Review: Give in to the fear factor of Jordan Peele's satirical 'Get Out'

No matter your race, creed or color, you’re bound to feel in your bones the extreme discomfort of Get Out’s African-American protagonist walking into a garden party of freaky old white folks smiling weirdly at him. Anyone in their right mind would grab a crab cake, turn around and — yep — get out.

That would be a very boring horror movie, however, and there's nothing dull or sedate about the splendid directorial debut of comedian Jordan Peele.

Get Out (*** out of four; rated R; in theaters nationwide Friday) is as funny and bitingly satirical as one would expect from his Key & Peele sketches. But what makes the timely thriller worth a mention alongside social commentaries such as They Live and Night of the Living Dead is the filmmaker’s way of immersing an audience in the viewpoint of young photographer Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) and the nasty business he stumbles into during a seemingly vanilla family get-together.

Jordan Peele tackles horror of racism in 'Get Out'

His white girlfriend Rose Armitage (Allison Williams) decides it's time for him to meet her parents Dean (Bradley Whitford) and Missy (Catherine Keener). Chris' best friend, motormouth TSA agent Rod (Milton “Lil Rel” Howery), thinks he’s nuts for going, but it’s important to Rose. So Chris plays it cool as Dean tells him about the time his father was ticked about losing a race to Jesse Owens, Missy pesters Chris to stop smoking through hypnosis, and Rose’s dudebro sibling (Caleb Landry Jones) sizes him up to see if he’d be good at mixed martial arts.

Still, the guest of honor sticks around even as the red flags don’t stop in this twisted turn on Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner: Chris is creeped out by the subservience of the Armitages’ black help and a run-in with another African-American visitor who actually tells him, "Get out!" The situation spirals downward from there, with a sinister game of bingo, the forced recall of a tragic memory and a revelation of the nefarious reasoning behind the shindig. It all adds up to a very bad day in the country and Chris finally has to figure out how to escape his mysterious captors.

Much of the back half is rife with horror clichés, though it’s bookended by a brilliant setup and a wholly satisfying ending. Peele has written a script that is extremely well-paced and executed as it cleverly plays with allusions to slavery and racial stereotypes, as well as audience expectations.

With hugely expressive eyes, Kaluuya conveys both Chris’ internal struggles and his fortitude to get past them. Whitford and especially Keener embrace their chance to be enigmatic and ominous, Williams in her big-screen debut pulls off a fantastic character arc, and Howery is a breakout as Get Out's cool comic relief.

Jordan Peele lists his scary influences, from 'The Shining' to 'Jaws'

Peele imparts a great deal about his thoughts on race, culture and humanity in the face of doom, and makes a successful play for being horror's essential new voice. The scares and laughs are all good, though the thought-provoking questions he leaves you with are the movie’s real treat.