The 2017 film Get Out, written and directed by Jordan Peele, offers race relationships to be explored from a sociological stance. The film draws interesting parallels to the “social identity theory” proposed in social psychology by Tajfel and his colleagues (Tajfel, 1978; Tajfel & Turner, 1979), emphasising on the social classification of individuals of specific groups, and affects on one’s self-identity. Peele’s psychological thriller is uniquely suited to bring visibility into an endemic horror of radical slavery. Therefore, Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017) is an example of ‘horror vérité’, as a form of politically inflected horror, where Peele uses elements of the horror genre to expose the existing racism, utilisation of the black body for white survival, accumulation, and pleasure. This paper will further express the visual experience of being Black in modern day ‘post-racial’ America after the election of Obama, through a comedy-inflected horror story. The fear of White people among blacks are given through the uses of common horror tropes in the opening scene of Get Out. Jordan Peele combines mise-en-scène and sound design in this empathy-inducing situation to endure the systemic racism that will be a repeated theme throughout the narrative.
Analysis
Get Out begins with the murder of an innocent young African American man in a white suburb. Peele sets the scene very anxiety producing, where the threat of violence is truly felt. In the opening frame, the setting brings a sense of an unease discomfort with the use of common horror tropes, as its a dimly lit, sleeping suburban at night-time. Although there is no one in sight, with the popular culture and history aesthetically training us to read this sundown town: this is a white-dominated space that excludes Blacks through the use of discriminatory laws, harassment, and threats or use of violence (Coen 2020). The scene opens with a black screen, with the gentle sound of crickets in the distance. In the first scene, Andre (Lakeith Stanfield), is walking alone and searching for an address, being targeted based solely on his race, exemplified by the real horror of Trayvon Martin being killed in the modern equivalent of a sundown town (Patton, 2019). The audience can hear Andre’s growing anxiety through the provided dialogue, which is presented as a fragmented monologue. He describes the place as a “creepy, confusing ass suburb”, modulating his voice to perform the stereotypical White accent, showing his awareness of the whiteness in the place. His witty talk creates an even more urgent tone as he attempts use his humour to mask his growing fear.
The opening scene grows tense as Andre is followed by an unknown white Porsche car. The colour of the car is symbolic; the movie is washed in Whiteness. Peele encounters an off-screen threat as an horror trope to heighten the suspense. Andre notices the car tailing him and rushes in the opposite direction, muttering “not today.” Unfortunately, his attempt to escape from the terror of being black is impossible. Andre is abducted by the unknown White driver (the ending reveals that it’s Jeremy Armitage) and becomes one of the many missing anonymous Black people. Peele says the image of a car stalking Andre was meant to evoke such horror classics as Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws”. This metaphoric shark is racially aimed to attack Black victims. The diegetic soundtrack blaring from the car’s radio repeats Run Rabbit, Run Rabbit, Run, Run, Run… The unsettling lyrics tackle race relations in America and foreshadows the sinister events, sets an uncomfortable tone and a warning sign for the character. The score is a popular World War 2 tune, ‘Run Rabbit Run’ written by Michael Abeds. Considering the British propaganda pushing a political narrative based on race relations (Ray, 2017), the song hints the audience to sense the political spectrum immediately as the film begins.
As emphasised above, Andre is different than a stereotypical horror-movie victim who is ignorant of the impending danger. From the onset, Andre is a vigilant and “aware of how their presence in a white suburban neighbourhood may be perceived by the residents of that neighbourhood, because of prejudiced assumptions” (Dale, 2018). This peculiar condition and Andre’s behaviour can be better understood through Social Identity Theory. The internalised racism perspective of the African American predicts the acceptance of the negative stereotypes, leading to low self-esteem, minority stress, and other forms of demoralisation (Hughes, 2015). Despite his awareness of his racial identity, Andre still fails to predict the newfound negrophilia — that is, an obsession over black culture —, and the larger systemic, rationalised violence he will encounter: being hypnotised to be made a slave. The scene unfolds with a long tracking shot. The camera closely follows Andre with swooping and swerving camera motions, creating suspense through ‘stalker shot’. The stalker shot aims to assure the audience that Andre is alone until the camera reveals the presence of a stalker (TV Tropes, 2022). The extended and uninterrupted shot echoes other cinematic masterpieces that have a similar framing in the opening, such as Orson Welles’s Touch of Evil (1958), Jean-Luc Godard’s Weekend (1967), Robert Altman’s The Player (1992), and Damien Chazelle’s La La Land (2016). Just before Andre gets shoved into the car, the cameras long tracing unexpectedly cuts and fall backs to a considerable distance. For a camera that was successful to closely trace the subject for more than two minutes, this sudden remaining in one spot is given like a failure to capture the full horror of this violence, but rather is an intentional and self-conscious aesthetic failure that manipulates audience expectations.
To end, this essay has expressed how Peel shapes Get Out around the ideology of systemic racism billed as a horror movie. In his cliché-destroying commentary on the Black American experience, the sociological issue of racism is exposed.
Word Count: 974
Filmography:
Altman, Robert. The Player. Avenue Pictures, 1992.
Chazelle, Damien. La La Land. Lionsgate, 2016.
Godard, Jean-Luc. Weekend. S.l., 1967.
Peele, Jordan. Get Out. Universal Pictures, 2017.
Welles, Orson. Touch of Evil. Universal City, Calif: Universal Studios Home Entertainment, 2008.
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