Get Out and Stay Out? The Sinister Fate of That Mind-Bending Horror Flick Will Blow Your Zodiac Sign Right Out of Orbit!
Added on August 27, 2025 inEntertainment News Cards, Movie News Cards
Popular
Numerology Meets Netflix: Get Your Daily Dose of Cosmic Cinema Suggestions Powered By Our AI Astrologer. Find The Show Or Movie You Were Meant To See!
Alright, so here’s the deal — have you ever noticed how horror movies usually come with a stalker, a ghost, or some supernatural creeper? Well, buckle up, because Get Out flips that whole script on its head. Imagine a garden party so twisted it makes The Stepford Wives look like a boring PTA meeting… and the scariest thing isn’t a mask-wearing psycho, but the well-mannered, latte-sipping “nice guy” racism lurking beneath those perfectly polished smiles. Now, with Mars shaking up our courage sector today, isn’t it wild how Jordan Peele marched into Hollywood with nothing but a sharp script and a crazy idea inspired by an Eddie Murphy joke — and turned it into one of the most iconic horror flicks of this century? Yeah, from a shoestring budget to rewriting horror’s playbook, Peele handed us a movie that’s equal parts laugh, gasp, and “Holy crap, did that just happen?” So, what’s the story behind Get Out’s genius, grit, and guts? Let’s sink into that Sunken Place together and find out. LEARN MORE
Stop stirring that tea, and whatever you do…don’t look away. This isn’t your average horror story, and this sure as hell ain’t Meet the Parents. This is Get Out, the movie that didn’t just break the rules of horror… It rewrote the entire damn playbook with a knowing grin, a teaspoon of psychological terror… and “just a bit of harmless brain alteration” at a garden party so sinister it makes The Stepford Wives seem like a neighborhood bake sale. The real villain here isn’t your typical masked killer or a demonic entity. It’s the kind of smiling, latte-sipping, cardigan-wearing liberal racism that insists it would’ve voted for Obama a third time, all the while serving up microaggressions on fine china and casually auctioning off your body like it’s a weekend estate sale. How the hell did this razor-sharp, racially charged, genre-busting mind-trip of a movie become one of the most iconic horror films of the 21st century? How did Jordan Peele, the guy who gave us “I said biiiiitch”, turn around and give us a horror masterpiece that had us laughing, gasping, squirming, and questioning reality all at once? And would you believe that the idea for this came from an Eddie Murphy joke, was shot on a shoestring budget, and almost had a completely different depressing ending? So buckle up, sink into your chair and prepare for a descent into the Sunken Place as we ask What Happened to Jordan Peele’s Get Out?
Back in the 2010s Jordan Peele starred in the wildly popular Key & Peele alongside Keegan-Michael Key. Jordan built a career on sharp parody and absurd characters. Even though he was a comedic genius, Peele was also a lifelong horror fan. The seed t was planted in 2008, before Key & Peele started, during the post-Obama election era. The media buzzed with talk of a post-racial America. Peele saw a different reality, one where liberal racism wore a smile and passed as progress. That tension became the horror he wanted to explore. It’s the fear of being welcomed into a world that seems accepting but hides something much darker. Oddly enough, a key inspiration came from an Eddie Murphy bit in his 1983 stand-up special Delirious. Murphy joked about white people staying in haunted houses even after being warned by ghosts. “A ghost says get the f*ck out, I would just tip the f*ck out the door!” That punchline stuck with Peele, eventually morphing into the film’s title and central premise: What if leaving isn’t that easy when you’re the one being hunted?
Fast-forward to 2013. Over coffee in New Orleans, Peele pitched the entire concept to producer Sean McKittrick. He explained the Sunken Place, hypnosis, and the liberal suburbia nightmare. McKittrick was floored, calling it one of the most original ideas he’d ever heard, and told Peele to write it. Peele finished a draft in two months but would go on to revise it over 200 times, drawing on inspirations like The Stepford Wives, Rosemary’s Baby, and the British series Psychoville. The script was raw, deeply personal, and unlike anything Hollywood had seen.
