Introduction
According to Bondebjerg (2001), Genre elucidates the resemblances among film types based on the aesthetic, psychological and cultural facets. It is both stable and dynamic, yet the most deciding feature falls in its cultural context and community, which equip genres with ritual functions that reiterate the social values (Schatz, 1981). Moreover, Schatz (1981) argued that rooted in Hollywood cinema, the fundamental impetus of genre lies in the continuous renegotiation with American ideology, with the capacity of both reaffirming and challenging it.
Among all the genres, horror has thrived as a major source of film production and mass aesthetic incentives since the 1970s (Carroll, 1987). Strinati (2000) defined horror to be a genre that provokes the need for repression if the frightfulness presented is interpreted as showing perturbing desires. This essay will first illustrate that horror can embody American ideological conflicts regarding race, with the introduction of Discovery-Overreacher and Progressive-Reactionary as two narrative frameworks, body as a visual code; consequently, Get Out, a 2017 horror film directed by Jordan Peele, is drawn upon to argue that it conforms to the horror traditions whereas develops the coding of sunken place and blackface to construct a critique of false neoliberalism harmony, with the application of ritual theory of genre.
Horror as a Hollywood film genre
Ideological conflicts
Horror films are repeatedly entangled with racial conflicts, within which the nonhuman figures can denote those who live “half lives” on the marginal border geographically, culturally, and economically (Stratton, 2011, p. 188; Pokornowski, 2016). Correspondingly, as clarified by Trimbal (2010), the ideology of disposability is reflected in neoliberalism, for certain social groups are deemed waste in the cycle of capitalism, historically encompassing African Americans and middle-eastern Muslims as the disposable Other (Casey-Williams, 2020).
Further, Casey-Williams (2020) pointed out that the rejection of miscegenation is recurrently accompanying the racism terror in horror cinema, which allows such patriarchal structures to aggressively restate themselves in the neoliberal society, hence reinforcing the value system that preserves racial segregation and inequality.
Narratives
In terms of the narratives of horror, different frameworks have been put forward in academia (Carroll, 1987; Wood, 1996; Pinedo, 2004; Kawin, 2012; Mubarki, 2015). The theories proposed by Noël Carroll and Robin Wood are chosen to emphasize in this essay.
Carroll (1987) contended that there are two staple plot structures in horror narratives, namely Discovery Plot and Overreacher Plot. The former features the protagonists progressively ascertain that it is the monsters that cause the phenomenon that defy the common knowledge, therefore substantiating the monstrous forces becomes the impulses of plots building; the latter introduces a central character, often a scientist or alchemist, pursuing hidden knowledge, releasing inestimable power, and dealing with the consequences.
Comparably, Wood (1996) distinguished between the progressive wing and reactionary wing —— for the reactionary wing, the monster is purely detrimental, which reinforces the governing beliefs; while it appears to subvert the binary contrasts in the progressive type, pushing the audience to reexamine the dominant institutions.
Conventionally, humans will deem the demonically possessed figure as transgressive disturbances of the natural law and to be in a state of being both alive and dead, typically requiring the fusion of two individuals of separate categorizations, “the possessee and the possessor” (Carroll, 1987, p. 55). Nevertheless, Douglas (1966) claimed that objects with cultural impurity sometimes can be embedded with magical powers, consequently resulting in ritual values.
Visual coding
Dirks (2021) stated, horror films extensively adopted the Gothic style with settings in terrifying old castles, fortresses, or other shadowy locales to generate the visually mysterious atmosphere. In addition, horror movies utilize a series of visual coding strategies, among which the body spectacle will be mainly introduced in this essay.
The body, notably as one of the most vital visual codes in horror films, is featured sensationally when portraying terror and violence (Williams, 1991). It is asserted by Jerslev (1994, p. 19) that the body can be depicted as metamorphosis, fragile and uncoordinated without stable outlines; specifically, she termed “organ body” to describe the horrific body representation, which is disturbing and atrocious since its gender and desire are all erased. Furthermore, Kristeva (1982, p. 20) interpreted “abjection” in body horror, which signifies a state of body being spontaneously insufferable and enjoyable, mixing completeness with nothingness. The signifier of abjection includes fragmented bodies, body secretes of sperm, excrements, vomits and menstrual blood (Kristeva, 1982; Jerslev, 1994).
How Get Out conforms to and challenges the horror conventions
Ideological conflicts
Firstly, Get Outblatantly engages with the opposing values of black (non-human) and whiteness (human): black suspicion and repression of white cannibalism versus white internal supremacy over black communities and intention to violate them for maximum interests. Resembled by the offensive questions and the groping of Chris’s body, the annualparty is a slave auction in essence, which recalls the historical racialized prosecution epitomised in slavery.Additionally, Peelecriticizes the emptiness of the post-racial peace —— Hudson does not care about the race and wants only the eyes of Chris; he accordingly becomes a sign of color-blindness in a post-racial society filled with distortedliberal fantasy (Weston, 2018).
