HAUNTED MANSION : Tuesday 12th September 2023

I saw the PG Rated 'HAUNTED MANSION' this week, and this American supernatural horror comedy film is Directed by Justin Simien in only his third feature film making outing following his debut in 2014 with 'Dear White People' and then 'Bad Hair' in 2020. This is the second cinematic adaptation of Walt Disney's theme park attraction 'The Haunted Mansion' following the 2003 film of the same name which although it was panned by critics at the time grossed US$183M off the back of a production budget of US$90M. This film has however, done the opposite garnering mixed reviews and having so far grossed US$106M off the back of a US$157M production budget making it a Box Office failure. It saw its World Premiere screening at the Anaheim Disneyland theme park in California in mid-July before its release in the US at the end of July and here in Australia from the end of August.

The film opens with Ben Matthias (LaKeith Stanfield), an astrophysicist who has worked on the development of a camera to film dark matter. He meets and marries Alyssa, a ghost tour guide, and becomes captivated by her belief in the supernatural, although he remains a firm non-believer himself. After Alyssa dies in a car accident, Ben gives up his career and continues to run her ghost tour in New Orleans, although his mind and his heart is barely in the work which he does mostly for the money.

Fast forward a few years and recently widowed doctor Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) and her nine year old son Travis (Chase W. Dillon) move from New York into the run down Gracey Manor in New Orleans with plans to renovate and upgrade it in order to turn it into a bed and breakfast, only to learn on the first night that it is haunted with an array of ghosts. 

Ben is later visited by priest and exorcist Father Kent (Owen Wilson) who hires him to photograph the ghosts at Gracey Manor. Ben is initially reluctant but goes through the motions for an upfront cash payment from Gabbie of US$2K, until he returns to his home and is followed there by a ghost Mariner who forces him to return to Gracey Manor. Upon his re-arrival Ben learns that Gabbie, Travis, and Kent have also fallen victim to hauntings, forcing them to also stay in the mansion. 

Ben and Kent go off in search of a medium and recruit Harriet (Tiffany Haddish), a psychic with seemingly genuine abilities, and steal blueprints to the mansion from haunted house historian Prof. Bruce Davis (Danny DeVito). Upon examining the blueprints back at the manor the assembled group locate a hidden seance room. Harriet is able to contact the spirit of Gracey (J. R. Adduci) who leaves a written message instructing them to talk to the legendary medium Madame Leota. Upon trying to do so, a mysterious entity forces Harriet out of the house and when Bruce arrives shortly afterwards he too is ousted from the house in the same manner as Harriet, resulting in him being admitted to hospital for a pre-existing heart condition he has. When a number of ghosts run amok at the hospital, Bruce, Gabbie and Ben get the hell outta there and make back to the manor. 

The group stays at the manor where they proceed to look for Leota's ghost. Ben ventures up into the roof space which contains all manner of old relics, ornaments and bric-a-brac where he runs into conflict with a ghostly bride, but finds a locked trunk that is shaking violently. Upon exiting the attic very unceremoniously and thereafter examining the contents of said trunk, they find a large crystal ball in which is trapped Madame Leota (Jamie Lee Curtis). 

Leota explains that William Gracey purchased the mansion and recruited Leota to try and contact the spirit of his dead wife Eleanor every night for a full year, releasing hundreds of wayward ghosts into the manor. An evil entity then tricked Gracey into taking his own life and trapped Leota inside her crystal ball. Harriet attempts to perform a reverse seance for more answers but winds up giving Ben an out of body experience in which he comes across Gracey and the evil entity, known as the Hatbox Ghost (Jared Leto). 

After Ben returns to the here and now, the next day Bruce takes Ben to get a Police sketch artist to draw up the Hatbox Ghost. He is identified as Alistair Crump, a rich heir who was abused by his father after his mother's death and eventually expelled from the home. Upon reaching adulthood and becoming successful himself, he killed his socialite friends out of revenge for being shunned by society, before being beheaded himself by his team of rebellious servants. 

The ghost of Crump proceeds to lock the mansion down but Ben, Kent, and Travis are able to escape. They find Crump Manor which is located only about an hour away, which has become a historical site and they join a tour of the house hoping to find an artifact that actually belonged to Crump. They learn from the Mariner (who followed them) that Crump needs someone to sacrifice their life and become the mansion's one-thousandth spirit in order to escape the mansion. Travis locates Crump's hat in a makeshift graveyard under the floorboards of the mansion, which they need to use as part of a ritual to banish Crump back to the afterlife.

The three make it back to the Gracey Manor where Ben and Kent rescue Gabbie, Harriet, and Bruce, but Crump burns the hat and plans to use Travis' grief over the death of his father to have him come to the other side and be the one-thousandth spirit. Ben finds Travis and manages to convince him to let go of his father as they and Gabbie confront Crump in the graveyard. 

