99% on Rotten Tomatoes
Chloe's thoughts: Signed, sealed, and recommended by Chloe
Watch it if you: Want a unique horror film without all the stupid tropes that we're all sick of
Chris, an African-American man, is a bit nervous about meeting his Caucasian girlfriend's parents. When he finally meets them, his fears seem to be put at rest. But soon enough, strange occurrences begin to happen around the family home.
Being a horror/mystery film, I wasn't really inclined to watch it, but the trailer stuck with me for several days after I first saw it, and then I had heard great things about it (only ONE negative on Rotten Tomatoes?!) and was really curious about Jordan Peele's directorial debut. It ended up being pretty enjoyable and I'm really excited for more movies by Peele.
I'll make this review short and quick because there's not much to talk about if we are keeping it spoiler free.
If you watch the trailer, you know the basic premise of the movie is that there are some creepy racial happenings occurring through the film, but you have no idea what the end game is. The movie certainly holds up to that mysterious feel that you get when watching the trailer, but by the end of the film it became something that I really did not expect. Not that that is a bad thing, though; it was quite a unique idea, it just seemed so bizarre and as if the movie turned into another genre.
But nonetheless, I really enjoyed the film, and I think Jordan Peele has some great potential.
The movie is a bit heavy-handed with some of the racist themes, but I think it does a great job at bringing to light some of the ways that a lot of us can express subtle racism even if we maintain that we aren't racist (because of things like 'I have a black friend'/'My daughter is dating a black guy', or even "If I could, I would have voted for Obama for a third term"). And we as an audience laugh at these moments but I'm sure it's not a stretch to say that we regularly exhibit subtle racism in many different ways.
And speaking of laughing, this film does have its laughs. I was a bit worried because I was like, "Hey why is Jordan Peele writing a horror movie? Is it meant to be a parody like Cabin in the Woods was? But it doesn't really look like a parody..."
But it ended up having some really funny moments! Especially with the TSA dude, he was great.
I also really loved seeing Daniel Kaluuya here, it's so great whenever I see a Black Mirror actor in something else. He was such a stand out here, being able to convey all these emotions just with the expression on his face. Looking forward to seeing more of him.
Apart from that, the rest of the actors do an okay job too. Nothing special, but nothing that detracts from the rest of the film.
In the end, this film was really unique and entertaining to watch. I think it is one of those films that gets better every time you watch it, because I wasn't planning on re-watching it, but after reading the spoiler trivia section on IMDb and the Reddit discussion thread on this movie, it was just epiphany after epiphany realising how clever this movie was and how much I needed to watch it again to understand certain things. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who's interested in seeing it!
Click for a few (SPOILER) side notes:
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