Review of Get Out, the horror film that received (and since lost) a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes

Jordan Peele’s horror thriller, Get Out, caused a lot of anticipation earlier this year, after it maintained a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

A perfect score is a very rare and lauded title on Rotten Tomatoes as the site aggregates online reviews from certified critics and then produces an average score. This means that, in this case, 244 professional film reviewers independently agreed that Get Out is great.

However, this perfect score was eventually cut down to 99% after one mere bad review. This reviewer expressed that this movie debases serious concerns, “reducing racial politics to trite horror-comedy”, and, in general, is an unfulfilling, poorly explained story. So, was Get Out a case of an over-hyped film that under-delivered? My answer is no.

Going into the theatre, my main preoccupation was less with the reviews, and more the with the intriguing synopsis. ‘A horror film about racism? How does that work?’, I thought. We’ve seen racism depicted many times in film, but never in a horror-mystery-thriller fashion. You know – the ones that make you tense during those distressing night time scenes.

I think the intrigue I felt is something most people have going into Get Out, and it’s also why most come out feeling pleasantly surprised. The film had me on edge with various plot twists; had me cringing from the racism of one creepy, white family; and made me laugh at just the right times, when things were getting too sinister.

#GetOut ( @GetOutMovie ) is in a ranking of its own ! amazing twist / mind boggling.. perfection ?. well done @JordanPeele ? ? pic.twitter.com/oMnVwB0oWT

— mrwkenzo (@ventsuite) April 27, 2017

Although I understand the comments of the one notorious damaging review, I also disagree with them. Peele captivated audiences in a way that cinema does best – with an entertaining and effective storyline. Get Out manages to provide the exaggerated, terrifying goods of any classic horror film, all the while delivering thought-provoking messages of entrenched racial issues that all could sympathise with. I mean, everyone squirmed at the Obama references when the white-American dad attempted being relatable to main character, Chris, played by Daniel Kaluuya.

Scary, thought provoking and funny as hell. Can’t stop thinking about @GetOutMovie #getoutmovie.

— patryfrancis (@patryf) April 28, 2017

Though I thoroughly enjoyed Get Out, the fixation with its near-perfect score is really not that annoying. It wasn’t the best movie I’d ever seen, and judging by its 8.0 score on IMDB, many agree with me. So, to settle for a 99% rating seems worthy and fair.