When he first announced that he was writing and directing Get Out, his first foray into serious horror, comedian Jordan Peele promised a film that would deal with “the fears of being a black man today.” And the first trailer for the film—released this afternoon by Universal—delivers just that, with the scariest scenes of a black protagonist fleeing from dead-eyed white people this side of Night Of The Living Dead.
This isn’t the zombie apocalypse, however, but an eerily perfect community of yuppies in the tradition of films like Society and The Stepford Wives. Here, though, there’s the added element of race, as Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) goes home to meet his girlfriend Rose’s (Allison Williams) parents, played by Catherine Keneer and Bradley Whitford, for the first time. Early on in the trailer, Chris asks, “do they know that I’m black?,” to which Rose innocently responds, “should they?” The anxiety of Rose’s parents not accepting their interracial relationship turns out to be the least of Chris’ problems, though, as he discovers that there’s something truly sinister going on in this lily-white suburb.
Get Out is coming to theaters on February 24, 2017.