If you go online right now and ask Google, “Is Get Out overrated,” you would be surprised at how many hits you get, and how many websites get their clicks based on that generic question. Sure, most of them exist for clickbait purposes, but lots of them consist of people asking that question and other people answering with arguments.

Yes, film appreciation is subjective. With horror, the effect seems to be sharper, as the genre is naturally divisive. If we look into accolades won by Jordan Peele’s Get Out, there were many surprise awards taken by 2018’s horror darling. Even if general audiences don’t seem to care much about its Best Original Screenplay Oscar, some cinephiles use it as a point of attack to say that it was undeserving. Online users are ironically still digging deep.

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Of course, the next step would be trying to solve the mystery of why Get Out seems to be the subject of a question that’s also divisive: If you read that a film is overrated, would that stop you from actually watching it? Would the influence of a stranger affect how you see a film? What do we mean when we call something overrated?

You’re Supposed to Like and Dislike Things About Movies

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Let’s get this straight. Get Out isn’t a perfect film. It doesn’t aim to be one either. It’s just a horror movie that’s embedded with social commentary and has simply become more important and topical nowadays. That’s about it. If you’re into analyzing the different layers of Peele’s approach to horror, then go ahead. We can guarantee you’ll find valuable stuff to talk about.

What’s incredible about the discussion is that people tend to criticize Get Out because of its script, and it could be the best thing about it, from how the storylines are structured, to how it never sacrifices the essential horror elements when hinting at the racial theme. The Writers Guild of America chose Get Out’s script as the best of the 21st century so far, it only fueled the fire of why this film is considered overrated. The best script of the 21st century? Regardless, perhaps people mistook that award for some kind of decision relating to the social aspect of the script, when in reality, it was probably because of the excellent character arcs and the mastery of basic screenwriting tools.

Jordan Peele’s Vision, Hidden in the Background

Jordan Peele’s artistic identity isn’t as well shown in Get Out as it has been in his most recent films, Us and Nope. His debut film, however, had remarkable confidence in its script. We bring this up because most of the criticism in the “overrated” discussions seems to be targeted at Peele himself. There’s no doubt that some of it may have to do with racism, but we’d rather see things for what they are. Peele’s a horror visionary with a personality that’s well expressed through his body of work. It’s strong enough to already talk about it as a ‘body of work,’ even with three directorial films. In Get Out, he remains true to his decision of shooting a story without as many homages as he could inject, unlike his other films. They’re not necessary this time.

People say the film’s predictable, but that never made a film better or worse. We rather think Get Out is a great exercise in suspense buildup that fortunately gets solved in a perfectly written third act. The talent for writing such an effective conclusion has little to do with the film’s allegories and the wider conversation about race. It regards your storytelling technique, one that Peele has shown to be masterful in.

Beyond Blumhouse, Racism Themes, and Horror Tropes

But let’s say some of the detractors are right. Perhaps we just need to listen to their arguments, as long as they’re logical and related to the film itself, and not the era it was released in, or the director’s upbringing and skin tone. Read some of those arguments.

  • Are they about Get Out being part of the Blumhouse microbudget agenda and control? Or about people’s appreciation of the racism themes being approached in some kind of vendetta subtext? How about people hating horror because of the same old reasons?

When evaluating a film’s quality, no arguments like that should be considered. They’re just proof of how boring we’ve become when trying to come up with a comment with more substance than “it’s bad because I hated it.” There are some films that are better felt, than read about. Get Out is definitely one of them.

So, in regard to the original question, “Is Get Out the most overrated movie of the 2010s,” how about you solve that mystery for yourself by watching what is essentially a solid horror debut, and pay no mind to someone who probably thinks differently? Besides, the ultimate answer to that question would be: Is it really important if a film is overrated?

Get Out is available on Hulu and to rent/buy on VOD