There's a particular reason why all the guests at the Armitages' party in Get Out stop talking once Chris leaves the room. Film, even studio movies meant for popular consumption, has told stories that shone a spotlight on societal issues since the beginning of the medium, as any form of art is wont to do. The horror genre has been a vehicle for this type of societal examination much more than its detractors would likely expect as well, and that very much includes looking at issues of race.

Race relations have always been a contentious topic, but if the most recent decade illustrated anything, it's that racism is still a much bigger problem than many would like to admit. Fitting the divisive nature of the subject matter, Get Out - the directing debut of Key & Peele star Jordan Peele - turned out to be a somewhat divisive film, due almost entirely to its rather unflinching look at racism against Black people in modern day America. While this look came through a horror lens, and included dark comedy, its underlying message proved resonant.

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At the center of Get Out is the character of Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya), a young man who heads to the family estate of his white girlfriend Rose in order to meet her parents. Said parents are extremely welcoming, overly so, and it turns out later that Chris is there to become their latest victim. There are several clever moments that foreshadow this, but one of the earliest is at the party the Armitages throw, which Chris briefly attends alongside the secretly evil Rose. While there, the party appears lively, but as soon as Chris leaves, everyone else immediately stops talking. On first viewing, it's just an eerie moment, but in hindsight, the sudden silence is due to the party itself not being real. It's a front, a kind of play acting entirely for Chris' benefit. After all, he's who they're all really there to see.

Chris at the party in Get Out

The Armitage family's party in Get Out is of course not in fact a party at all, it's an auction. The guests aren't there to commiserate and have fun, they're there to shop, for lack of a better term. These older white people, many with physical infirmities or more invisible health issues, are interested in purchasing a young, fit, Black body to occupy, and as Get Out's twisted ending explains, Chris is the person they're currently after. That said, he obviously can't be let in on the ruse too soon, lest he manage to escape early on.

While Chris finds himself weirded out a bit by how popular he is with the party guests, he just chalks it up to them mostly being white people who don't interact with Black people on a regular basis, and thus they find doing so kind of a novelty. For the "party guests" though, they're quite literally sizing him up. From a more practical, movie-making standpoint, the moment everyone suddenly goes silent when Chris leaves the room allows Get Out director Peele - who's next directing 2022's Nope - to throw in a quick, but striking hint at what's really going on. Chris isn't safe from the moment he arrives on the property, and this is an early indication of just how much he isn't.

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