplay).
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