Kent manages to convince the other ghosts to turn on Crump and join forces with them, and Bruce hands a remnant of the hat plucked from the fire to Harriet, who recites Leota's incantation to banish Crump, but needs to do so several times as Crump is not going down easily. Crump, as he is gradually getting sucked down into the depths of hell, attempts to get Ben to give up his life willingly to see Alyssa again, but Ben says that he is at peace with losing Alyssa before kicking Crump in the face and sending him back to the underworld. Many of the ghosts decide to remain at the mansion, now living in harmony with Gabbie and Travis. Harriet regains her full psychic abilities, Kent is ordainment as a real priest, and Bruce maintains his new friendships. Ben goes back to teaching and adopts a stray cat named Tater Tot, a nod to his wife's love for the Burger King snack. The group all join together the following Halloween for a party at the manor with the merry ghosts. 

'Haunted Mansion' is a mediocre offering from the Mouse House at best and at worst it failed to raise any laughs, has a half baked storyline, and has visual effects that seem plucked out of the 1980's 'Ghostbusters' movies and Peter Jackson's 1996 offering 'The Frighteners'. To me it seemed that in spite of the best intentions by Director Justin Simien and a top notch cast, this film seemed like a cash grab for Disney Studio's looking for a big pay day off the back of one of their more successful theme park rides while targeting a whole new audience of tweens and teens unfamiliar with the 2003 film or the ride itself, which perhaps in the final analysis will sell more tickets to Disneyland, and hence job done as a lost leader!

'Haunted Mansion' merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

 

KNIVES OUT : Monday 2nd December 2019

Here with a change of pace and genre compared to his last mega budget space opera epic that was 2017's 'Star Wars : The Last Jedi', Rian Johnson here writes, Directs and Co-Produces this M Rated throw back to the murder mystery whodunit's of yesteryear with 'KNIVES OUT', which I saw at my local multiplex earlier this week. Aside from the aforementioned 'Star Wars' instalment, Johnson has also Directed and Written 'Brick' (his big screen debut in 2005), then 'The Brothers Bloom', 'Looper' and helmed several episodes of 'Breaking Bad' in between. In wanting to craft an Agatha Christie inspired type film, Johnson sought the influences from such classic comedic murder mystery crime stories as 'Murder on the Orient Express', 'Murder by Death', 'Death on the Nile', 'The Mirror Crack'd', 'Evil Under the Sun', 'Deathtrap' and 'Clue'. With a budget of US$40M, the film saw its World Premier at TIFF in early September, went on general release last week, has so far grossed US$76M and has generated widespread Critical acclaim.

And so, here we have renowned and wealthy crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) who invites his extended dysfunctional family to his remote mansion on his 85th birthday in hopes of reuniting them all. However, the morning after the birthday party, Harlan is found dead by Harlan's housekeeper - the loyal Fran (Edie Patterson), with his throat slit, and the knife still in his hand - allegedly suicide.

A few days later, following the funeral, an anonymous figure has hired a successful and well regarded private detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) to support the local Police Dept. consisting of Detective Lieutenant Elliot (Lakeith Stanfield) and Trooper Wagner (Noah Segan) in their investigations. Elliot and Wagner begin questioning the individual members of the family unit who were all present in the house the night before for the birthday celebrations, with Blanc looking on, observing and taking mental notes.

They start with Linda Drysdale (Jamie Lee Curtis) Harlan's eldest daughter and a real estate guru who runs her own company, and according to her a self made woman, even though she started with a $1M loan from her father. They then move to Richard Drysdale (Don Johnson) Harlan's son-in-law and Linda's husband, who helps run his wife's company. We learn early on that Harlan had photographic evidence of Richard in a compromising position with another woman, and how Harlan had intended to expose his infidelity to Linda the next day. In discussion with the Detectives Richard puts another spin on this tale entirely.

We then move to Walt Thrombey (Michael Shannon), Harlan's youngest son, and the acting CEO of his Dad's publishing company. Walt had always wanted to sell the film and television rights to Harlan's extensive back catalogue of publications, but Harlan had always intervened and strictly forbidden it. At the party, Harlan effectively fires Walt from his position at the publishing company, saying that it is time for him to go his own way in life and find the niche with which to make his own fortune - much to Walt's chagrin.

Then there is Joni Thrombey (Toni Collette), Harlans daughter-in-law and the wife of Harlan's deceased son Neil (who died fifteen years previously). She is a lifestyle guru and influencer and mother to Meg (Katherine Langford) who studies at a liberal arts college funded by Harlan to the tune of $100K a year. Harlan has discovered that Joni was double dipping the money meant for his granddaughter's tuition over the last four years, amounting to $400K, and as such cuts off her allowance. Needless to see when questioned, Joni also puts a different spin on this conversation.

