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When Get Out hit theaters in 2017, it revolutionized the horror genre with its social commentary, psychological terror, and unforgettable twists. Jordan Peele’s directorial debut wasn’t just a thriller—it was a cultural phenomenon that changed the way audiences viewed horror films forever. But among the chilling moments and evil characters, one scene stood out—the one that left audiences shaken and talking for years.
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Now, sink into the floor
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Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Sink. Sometimes, a single scene can become
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the defining moment of a film, whether it's a point where emotional catharsis is reached
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or that the stakes are escalated beyond audience expectations. In the case of what is commonly called the sunken place scene
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powerful acting and expert craftsmanship worked in tandem to give us one of the most haunting
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and effective sequences in not just horror, but film history. Released in 2017, Get Out was the feature film debut of sketch comedy actor and writer Jordan Peele
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Peele had risen to fame working with fellow writer and actor Keegan-Michael Key on the hit sketch show Key & Peele
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While Key was shooting the film Hell Baby with producer Sean McKittrick, he introduced the producer to his friend and partner Jordan Peele
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In an interview with Vulture, McKittrick said of his meeting with Peele, He said, Here's one you'll never want to make
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And he pitched me the whole story. I'd never seen that movie before. It fascinated me
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So I said right at the table, Okay, I'm going to buy this pitch and pay you to write it
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I think he was a little shocked. The movie, titled Get Out, was something Peel would coin as a social thriller
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And putting social seems like a very intentional move on Peel's part
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The film centers around an interracial couple, Chris and Rose, played by Daniel Kaluuya and Allison Williams, respectively
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The young couple are heading to Rose's parents' place away from the city so Chris can meet her family for the first time
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When the couple arrives at the house, the thriller part of Peel's film begins to fall into focus
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For a while, it's all reminiscent of the 70s thrillers Peel clearly loves
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films like The Stepford Wives, Possession, or Rosemary's Baby. There's a clear gloss over the performances layered in a sense of unease
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and sets that are almost too shiny. Strange and stilted conversations, odd behavior, everything is a touch left of center
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Until we get to the moment where the film completely shifts and establishes a loud and confident declaration of things to come
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When we first meet Rose's parents, Missy and Dean Armitage, played by Catherine Keener and Bradley Whitford
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we're told Dean is a neurosurgeon while Missy is a psychiatrist. After noticing Chris fidget anxiously from not smoking the two suggest Missy hypnotize Chris in order to help them kick the habit One night after stepping outside to smoke Chris finds Missy sitting in a chair drinking a cup of hot tea
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Their conversation continues the stilted interactions Peele has established already, with Missy at first
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questioning his smoking and then beginning to ask about the death of Chris's mother
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What about your mother? What about her? Up to this point, Chris has been very guarded
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and measured in his responses, not just to the armitages, but to Rose as well
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With each interaction, Kaluuya has betrayed Chris like a man who knows the responses and actions to come
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but is content to let things ride out without much resistance, more ready to adapt and react than be proactive
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But here, as Missy slides her metal spoon around the tea mug's rim, Chris begins to let go
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The scene flashes back and forth between Chris in the chair, Missy opposite him
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and an almost tunnel vision view of Chris as a child seated in front of a television
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It's our first glimpse at a shakier camera and moodier lighting to highlight the character's unease as he recalls his mother's passing
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In lesser hands, the opening bits of this scene wouldn't carry near the weight that Keener and Kaluuya manage
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While Kaluuya was mostly known for Black Mirror's wildly popular 15 Million Merits episode
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Keener has been in the industry for decades. While Kaluuya is portraying a man unfraid, Keener is playing against him
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She remains in complete control and at total ease. There's an unnerving calmness in her questions
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Where is your mom? Ones that start small and curious, and then quickly turn assertive and demanding
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A sense that she knows the answers, or maybe even doesn't care what the answers are
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There's a beat and repetition to her cadence. All behind the scraping sound of droning metal against ceramic
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as Chris becomes unable to move from his chair. I can't move
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You can't move. The representation of hypnosis in film has a long history
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dating all the way back to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a 1920 German expressionist film about an evil hypnotist
