October 10th: The Oscar for Best Picture Goes to …

Get Out, Jordan Peele’s 2017 horror film, should have won the Oscar for Best Picture. Not surprisingly, it did not. Only 2 horror films have ever been nominated for the top category: The Exorcist (1973) and Get Out (2017).

Get Out waded into the treacherous polarizing topics of American slavery and stereotypes based on race. As a horror film, it provoked and challenged the viewer. As social commentary on American racial relations, it excelled. Filmed over 23 days and on a budget of $5 million dollars, Get Out was a financially success picture grossing more than $255 million dollars worldwide. The Oscar buzz started in earnest early on.

Get Out features Danial Kaluuya playing the African-American boyfriend Chris Washington to Rose Armitage, played by Allison Williams, a woman eager to introduce him to her liberal-minded Caucasian parents. Racial tensions begin immediately on the couple’s trip to upstate New York. The film feels more like a social commentary on current, lingering racial prejudices until it plunges into the horrific—dare I say experimental—meditative rituals used by Rose’s mother.

Get Out competed against a packed field of Oscar contenders. Ultimately, Guillermo del Toro’s science fiction government cover-up conspiracy The Shape of Water won. Seems the Academy Awards feel that horror films are still a bridge across The Sunken Place too far. See it. And then see it again.

Get Out, Jordan Peele’s 2017 horror film, should have won the Oscar for Best Picture. Not surprisingly, it did not. Only 2 horror films have ever been nominated for the top category: The Exorcist (1973) and Get Out (2017).

Get Out waded into the treacherous polarizing topics of American slavery and stereotypes based on race. As a horror film, it provoked and challenged the viewer. As social commentary on American racial relations, it excelled. Filmed over 23 days and on a budget of $5 million dollars, Get Out was a financially success picture grossing more than $255 million dollars worldwide. The Oscar buzz started in earnest early on.

Get Out features Danial Kaluuya playing the African-American boyfriend Chris Washington to Rose Armitage, played by Allison Williams, a woman eager to introduce him to her liberal-minded Caucasian parents. Racial tensions begin immediately on the couple’s trip to upstate New York. The film feels more like a social commentary on current, lingering racial prejudices until it plunges into the horrific—dare I say experimental—meditative rituals used by Rose’s mother.

Get Out competed against a packed field of Oscar contenders. Ultimately, Guillermo del Toro’s science fiction government cover-up conspiracy The Shape of Water won. Seems the Academy Awards feel that horror films are still a bridge across The Sunken Place too far. See it. And then see it again.