Comment on 'Get Out' combines horror with race commentary for social thriller

[...] with "Get Out," the horror thriller opening Friday that's being hailed as a revelatory commentary on race in America, it would make some sense that writer and director Jordan Peele would look back at the movie's formative stage as a moment of brilliant foresight. Without revealing too much, the movie, which plays like an elegant and elongated episode of "The Twilight Zone," explores the ideas of racism and cultural domination in the context of a horror tale. Peele, who later became one-half of the popular TV comedy show "Key & Peele," wrote the script in 2008, at least in part, as a response to the idea that the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States had pushed the nation into a "post-racial" era. Which is probably the best explanation for why this movie is getting so much attention and adoration; at the time of this writing, it had the rare 100 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. About a third of the way into the movie, the film's protagonist, Chris, played by Daniel Kaluuya, wanders through a party at his girlfriend's childhood home. Take away the schlocky '90s flick "Tales From the Hood," the '70s exploitation film "Blacula" or even "Demon Knight," which starred a young Jada Pinkett Smith, and the horror genre is left with a rather light-colored palette - in front of and behind the camera. If "Get Out" can bring out the audiences, it could greenlight more horror movies by and about black people - much like the success of "Straight Outta Compton" gave Hollywood more confidence in big-budget movies starring and about black people. Peele has made a movie that's one of the better horror films in years, a smart and fluid march toward doom with expert pacing and a style reminiscent of classic horror like "Rosemary's Baby."