Secondly, there is the portrayal of the impossibilities of interracial relationships, especially between white females and black males, for instance, Rose and Chris. Rose approaches and defends Chris only for the family business. Furthermore, a more subtle type of racism is acknowledged which allows the already privileged to appropriate blackness while perpetuating advantageous power, indicating the frightening perversion: separation of people into parts to activate the commodification of racial groups and the “imperialism of white patriarchy” (Casey-williams, 2020, p.67).
Narratives
Based on the narrative framework mentioned above, following the plots that Chris gradually figures out the hidden secrets, Get Out can be fit into the discovery and progressive framework. Particularly, Get out is analyzed within the framework of zombie film, a subgenre, for more precise navigation in horror tradition.
Firstly, “the sunken place” in where the black victims cannot be seen, heard, and acknowledged echoes the description of zombie as containing “the supplanted, stolen, or effaced consciousness” (Dendle, 2007, p. 47); on the other hand, it can be reckoned as a new language to assess the essence of black unease. Logan, Georgina, and Walter are zombified in their rigid behaviors, but deeper in that they represent people of color enslaved by the white alliance, thereby redeploying the fear of losing agency when encountering racial conflicts in traditional horror films. Thus, in Get Out, blacks in the sunken place resonate with the state of zombie theoretically, whereas the black community ritually functions as the non-human characters.
Secondly, rather than being disturbing, the black body as non-human is traded as valuable products in virtue of the Coagula procedure, during which the “magical powers” are invested. Subsequently, “patriarchal survivalist fantasy” is vividly demonstrated, for the patriarchs like Roman insisting on maximizing their own interests regardless the violation of others, as long as the dominant status of white community is persisted (Casey-williams, 2020, p.67).
Visual coding
The most prominent visual coding that constructs the rituals is the skin color, particularly the “blackface”, detailed by Lott (1993), initially a theatrical practice to vivify African American cultural stereotypes. Most notably, the contemporary representation is becoming more natural; admittedly, the Coagula procedure fulfill whites’ desire to “black up”, in which the blackface unmasks the “false allyship of progressive whites” (Zinoman, 2017; keetley, 2020, p. 7).
Unlike the organ body, the blackface here is presented as a duly possessor since its gender attributes should fit the possessee, and to be with advanced qualities (four mentioned being strength, sexual prowess, fashion, and physical completeness), among which merely fashion extols the black skin. More suspiciously, this aesthetical appreciation is likely to be constructed by mainstream white discourses; in this sense, the superficial aspiration of blackface in turn undergirds the critique of racial inequality.
Alternatively, the physical horror manifested in brain transplant resulting in the abjection state, is another visual icon symbolizing racism, as Berg (2011, p. 94) observed that “body parts as trophies that symbolized the triumph over a common enemy”. The bloody scenes of skull cutting and brain taking are directly visualized to present the abjection realistically and terrifyingly. Lott (2017) further summarized that the white community uses brain swap and hypnosis-based subjugate to ensure that the white subjectivity is taking the lead, accordingly constructing a parable of thorough colonization.
Resolution
Based on the ritual theory of genre illuminated by Schatz (1981), the final resolution of Get Out can be regarded as the following: the Armitages as the threatening force in contested space are all demolished within an externally violent emotive context, through killing and car accident. The bipolar opposition is eliminated through the destruction of white forces, without the black assimilating the whiteness (Chris escapes from the Coagula procedure).
What is most remarkable in the resolution should be the only tool Chris could use when he is strapped to the chair, the cotton —— he picks cotton from the chair for ear plugging to resist the hypnosis, which resonates with historical moments that shackled black slaves picked cotton; yet instead of enslavement, the cotton ironically becomes his savior, dramatizing the ritualistic functions through overturning the historical trope (Weston, 2018).
Conclusion
To summarize, this article argues that Get Out strongly questions the knowledge and power underpinning white preeminent and neoliberalism in undermining some horror conventions and developing fresh outgrowths, by first tracing the ideological and racial conflicts, the narrative frameworks and body as visual coding in horror as a Hollywood film genre, and then fit the genre film Get Out into the cultural community of horror utilizing Schatz’s ritual theory.
For Get Out, Peele favors the designation of “social thriller”, in which the monster is society itself, as he explains it (Keetley, 2020, p. 2); however, his ambition to challenge the current mainstream institutions perhaps is not fully accomplished. Casey-Williams (2020) critically questioned its capacity to challenge the social structure, given that black men and white women are turned into tools of patriarchy and racism meanwhile the movie is commercially successful. Moreover, Sharratt (1996) mentioned that the reestablishment of the Other in artworks itself can be counted as further colonization. Although he illustrated it in the context of gender politics, it is reasonable to extend theunderstandings to the racial other. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that Get Out touches upon the true social horror, tries to reveal the myths of post-racial compatibility, and provides the audience a fresh narrative and visual perspective to regard racism horror as an everyday practice.
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