ONE OF THE most vibrant, original and
downright brilliant horror movies in years,
Get Out was critically acclaimed, grossed
a stunning $250 million (off a $5 million budget),
and was a particular triumph for its writer-
director, Jordan Peele. After making his name
as a comedian alongside Keegan-Michael Key
in the TV show Key & Peele and last year’s Keanu,
Peele switched gears comprehensively with
this tale of Chris (Daniel Kaluuya), a young
African-American man who gets more than he
bargained for when he visits his new girlfriend’s
seemingly ultra-liberal white parents out in
the sticks. Dealing directly with themes of race,
isolation and oppression, it’s clearly a personal
movie for Peele.
WORDS CHRIS HEWITT
Director Jordan Peele on the
year’s surprise smash, Get Out
Did the success of the movie take you by surprise,
to some extent?
Yeah. I wanted to make a horror movie that
would be one of my favourite horror movies,
ultimately. The most I could have hoped for
was that the movie would help generate
conversations about the issues [in it]. I’m
continually surprised with how far it’s gone
and how many times people rewatch it.
Did you specifically want to create a movie centred
around a black lead?
That was a huge thing. Giving the black audience,
first of all, a character that not only represented
them physically but represented the African-
American identity, which is a heightened sense
of scepticism and awareness of the dangers of
putting oneself in a potentially horrific situation.
The African-American experience is a little bit
closer to horror, I think, and a more horrific
experience than we’d like it to be. And the black
male identity has been portrayed with a certain
lack of vulnerability. For instance, the image of
Chris crying out of pure fear and panic in that
one moment in Get Out, that image has
resonated. He’s a striking guy, but also because
we haven’t, as black men, been allowed to be
vulnerable in that way. It struck people as a long
time coming and it goes to a history of our fears
being denied.
That image is so striking that it was used as the
poster image in the UK.
I was pretty involved in the marketing. It was
important to me that the movie wasn’t sold as
torture porn. That’s a genre I think people are
tired of. The poster in England is actually more
torturous than the one we had come out here.
The original ending saw things go very wrong,
didn’t it?
On the DVD and Blu-ray we have the originally
intended ending which was grim and involved
Chris going to prison. It’s very dark. It was
originally meant to be a sobering moment and
bring us to the horror of reality. Upon testing the
GETTING
DEEP
