I have been waiting a few days to share this news story. I have been slacking and had not yet checked out Jordan Peele's modern horror masterpiece GET OUT. But I rectified that, finally, last night! In short? All the reviews are correct. GET OUT is a classic, twisty, physiological horror flick the likes we haven't seen since Polanski was f*cking our minds back with REPULSION and ROSEMARY'S BABY.
High praise? Yeah. For sure. But I really enjoyed the flick the entire way through and found Jordan Peele's directing to be amazingly assured for a first time director. Hell, any director would be proud as hell to call this flick their own. Good job, sir!
That said, now I can share this news item. Let it be said now that if you have not seen GET OUT, run way right now as this is all about the ending of the movie. Like, seriously, the last 3-4 minutes. If that. You have been warned…
*** SPOILERS BELOW ***
Okay, onto the alternate ending Jordan Peele originally considered for GET OUT. As you know, because only peeps who have seen the movie are still here, at the end our hero manages to get the groundskeeper/grandpa avatar to shoot his crazy girlfriend in the belly button with a rifle. As she lies dying he tries to strangle the last bits of life from her hot, insane face, but can't bring himself to do it.
Cue police lights…
Like everyone in the audience at this point I yelled, "Oh, sh*t, sh*t, sh*t, sh*t, sh*t!" I just knew that we were about to get a NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD-style disturbing ending.
But then it's the fat best friend! "TSA, bitches."
Whoo. That was a close one… The two then get into the airport police car and drive off, leaving that chick from GIRLS and PETER PAN in the middle of the road to die. Or, you know, this is a horror movie, so they leave her to show up in the sequel.
Anyhow, turns out Jordan Peele had another ending planned for the film, and it is just as disturbing as I had feared.
Peele explained:
There is an alternate ending in which the cops actually come at the end. He gets locked up and taken away for slaughtering an entire family of white people and you know he’s never getting out, if he doesn’t get shot there on the spot.
In the beginning when I was first making this movie the idea was, ‘OK, we’re in this post-racial world, apparently.’ That was the whole idea. People were saying, ‘We’ve got Obama so racism is over, let’s not talk about it.’ That’s what the movie was meant to address. Like look, you recognize this interaction. These are all clues, if you don’t already know, that racism isn’t over. So the ending in that era was meant to say, look, ‘You think race isn’t an issue? Well at the end, we all know this is how this movie would end right here.’
So why did Peele go with the happier ending?
It was very clear that the ending needed to transform into something that gives us a hero, that gives us an escape, gives us a positive feeling when we leave this movie. There’s nothing more satisfying than seeing the audience go crazy when Rod shows up.
He's got that right. When Rod showed up, I was so f*cking revealed. I mean, we all got the point when the car pulled up. We all saw the horror of the next few minutes play out in disturbing clarity in our own heads. But then Rod steps out and we get a happy ending. Something rare in the world of horror. I liked it. I support this ending. All is right with the world.
Seems Peele agrees, as he never even shot that alternate ending. Or did he… Maybe we'll see it on a super-duper Blu-ray one day… But I dream.
Check out our own interview with Peele right HERE!