Hollywood didn’t know what to do with it and left executives scratching their heads, some even suggesting they cast a white actor as the lead to make it more relatable. By then, most studios just passed. It wasn’t until Blumhouse Productions, the masterminds behind low-budget, high-concept hits like Paranormal Activity, Happy Death Day, and The Purge stepped in and gave it a shot. Jason Blum, head of Blumhouse, gave Jordan COMPLETE creative control.
Casting was crucial. Peele needed someone who could carry the weight of charm, fear, and quiet rage. He found that in British actor Daniel Kaluuya after seeing his performance in Black Mirror’s “Fifteen Million Merits.” Kaluuya came in to audition for the pivotal hypnosis scene, where Chris falls into the Sunken Place. Jordan was blown away. Kaluuya later revealed he deeply related to the party scene and called it “that kind of racism that isn’t seen as racism… it’s just life.”
Allison Williams was cast as Rose Armitage to weaponize her “girl next door” image from Girls, making her betrayal all the more devastating. Catherine Keener and Bradley Whitford played Rose’s seemingly genial parents. Whitford later joked that Peele cast him because of his role on The West Wing and his quintessential “white liberal energy.”
The supporting cast added layers of tension and unease. Betty Gabriel, as Georgina, studied footage of animals in distress to capture her unsettling demeanor. Lil Rel Howery, as TSA agent Rod, delivered most of his lines off the cuff and became a fan favorite. Even Lakeith Stanfield originally auditioned for Chris before being cast as Andre. Tiffany Haddish was asked to audition for a role but declined because she was afraid of horror films. One interesting fact is that Peele cast a karate master named Yasuhiko Oyama as one of the party guests. He’s not an actor, but the father-in-law of Peele’s friend Ken Marino.
Armed with a shoestring budget of just $4.5 million, thanks in large part to Blumhouse, known for stretching low budgets to create high-impact films. While Peele ran a disciplined, focused set he would be described by crew members as calm and collaborative. His biggest challenge wasn’t explosion or big set pieces for that matter, it was balancing tone. Peele embedded the film with visual metaphors and layered symbolism. It wasn’t just for flavor, but as essential components of the story.
Get Out kicked off production in Fairhope, Alabama, on February 16, 2016. Peele deliberately avoided traditional Southern racism tropes, focusing instead on the insidious nature of “friendly” prejudice. During the shoot, Peele was able to bring The Sunken Place to life. It was created with a mix of CGI and practical effects and had Kaluuya suspended by wires against a black void to evoke a chilling sense of freefall.
Every detail was deliberate, down to the layout of the Armitage home, which was inspired by the Overlook Hotel in The Shining. The opening scene, where Andre is stalked through suburban streets, referenced Halloween and Christine. Peele laced the film with references to horror classics. The blue title font also mimicked The Shining. The running scene with Walter was a nod to Hitchcock’s North by Northwest. Even the music playing during the abduction scene, “Run Rabbit Run,” was composed by a man named Reginald Armitage, the same surname as the film’s villainous family. And yes, that was a coincidence.
Even Peele’s cameo was loaded with meaning: he provided the sickening sound of the deer being hit, which is a moment symbolizing the film’s theme of empathy and neglect. The score by Michael Abels, a composer Peele discovered on YouTube, added another layer. Its haunting Swahili chants, translated to “Brother, run! Listen to the elders,” were meant to echo the voices of Black ancestors trying to warn Chris.
Once the cameras stopped rolling, Peele teamed up with editor Gregory Plotkin to put the film together. Plotkin had already put together horror films, after working on Paranormal Activity, so he knew how to build tension with the smallest of moments. They would fine tune the pacing and bring out every ounce of suspense and discomfort that was buried within the footage.
Take the bingo auction scene. No one speaks a word. It’s just these wealthy white people silently raising bingo cards like they’re playing a casual game at a church fundraiser except they’re actually bidding on a human being. It’s staged like the creepiest charity event you’ve ever seen, and the way it’s put together will make anyone’s skin crawl and somehow, that makes it even worse.
