Robert McKee’s WORKS / DOESN’T WORK Film Review:
Get Out (2017) | Written and Directed by Jordan Peele
McKee Says: It Works (Spoiler Alert!)
EXCELLENT EXECUTION OF GENRE:
Horror, when it’s really good, arouses the belly-knotting, irrational fear of things that do not in fact exist. This primal genre comes in three sub-genres:
1. The Uncanny. In these stories, the antagonists possess fantastic and yet scientifically explainable powers. The alien in ALIEN, for example, forces its spore down the throat of a human being, so the embryo can incubate in the victim’s stomach before hatching and chewing its way out. Parasite wasps here on earth do exactly the same thing when they lay their eggs inside caterpillars.
2. The Supernatural. These antagonists have extra-earthly powers beyond the logic of science. Freddy Krueger in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, for instance, is a demonic, murderous ghost who crosses from the after-world to the real world by moving through the dreams of his victims while they sleep.
3. The Super-Uncanny. The third sub-genre keeps the audience in the dark: From where does the horror come? The supernatural or the uncanny? Stanley Kubrick’s adaption of the Stephen King classic, THE SHINNING, raises the level of terror by suspending us in wonder: Who is he? Is Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) a psychopath bent on hellish savagery or a haunted man driven to violence by hellish demons?
In all three subgenres, monsters thrive on the twisted pleasure of inflicting terrible pain, and then enjoying and prolonging the suffering of their victims. In short, they possess the spirit of evil.
GET OUT gives the Uncanny a 21st century twist by ingeniously dramatizing the unholy merger of science and evil.
SUPERB CRAFTING OF THE MERCY SCENE:
Horror, like all action genres, builds to the moment when the protagonist is weaponless, defenseless, back to the wall, at the mercy of the overpowering monster—aka, the Mercy Scene. If this story is going to have a positive ending, the protagonist, from a state of utter helplessness, must rise to the occasion by either outsmarting the monster by discovering and exploiting a weakness in it, or overpowering the villain by mastering his power. What’s more, the protagonist must come out on top without resorting to coincidence or rescue. This, needless to say, is where most action films fail.
GET OUT’s protagonist does both. He outwits the trap set for him, then unleashes a burst of brutal revenge that would make a monster cower. The writer/director Jordan Peele achieves this with a mastery of storytelling. If you’ve seen it, see it again. If you haven’t, see it twice so you can study the art of set-ups and pay-offs. Every turning point, every detail, every look does one or the other. Not a gesture is wasted.
WONDERFUL USE OF THE GOOD LAUGH:
Horror audiences laugh as a safety valve for extreme fear. This can’t be avoided, so the question is: “Do they laugh when they want or when the screenwriter wants?” The Good Laugh in Horror puts the writer in control. I have never seen the Good Laugh better handled than GET OUT’s hysterical gags.