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Over the years, there have been countless different interpretations from metronomes to swinging pocket watches and spiraling umbrellas But Heal use of a spoon here is very intentional It important we discuss that spoon briefly before getting too much further Get Out is a film with layers upon layers of symbolism metaphors
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and double meanings that explain themselves on repeat viewings. But there is maybe none more evident than a rich white woman
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with a silver spoon attempting to control a person of color. It's one of several setups with outstanding payoffs later in the film
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To pay off this setup, Chris later muffles his hearing by picking the cotton stuffing from a chair
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in order to ignore the hypnotic trigger of the silver spoon. It is a resounding scream in the social aspect of Peel's social thriller genre
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The importance of ignoring that trigger is first shown here in what Peel refers to as the sunken place
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Up until this point, the film has been played relatively straight. Odd moments amplified by a haunting score, a few jump scares, but as soon as Missy says
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sink into the floor. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Sink. The movie takes a magical turn into the surreal. As the camera pans down, we see Chris fall through
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his chair before he appears to be floating in nothingness, the only light coming from a small
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window above him that frames what his eyes could see when he was sat in the chair. It's a small bit
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of skewed perspective that works in alarmingly unnerving ways, something above but straight ahead
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and always just out of reach. There's a weight to the man as we see him struggle
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screaming, with arms outstretched, trying to stop from what appears to be drowning
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While there had been symbolic metaphors before, the deer, the spoon, the gardener running
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this was Peele's first big visual tell without the need of context
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or the possibility for misinterpretation. This is a man drowning under the weight
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of everything in the world. When we watch Chris struggle, desperate to stay alive
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it's a relatable feeling. Maybe not the literal drowning in water, but the pressure we know comes with it
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The futility mixed with a dash of hope or resilience. Now you're in the sunken place
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Peele has often said the sunken place was initially conceived as being trapped
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in a theater of the mind and told Vanity Fair, the moment I thought of that, it immediately occurred to me
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the theme of abduction and connection to the prison industrial complex that this movie was sort of presenting a metaphor for It was a very emotional discovery I remember having so much fun writing it but at that moment when I figured out this
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weird, esoteric, but also emotionally brutal form of suffering to put the character through
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I literally cried writing the scene. And it is hard to watch, not because of some sort of horrifying slasher or monster in the
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woods, but the emotional horror of feeling stuck and helpless against an outside threat
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The idea of that outside threat is a wonderfully modern take on the psychological horror, often referred to as cosmic horror
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While there were many before and since, including authors like Robert Chambers, Brian Lumley, and Robert E. Howard
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the man most associated with the genre is author H.P. Lovecraft. While the personal faults and problematic nature of Lovecraft would take an entire video unto itself
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it's impossible to argue how influential his work became. Maybe most beautiful is seeing creators Lovecraft himself would have discriminated against riff on the author's work
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The villains, Missy and Dean, have the surname Armitage. Professor Armitage is one of Lovecraft's most famous heroic characters introduced in the Dunwich Horror
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Peele would again turn to Lovecraft, working as a producer on HBO's adaptation about the correlation between cosmic horror and racism
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Lovecraft Country. While Lovecraft himself treated the unknown and terrifying as an excuse for his bigotry and racism
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Heal and many creators since have shown that it's not what's unknown that should terrify us
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It's what's known, their biases, their privilege, the silver spoons in their mouths
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and their desperate desire to value their own wants over all others
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This one scene, this one of many perfect moments in Get Out, worked to not only unnerve the audience
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but to also make us connect to both the protagonist and antagonist
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The villains of Get Out are not mustache-twirling cultists or Confederate flag-waving racists
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They appear normal and put on the pretense of understanding and kindness
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But in this scene, we see their power, their manipulation and control
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That's not an easy task to accomplish in just three and a half minutes, but thanks to the powerful performances of Keener and Kaluuya
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and Peele's excellent script and powerful direction, we were privy to three and a half minutes that still haunt and amaze us to this day
#Discrimination & Identity Relations
#Horror Films