On October 4th, the first trailer for Jordan Peele’s upcoming horror movie, Get Out (2017), was released. Check it out.
Get Out, scheduled for release in February of 2017, is Jordan Peele’s first time directing a feature length film. Since he’s made a career out of comedy it might seem a little surprising that his fist directorial effort would be a horror movie, but he’s actually been a horror fan for most of his life. In an interview with Playboy back in 2014, Peele stated that his main career goal has always been to write and direct horror movies.[1]
It seems that Peele’s goal with Get Out, besides creating a frightening experience for viewers and fulfilling a life-long dream of working in a genre that he loves, is to confront race relations in modern society. He recognizes horror’s ability to address tough subjects that people normally feel uncomfortable talking about. In his own words, “horror has an ability to provoke thought and further the conversation on real social issues in a very powerful way.”[2] He is absolutely correct. Since the beginning of of the genre, horror movies have been addressing real-life fears, some more directly than others.
Get Out looks like it will confront race relations head on. Judging from the trailer, to me it feels a bit like The Stepford Wives, but with racial inequality and hypnotism (and maybe brain surgery) as opposed to gender roles and robots. The trailer has me intrigued, and I’m always happy to see new perspectives and voices in horror.
Get Out stars Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Catherine Keener, and Bradley Whitford. It’s not exactly a horror-centric cast, though Bradley Whitford did star in the fantastic The Cabin in the Woods (2012), but again, new voices are always welcome. Jordan Peele writes and directs, and the film is being produced by Blumhouse Productions. As a side note, Blumhouse is very hit or miss with me. For every great movie like The Gift (2015), they produce something much less spectacular like Ouija (2014). Here’s hoping Get Out is one of the good ones to come out of the house of Jason Blum.
Also, if you want to hear what Jordan Peele thinks about horror, take a listen to the Shockwaves podcast embedded below. Peele shows up at around the 31 minute mark. I’m not 100% in agreement with Peele’s opinions on horror, though he does mention A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) as one of his favorite films. That automatically gets bonus points from me.
References & Links
[1] – http://www.playboy.com/articles/jordan-peele-horror-get-out (“EXCLUSIVE: Key & Peele’s Jordan Peele is Writing and Directing a Horror Movie”)
[2] – http://variety.com/2015/film/news/jordan-peele-blumhouse-horror-thriller-get-out-1201598927/ (“‘Key & Peele’ Star Jordan Peele to Write, Direct Blumhouse and QC Horror Film ‘Get Out’”)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5052448/ (IMDB page for Get Out)