What Are The Stereotypes In Get Out

Depicting Black(s) Horror with and Without “In” The film, Get Out, is a near-perfect representation of a modern “Black horror” film. The film depicts Chris, a 20-something-year-old Black man, during his journey of survival at the hands of his girlfriend, her family, and their pseudo-liberal colleagues hellbent on kidnapping Black individuals, hypnotizing them, and using them and their bodies as mere objects. The film explores themes of incarceration, autonomy, slavery, codeswitching, and the fetishization of Black people in America and more broadly Western society. All of these themes with the nuance the rest of the film interlaces within them categorize Get Out as a “Black horror” film. In Horror Noire: A History of Black American

With the release of many “Black horror” and “Blacks in horror” films representation of Black communities was at an all-time high. Nevertheless, the popularity came with its criticisms. The main source of criticism came from Black opinion leaders calling out the films for their incorrect portrayal of Black nationalism and Black liberation movements. The characters would espouse an ideology much like the Black Panther Party and then act as if they were the antithesis of what the party stood for later in the movie. The loss of certain censorships during this time also allowed directors to subjugate female and LGBTQ characters to a slew of abuse. The abuse was seen both on and off camera as actors and actresses were forced to perform scenes that were emotionally, physically, or mentally taxing. Some films during the 70 did allow for Black women to take center stage and be represented close to the image they imaged of themselves. Many of these films explored themes of revenge against the white power structure that surrounds Black Americans and in some cases is done well but is mostly done poorly. Two-thirds of Blaxploitation films were written, directed, and produced by white men in the 1970s. Many fell short in reaching a meaningful message and usually made a case for the tropes that have been perpetuated by the film industry for 7 decades. Despite the problems of Blaxploitation, “Black horror”,

The horror movies of this time were segregated and gentrified effectively distilling all the Blackness out of the 1970s. Black protagonists were replaced with white ones and the setting changed to middle-class suburbia. Hollywood had made all the money they could get off of Blaxploitation films and was starting to focus on slasher films that included white teenagers. As white teenagers were the money-making demographic of the time, catering to them with apolitical slasher films was the lucrative way for the industry to go. Even when Black characters were in these films they would have to be paired up with another Black character if they were to portray sexuality at all. Miscegenation has never been seen as “right” in Hollywood out of fear it would hurt the already fleeting revenue stream of theaters and movies. There was also a slight return of depicting Black men as a savage in films set in urban areas due to the veil of danger that shrouded the inner city. Along with the depiction of Black Americans, Native Americans began receiving negative attention in entertainment media for being too spiritual and taking their qualms with white people to the grave in films like Amityville Horror and The Shinning. The Shinning and others like it also exemplified another insignificance of Black characters as a sacrifice or unwavering follower of their white, leading