Turning Home Invasion Inside Out
With such a rich history, the home invasion sub-genre has benefitted from some recent reinvigoration, which unarguably has contributed to our continued fascination with the premise. It’s become a concept that’s in the grip of a thrilling evolution, thanks to the arrival of some voices that are new to the category. In addition to Darren Aronofsky’s latest work, Mother!, for example, 2017 saw the arrival of Jordan Peele’s feature length directorial debut, Get Out. This remarkable horror film effectively turns the familiar home invasion concept inside out, and has a guest invited to the home of a family – only for them to attempt to consume and colonize him for their own benefit.
A young black man is trying to build a career as a photographic artist, and accompanies his white girlfriend home for the weekend to meet her family. Her father is a noted physician, while her mother is a renowned psychotherapist – and between them, they try to subtly and slowly render the photographer helpless in the face of unspeakable horrors. Having hypnotized him without him really realizing it, the couple invites their mostly white community over for a celebration – during which the photographer is essentially auctioned off in a game of bingo for his various talents and abilities. A blind curator ‘wins’ him for his vision, and the photographer has to fight his way out to avoid a terrifying surgical procedure.
In Get Out, it is, to all intents and purposes, the home that invades the man. Using all of the same themes found in traditional home invasion films – violation of personhood, trust, privacy, status quo, and economics; fear of erasure; colonisation; perceived vulnerability; a loss of control – the story sees this young man stumble upon a number of other black men and women who have fallen foul of this family’s ‘procedure’, and have consequently, and literally, become part of that home. As he uncovers more details about the nefarious activities of this family, he finds that the housekeeper, the groundsman, and the companion of one of the community members have all been ‘consumed’ and colonized by the home and its occupants – effectively erasing them and their stories in service of that of the white family.
Get Out is undoubtedly the biggest shot in the arm that the home invasion sub-genre has had in a long time – simply because it’s a brilliant subversion of its traditions for the specific purpose of depicting a truth not often seen so clearly in cinema. In that respect, Jordan Peele’s contribution to the category upholds the greatest tradition of the same – which is to use this simple concept to make the audience experience something that causes intense discomfort, challenges any sense of safety, and forces us to look at the world through a different, highly claustrophobic lens. Get Out earned over $252 million in box office worldwide, too, so it would seem that it’s this particular combination of theme and effect that has successfully tapped into our perpetual fascination with the home invasion film.
You can find out if Darren Aronofsky’s Mother! achieves anything close to this exceptional standard of storytelling as it’s in theatres now.