Movies with a 90% rating or higher on Rotten Tomatoes are usually well worth seeing. (As reference only four films in 2016 are rated 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.) So imagine a film that’s so good that every critic, over 100 so far, recommends it. That’s Get Out, a new horror movie from Jordan Peele, which examines racism and stereotypes while paying tribute to classic horror films. The premise involves a young man, Chris (Daniel Kaluuya), traveling with new girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams) to meet her family in upstate New York. He soon finds that not everything is as it seems in the upper class town, where African Americans have been disappearing and the few people of color have disturbingly flat personalities. The film examines race relations, with white people as the antagonists. Peele realizes this is a tricky subject, but judging by the response he’s handled it expertly. In a new interview with USA Today, he explains how he came up with the concept. He’s been married to white comedian Chelsea Peretti for almost a year, but he started writing this film before they met. USA Today also talked to star Daniel Kaluyya, whom I know from Black Mirror. He’s also going to be in the Black Panther movie.

Get Out started as a film that explored “the fears of being an outsider,” Peele says. And then he realized it should be about race. “It just seemed to be a very taboo piece of the discussion to talk about something so horrific as racism in any type of genre other than a film about slavery or something.”

Kaluuya understands it’s a timely subject but “there’s consistently been racism. Black people have been feeling it for centuries,” he says. “Jordan’s now in a position and of a skill set to execute this particular genre and to talk about probably the most horrifying thing in human society.”

Peele married white comedian Chelsea Peretti last April, though he started writing Get Out before they met and says the movie is “the experience of being black in this country.” It seems to be resonating so far, at least with critics: 100% of the reviews are positive on aggregate site RottenTomatoes.com.

One of the more supernatural aspects of Get Out is the “Sunken Place,” a vacuum of space where Chris’ consciousness is taken and forced to watch his life unfold, unable to take action. Peele calls it a metaphor for “the suspended animation of how we look at race in America” that’s also symbolic of the lack of African-American representation in the genre. “We’re a loyal horror movie audience, but we’re relegated to the dark theater to scream at the protagonist: ‘Get out of the house! Call the cops! Do the smart thing!’ ”

Williams says Get Out has the potential “to give white audiences or audience members who’ve never experienced any of this firsthand an opportunity to be with a protagonist who’s black and going through it. That in and of itself to me was kind of a radical notion, even though it shouldn’t be at this point.”

Today’s tumultuous political climate has proven inspirational for Peele: He has four other ideas for social thrillers he wants to write and direct every other year beginning in 2018. (Peele and Peretti have a baby on the way, so that’ll keep him busy in between.)

“I feel a greater sense of duty than I ever have,” Peele says. “Art, genre and comedy are important pieces of the conversation and can often incite cathartic moments for all of us.”

[From USA Today]

We need films that challenge the status quo, especially now when it’s so despicably low, while helping us escape from it. Peele definitely seems to have achieved this. Here is just a sampler of some of the rave reviews, which are calling it scary, funny, enlightening, and a fresh take on classic horror tropes:

Director Jordan Peele as created a work that addresses the myriad levels of racism, pays homage to some great horror films, carves out its own creative path, has a distinctive visual style — and is flat-out funny as well. – Chicago Sun Times

A memorable horror flick if ever there was one, Get Out starts with a great title and a promising idea — a black man’s fear as he walks at night down a street in an affluent white suburb. Then it delivers on that promise with explosive brilliance. – Wall St. Journal

Brace yourself; this is upscale, darkly polished work. Peele takes the fright film beyond a clinical exercise in spookery and into strikingly original territory. – Star Tribune

Taking cues from such masters as Carpenter, George Romero, John Frankenheimer and Alfred Hitchcock, Peele assuredly ratchets up the tension until an action-heavy final act in which the gore splurts and splatters with particularly cathartic satisfaction. – Washington Post

I can’t wait to see this movie! I love horror films and it sounds like Peele managed to make this both highly entertaining and an thought-provoking commentary on microaggressions and racial tension. Unfortunately it’s Oscar weekend so I won’t be able to see this until next weekend as I have a few other excellent movies to screen first. (I know, my job is hard.) The Hollywood Reporter predicts that Get Out should have a $20 million box office but I bet it will be at least $30 million, if not more. Especially with this kind of word of mouth.

Peele commissioned art based on this movie and it’s provocative and disturbing. You can see the slideshow on Vanity Fair’s website.

Here’s the trailer:

photos credit: Universal Pictures and Getty