Get Out: A Sensational Shocker For Our Times

The best horror movies are about more than surface jolts - they uncover our deeper, internal fears. Then there are that even rarer few that actually manage to do so while commenting on society - and in Get Out, his directorial debut, Jordan Peele (of comedy duo Key & Peele) has delivered a film that vaults to the top of that list. Perhaps not since Rosemary's Baby has a thriller dealt with the immediacy of social discomfort, weaving satire and shocks to immerse the viewer in equal measures of fear as its protagonist.

After five months of dating, Allison (Rose Armitage) thinks it's time for her parents to meet her boyfriend, Chris (Daniel Kaluuya). "Do they know I'm black?," he asks. Rose reassures him about her parent's liberal cred: "My father would have voted for Obama for a third term if he could have!"

As Rose's parents, Catherine Keener and Bradley Whitford are spectacular as the confidently privileged, non-judgmental, proudly colorblind parents: "So how long has this been going on, this...thang...?" Kaluuya is in virtually every scene in Get Out, and we dance right along with him has he swerves from awkward discomfort to escalating suspicion.

In large part due to the success of producer Jason Blum, we're in the midst of a real horror renaissance right now, with more new voices emerging that are using the genre to hold up a mirror to what's going on around us, including Adam Wingard (The Guest) and Fede Alvarez (Don't Breathe). But with Get Out, Jordan Peele takes things to a whole other level. Here's a guy who's clearly been enthusiastically absorbing the horror genre his entire life - and taking notes. He knows that when the audience is bouncing back and forth between shock and comedy, they're particularly vulnerable - as both conditions thrive off of surprise. Get Out is hilarious, and not just satirically so. As Chris's phone-friend Rod, Lil Rel Howery acts as Peele's own audience surrogate, a guy who's also seen every horror movie out there, a cautionary oracle who tries to warn him about our collective gut reactions.

Peele set out to make a film about the fears of being a black man today, and he's succeeded wildly (a stunning 99% on Rotten Tomatoes), calling back to movies like Night of the Living Dead and The Stepford Wives - genre entries that also deftly used allegory to make their point about the times they came out of. As racism in America continues to reinvent itself, Jordan Peele has found a ruthless way to put it out there that makes Get Out essential - and sensational - viewing.