And then there is Hugh Ransom Drysdale (Chris Evans) - the adult son of Linda and Richard, who is a rebellious spoiled and lazy playboy - although Harlan has a soft spot for Ransom, and sees himself in the young man. Ransom is the only member of the family who did not attend the funeral, but was overheard arguing with Harlan the night of his birthday party by Jacob Thrombey (Jaeden Martell) Harlan's teenage grandson, Walt and Donna's son, who holds alternative rightwing opinions and is constantly on the Internet on his phone.

On the periphery sits Wanetta 'Great Nana' Thrombey (K. Callan), Harlan's 100+year old mother who sits silently observing, taking it all in, and Donna Thrombey (Riki Lindhome) - Harlan's daughter-in-law and Walt's wife.

Finally, there is Marta Cabrera (Ana de Armas) - Harlan's private nurse and caretaker who was the closest to him, more so than any other member of his family. She is living with her mother and are migrants from a South American country. Marta is very well regarded by the other family members who all see her as part of the Thrombey family for her deep heartfelt care and compassion shown everyday day towards Harlan. Blanc has come to learn that Marta's good conscience means she cannot lie without vomiting, and so trusting that she will tell the truth, Blanc asks her to accompany him in his investigations. They search the property and its grounds for clues.

Over the next couple of days, the whole family gathers for the reading of the Will. They are all expecting to become rich beneficiaries of Harlan's estate which consisted of the grand house they are all presently sat in, a holiday home, and $60M in cash. When Alan Stevens (Frank Oz), Harlan's lawyer arrives to read the Will, the family are shocked to hear that he left everything to Marta. The whole family almost in unison turn on her immediately, all expect for Ransom, who make his exit laughing. The other Thrombeys realise that, under the slayer rule (preventing a person inheriting property from a person he or she murders) they will regain their inheritance if they can prove Marta killed Harlan, and insist Blanc continue the investigation, suspecting that she had ulterior motives.

And so Blanc does continue with his investigation, piecing together the puzzle that leads him down the path of toxicology reports, another attempted murder, a torched medical examiners office, a car chase, and foul play where everyone is a suspect. But Blancs investigative work is closing in on the prime suspect who is suspected of being Marta right up until just before the end, but the toxicology report proves otherwise, revealing another suspect amongst the family ranks who had the motive and the opportunity. To reveal anymore would be giving the game away. Needless to say, in the final analysis, the money grabbing Thrombey clan all get their comeuppance and vacate their former family home having inherited less than a brass razoo, whilst seeing one of their own carted off for murder and attempted murder.

'Knives Out' is an honest to goodness throwback to those cliched whodunit films of yesteryear but dusted off, shaped up, polished and brought beautifully up to date with a fine cast, a cracking storyline, top notch production values, social and cultural commentary, and enough malice, twists and turns to satisfy the appetite of any die hard genre fan. Daniel Craig shines with his deep southern drawl and his old school methods of deduction, Ana de Armas is compelling as the kind hearted good natured caring nurse thrust into the limelight for all the wrong reasons, Chris Evans fresh from his turn as Captain America hams it up as the devilish young buck and looks to be having a blast, and Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette, Don Johnson and Michael Shannon all add depth in their roles for the limited screen time they enjoy. This modern murder mystery tinged with black humour is smart, stylish, witty, very entertaining and very well made and I think you'll be hard pressed to not enjoy this cinematic treat. Let's hope this isn't the last we've seen of Benoit Blanc, and Rian Johnson's love letter to the whodunit genre.

'Knives Out' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, from a potential five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB : Tuesday 13th November 2018.

'THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB' which I saw this week, is the fourth instalment in the 'Millennium' series of novels and films. This film franchise first kicked off with the originator of the international best seller series Stieg Larsson who penned 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo', 'The Girl Who Played with Fire' and 'The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest' - all of which were made into successful films in their native Sweden, launching the movie career of Noomi Rapace as lead character Lisbeth Salander in those first three films. In 2011, David Fincher made an American version of the first film starring Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander and Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist as an investigative journalist and occasional lover to Salander. When Stieg Larsson died in 2004 aged 50, having completed the three novels, David Lagercrantz carried the torch having penned two follow on novels so far, the first of which continues with this instalment. This time Directed by Fede Alvarez whose previous Directing credits include the 2013 version of 'Evil Dead' and  2016's 'Don't Breathe'. The film saw its Premier at the Rome Film Festival in late October, cost US$43M to make and has so far recovered US$18M, was released in Sweden at the end of October, was released here in Australia and in the US last week and has so far received generally mixed or average Reviews.

