Get Out
Get Out sits in an awkward place in my mind of being a “horror” movie. It is not a genre I am really familiar with, but it seems like a strange label. The movie spends much time building suspense and creating an uncomfortable atmosphere, but it is often cut with some sort of comedy. Here is where I wrestle with the film the most. I do think ignorant racial jokes effectively created more realistic antagonist as it showed a normalized form of racism. However, it left me questioning if the films use of humor made the horror stronger by contrast or does it lighten the tension too much?
I think the film did a good job with creating Chris. He was believable with his actions. He was cautious of what seemed like danger yet fighting a battle to try and be polite to who could potentially be important to him. He was also fighting with the idea of someone he loved betraying him. These elements together made the audience empathetic with Chris through every tense scene. I think this adds to the quality of this film specifically because it makes the scenes very well possible as opposed to theatrical. The enemy is not some looming monster, but the actions of real people.
Finally, I felt like the camera work was noticeable and deserving of praise. The breakdown of the opening scene that was watched made all this more noticeable. No matter the direct opinion of the shots, the intentionality behind them was driving many scenes of the film and contributed to my enjoyment.