Originally, Get Out was meant to end on a much bleaker note. In Peele’s first draft, after Chris strangles Rose to death and finally escapes the Armitage house, flashing red-and-blue lights appear. But instead of relief, Chris is arrested, the world seeing only a Black man at a crime scene filled with white bodies. That was the original ending. In test screenings, that version hit like a punch to the gut. It reflected a grim reality that felt all too familiar and didn’t bode over well with audiences. But in the time between writing and release, the world shifted. Peele realized that audiences didn’t need another reminder of how unforgiving the world could be. He pivoted and changed the ending. Chris doesn’t get arrested, he survives and is rescued by Rod. It’s a subversion of horror tropes so complete it feels revolutionary. In a genre where Black characters are often sidelined or sacrificed, Get Out ends with our protagonist winning! That decision didn’t rewrite the ending, it gave horror fans a mic-drop moment they never saw coming.
Get Out released in theaters on February 24, 2017. Critics hailed it as a modern masterpiece. Audiences flocked to theaters and helped it bring in over $250 million worldwide, making it one of the most profitable horror movies ever made. The film opened to a strong $33 million weekend, but what shocked industry insiders was how it barely dropped in the weeks that followed. In an era where horror movies often flame out after two weekends, Get Out showed incredible staying power. It didn’t just open big, it stayed big. While other movies fizzled out after a couple weekends, Peele’s debut kept packing theaters. It became one of those rare films people had to see in theaters — not just for the story, but for the experience. The tension, the laughter, the gasps — it all hit harder when you were surrounded by a room full of people reacting in real time. That collective buzz kept the box office rolling long past opening weekend. It became the movie you had to see in a packed theater, just to witness how an entire audience would gasp, laugh, and squirm together.
It even changed the game at the Academy Awards, a space where horror films are often ignored or dismissed. But there was no denying this one. The film earned four major nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor for Daniel Kaluuya, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. Peele made history, becoming the first Black screenwriter to take home the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. When Peele won the award, it wasn’t just a win for him. It was a seismic moment for Black creators, horror filmmakers, and for genre storytelling at large. This sent a clear message: personal, politically charged, genre-defying stories not only belonged at the table — they deserved the spotlight.
Peele founded Monkeypaw Productions, a company dedicated to telling bold, socially resonant stories. He would go on to create such hits like Us and Nope, both of which were commercial successes and continued his exploration of race, class, and media. He cemented himself not just as a director, but built Monkeypaw into a powerhouse and paved the way for films like Candyman, BlacKkKlansman and Wendell & Wydell.
Today, Get Out stands as one of the most significant horror films of the 21st century. Not just for what it achieved at the box office or during awards season, but for what it proved about the power of genre storytelling. It showed that horror could engage directly with real-world issues like racism, cultural assimilation, and liberal hypocrisy, without losing its ability to entertain or unsettle. The film’s impact was immediate and lasting. It became a model for how low-budget, original ideas could cut through a saturated marketplace and dominate both culturally and commercially. It challenged the industry’s long-standing assumptions about what stories could succeed and who was allowed to tell them. It even forced a re-evaluation of the horror genre’s role not just as escapism.
It even continues to be studied, cited, and discussed in academic settings, film criticism, and social discourse. The term “Sunken Place” has entered the modern lexicon. Its themes are referenced in classrooms, think pieces, and public debates about race and representation.
So, what the hell happened to Get Out? It broke barriers. It made people uncomfortable in the best way. It redefined horror not with gore, but with truth. And in doing so, it proved that the real monsters don’t always wear masks or wield knives. And somewhere, if you listen closely enough, you can still hear that spoon clinking against porcelain, reminding us that sometimes, the most terrifying thing isn’t a monster, but the seemingly “normal” world around us.
A couple of the previous episodes of this show can be seen below. To see more, head over to our JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!
Auto Amazon Links: No products found.
This will close in 0 seconds
This will close in 0 seconds
){kind=link}