Bodily Autonomy and Bucks in 'Get Out' Annabelle Toler-Scott College

The 2017 film "Get Out", directed by Jordan Peele, is both a racial satire and a racial horror film. The story focuses on African-American Chris as he travels with his white girlfriend Rose to meet her parents for the first time. While there he has many uncanny and odd interactions with Rose's family and their black "help". One gothic tool used by the film is the metaphor of Chris as being the equivalent of a deer to the Armitage family. The other tool utilized is the representation of Rose's mother, Missy's, hypnotism, as being the modern white version of traditional old African Voodoo (like that presented in both the 1936 film "White Zombie" and in Charles Chesnutt's collection of stories "the Conjure Woman Tales"). The film effectively utilizes two gothic tools to create a successful contemporary racial statement.

One interesting choice of the film "Get Out" was the connection made between the injured deer, and the protagonist Chris. The film makes a clear link between the two immediately. When Chris and Rose are driving, with Rose behind the wheel, to meet Rose's parents, they fatally hit a deer that jumps in front of them suddenly. They stop the car and Chris gets out and walks into the edge of the woods to check on the...