ABSTRACT
This chapter reads Jordan Peele's 2017 film Get Out through the lens of cultural paranoia. It argues that Peele leverages the genre of the social thriller to vividly depict African American skepticism of the medical establishment—and especially mental health practitioners—as eminently justified. Through the film's indictment of therapy, in particular, we can see how Peele intends the film itself to function as a therapeutic device. This chapter argues that Get Out, by compelling viewers to see through the eyes of its Black protagonist, aims to induce a catharsis in its audience via an esthetic that refuses any comfortable notions of race blindness.
