Comedian Jordan Peele (of Key & Peele fame) has surprised everyone by making his directing debut in the horror genre with the film Get Out.
Get Out is about a young black man who (Daniel Kaluuya) who travels with his white girlfriend (Allison Williams) to meet her parents (Catherine Keener and Bradley Whitford). And things turn far more terrifying than expected.
While there are comical elements in the movie, Peele deliberately designed it to scare the audience. And he also wanted to make a comment on racism. "Race, specifically, is the American horror that has gotten the least attention within the genre," Peele says. "Every other social dynamic or fear has been tackled, but there's been something taboo about race. And we need to discuss these racial issues in a way that doesn't bum us out."
Jordan Peele had a busy year in 2016 with the release of Storks and Keanu
Peele sees every genre as a way to approach these themes. "As with comedy, I feel like horror and the thriller genre is one of the few ways that we can address real life horrors and social injustices in an entertaining way," he says. "We go to the theatre to be entertained, but if what is left after you watch the movie is a sort of eye-opening perspective on some social issues, then it can be a really powerful piece of art."
And he thinks that we're overdue for a movie like Get Out. "It occurred to me recently," he says, "that no one's really made a thriller about race since maybe Night of the Living Dead, which was 48 years ago."
Obviously, he has had a life-long love of horror movies. "We've got Rosemary's Baby," he says. "I grew up actually a couple of blocks away from the building where that was shot. When I was younger, it was actually a little too close to home, so it really kind of it freaked me out more than I could appreciate it! It's grown into possibly my favourite horror movie. So I definitely looked at that and The Stepford Wives for Get Out. I love The Shining. I love Halloween. I love The Birds and Hitchcock."
And since Peele only recently married comedian Chelsea Peretti, who is white, people are asking him how much of the film is autobiographical. "Nothing quite like what happens in Get Out has happened to me at all," he says. "But I knew the perspective of the main character. It was a personal story that I was kind of uniquely equipped to tell. It's a horror movie that is from an African American's perspective. Although it very quickly veers off from anything autobiographical!"
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