First gaining national fame via his stint on FOX sketch series Mad TV from 2003-2008, Jordan Peele didn’t truly became a household name until the 2012 debut and subsequent explosion in popularity of Comedy Central’s Key & Peele. A joint effort between Peele and his former Mad TV co-star/current best friend Keegan-Michael Key, Key & Peele became successful in a way that arguably no sketch series had since the all too short heyday of Chappelle’s Show. As a result, the announcement that the show would end sparked many cries of sadness from those who had come to rely on the duo for a regular dose of hilarious, yet often bitingly satirical comedy.
Following the end of K&P, Peele and Key jointly produced and starred in this spring’s cat-centered comedy Keanu, a film also co-written by Peele. While critically praised, Keanu hardly made a splash at the box office, earning only $20 million on a budget of $15 million. Despite that, Peele is wasting no time getting back into the theatrical feature game, this time via a new horror/thriller film entitled Get Out. However, instead of taking center stage in front of the camera, Peele will be making his directorial debut - and well as writing - the project.
Get Out stars Daniel Kaluuya (Sicario) as Chris, a young Black man who heads off with his white girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams, Girls) to meet her parents (played by screen veterans Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener) at their rural family estate. Rose’s parents waste no time in behaving quite strangely, and treating Chris in ways that make him visibly uncomfortable. At first, he chalks it up to them being unsure of how to react to their daughter’s new interracial relationship, but before long, it becomes clear that something far worse is really going on.
As the above first trailer for Get Out seems to make clear, while the film is primarily intended to thrill and frighten, Peele’s oddball comedic sensibilities are still quite in play, suggesting a final product just about as likely to darkly amuse as it is to genuinely unsettle. For one, the behavior of the few other Black characters Chris encounters following his arrival at the estate is unpredictably bizarre, and seemingly purposefully played over the top.
On the other hand, maybe these actions are meant to serve as a clue to the characters in question having undergone some type of The Stepford Wives-esque mental conditioning by the white people seemingly in charge of the town Rose’s parents call home. They seem to have certain “triggers” - such as when Chris takes one man’s picture, and the man then begins to bleed from the nose before suddenly becoming enraged. Whatever the explanation ultimately ends up being, the scenario Peele presents with Get Out is certainly an intriguing one. It’ll be interesting to see if this becomes the first of many horror-tinged efforts from the former sketch show cut up.
Get Out debuts in theaters on February 24, 2017.
Source: Universal Pictures
