Following the recent release of his widely acclaimed UFO thrillerNope, Jordan Peele is three for three in his quest to forge a refreshingly unique vision of horror cinema. Just when the genre was settling into a slump with familiar clichés and cheap jump scares, Peele came along with fellow filmmakers like Ari Aster, Robert Eggers, and Ana Lily Amirpour to revitalize horror with original stories, three-dimensional characters, and creepy atmospheres.Nopehas all three of those in spades, with a lovable pair of siblings, a terrifying visage of alien life, and unsettling satire of its own audience’s addiction to spectacle. But Peele still has yet to top the greatness of his original masterpiece,Get Out.
With its timely tale of race relations,Get Outarrived as a cultural landmark. It sparked eye-opening conversations around the world, grossed a whopping $255.4 million against a modest $4.5 million budget, and received four Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Original Screenplay. Peele won the latter prize, which would be an impressive feat for anyone’s debut movie, but especially when that debut movie belongs tothe oft-neglected horror genre. Five years later, the messages brought up byGet Outremain just as much a part of the conversation.
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Peele’s subsequent directorial efforts have been just as bold and inventive as his debut feature, tackling relevant themes through the lens of horror with spooky visuals, tense twists and turns, and monsters closing in. But they’re missing the intangible quality thatmadeGet Outan undeniable masterpiece.UsandNopeare disparate collections of various interesting ideas all executed very well, butGet Outwas one singular idea executed perfectly.
Usstarts out with an intriguing abstract concept – that the monster we should fear the most is ourselves – but that abstract concept doesn’t quite translate into a concrete narrative. The Tethered are vaguely explained to be the result of a failed cloning experiment by the American government, but that muddled mythology doesn’t quite add up. The first half of the movie is aFunny Games-style home invasion thriller, while the second half morphs intoa sort of zombie movieabout a band of survivors facing the apocalypse, with onesie-clad clones taking the place of the undead. The final twist reveal questions the dichotomy of heroes and villains, but the twist barely holds water and doesn’t add anything new on rewatches.
Nopeis aesthetically stunning, thematically rich, and,above all, delightfully entertaining. But it’s an even more eclectic mix of ideas thanUs. It explores the forgotten identity of the Black jockey featured in Eadweard Muybridge’s “The Horse in Motion,” who was, in Em’s words, “the very first stuntman, animal wrangler, and movie star all rolled into one.” It also explores the trauma felt by a former child actor after he saw his castmates and members of the live studio audience brutally beaten and mutilated by his chimpanzee co-star during a taping of the cheesy ‘90s sitcomGordy’s Home.
On top of that,Nopealso explores a perfect metaphor forthe debate between film and digital. Old-fashioned filmmaking techniques are becoming increasingly outdated, butNopeargues that they can never be replaced. In an early scene, the Haywoods’ live horse, ironically named Lucky, is replaced by a stand-in covered in CGI markers when it’s spooked by a mirror image of itself. But the classic photography methods come in handy when the Haywoods become determined to capture an image of the flying saucer terrorizing their ranch. Since digital images can be easily manipulated, they set out to capture indisputable proof of the UFO’s existence on unalterable celluloid.
These are all fascinating ideas and the movie does a terrific job of exploring them, but there’s nothing that ties them together. The horror of the flying saucer looming over the Haywoods’ ranch and the horror ofa chimp actor wreaking bloody havocon the set of a silly ‘90s sitcom feel like the premises of two completely different horror movies. They’re very loosely connected by the broad theme of spectacle.
Instead of grappling with a jumble of disjointed concepts,Get Outtakes one singular concept –The Stepford WivesmeetsGuess Who’s Coming to Dinner– and executes it with razor-sharp precision. From the moment Chris is invited to his white girlfriend’s white parents’ all-white gated community to the moment Chris realizes his body has been auctioned off and they won’t let him leave,Peele maintains a taut feeling of suspense, constantly suggesting that something fishy is going on without giving it away. Everything in the movie, from the Armitages’ microaggressions to the unsettling party sequence to the silent terror of “The Sunken Place,” serves the movie’s focused exploration of the fears of racism.
Peele continues to make great movies that thrill audiences in the moment and provoke deep discussions in the months that follow. But it’s highly unlikely that he’ll ever be able to top the success of his directorial debut, becauseGet Outwas such a uniquely profound piece of cinema.UsandNopeare both solid efforts, but neither of them managed toreach the heights ofGet Out.
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