And so to the story. The film opens with the young child Lisbeth and her sister Camilla playing a game of chess on the floor of her fathers snow fortress home somewhere in the foothills of Stockholm. A servant enters the room where they play and commands that the girls go see their father in his bedroom. In making their way down the corridor, a heavily tattooed naked woman is seen walking into another room. Their father insists that the girls join him on his bed, as he unbuttons his shirt. It is clear that at this point that his intentions are far from honourable. Lisbeth hangs back as Camilla approaches her father. Lisbeth wants nothing of this and in a moment of distraction throws herself off the balcony and into a blizzard. Surviving the fall on an embankment of freshly fallen snow, the young Lisbeth is seen running off into the forest below. She chooses not to venture back to the house as long as her father remains alive.

We then fast forward twenty or so years to the present day. We are in an ultra modern apartment overlooking the Stockholm skyline. Lisbeth Salander (Claire Foy) is lurking in the shadows of the library, and has come to the rescue of an abused wife from her wealthy, successful and respected businessman husband, who has just beaten her bloody and is now trying to make up to her as she lays on the floor propped up against a kitchen bench. Lisbeth dressed in black with a hoodie and white make up contrasting her eyes appears as an avenging angel against the backdrop of a statue in the darkened room. Pretty quickly she has trussed the husband up in a wire lasso and has him dangling upside down from the ceiling. Meanwhile, she has hacked into his bank account and proceeds to empty it distributing his wealth in favour of his wife and child, and the two prostitutes he previously beat up, and which she plays him back on her smart phone, threatening to go public with the footage if he dare to come after her, or is wife and child ever again.

A few days later, dismissed from the National Security Agency, Frans Balder (Stephen Merchant) recruits expert hacker Lisbeth to steal 'FireFall', a computer programme that can access codes for nuclear weapons worldwide from a single device, and which he developed in the first place. He has come to realise that it's really not such a clever idea to leave FireFall unattended in the hands of the U.S. government, and so wants it destroyed. Lisbeth, using her advanced IT hacking skills is able to move the programme from the NSA's tightly guarded and high security computer vault. However, accessing the programme once it is in her possession is no easy feat, involving the answering of very cryptic questions, that we learn later on that Balders six year old savant son August (Christopher Convery) only has the answers to.

Edwin Needham (LaKeith Stanfield) is a former computer hacker of some repute and has now turned specialist techie geek for the NSA, and he traces the opening of FireFall to Stockholm. So off he jets on the next available flight. Upon landing he is picked up by the Swedish Secret Service authorities and told in no certain terms by Gabriella Grane (Synnove Macody Lund), the Deputy Director, to keep out of their business and that he has no jurisdiction other than being a tourist, and any contravention will result in his immediate deportation back from whence he came. Of course he ignores this directive immediately and goes off in search of Lisbeth.

Meanwhile, Lisbeth is living in secret in an abandoned warehouse, replete with all her computer gadgets and wizardry that enables her to hack her way into any computer system anywhere in the world with just a couple of clicks . . . a skill that more than proves its worth on multiple occasions throughout the film. Whilst relaxing in her bath however, her apartment is broken into by a group of unscrupulous masked men looking for the programme, who end up torching her digs in a ball of fire. Lisbeth, naturally survives although not unscathed, and has recorded the antagonists down to her computer located in her fire and explosion proof panic room. As for the rest of the apartment, it is well and truly torched.

As Lisbeth quickly salvages what she can from the burnt out ruins of her former abode, the Police begin to arrive to check on all the commotion. Lisbeth rides out on her motorbike and is chased along the waterfront by three Police cars in hot pursuit, but she is able to make her getaway across a frozen river.

With her computer containing the FireFall programme now in the hands of some nefarious underworld organisation, Lisbeth turns to her old friend Michael Blomkvist (Sverrir Gudnason) to get handy with some deep diving investigative work to uncover the masked perpetrators. Meanwhile she sets up covert surveillance of Balders safe house expecting that those perpetrators will eventually hunt him out wanting the access code. In the meantime, Blomkvist has traced one of the masked men through a distinctive spider tattoo, and has learned that 'The Spiders' are the secretive powerful and often violent Russian outfit behind Lisbeth's woes.

Via the covert surveillance camera placed strategically overlooking the Balder residence, Lisbeth is able to see the Russians infiltrating the household, brutally killing the guards on security duty and soon enough too Frans, taking August prisoner and setting up a drugged up Lisbeth to make it look as though she shot Frans through the head at very close range. Able to execute a fairly swift getaway, although only semi-conscious, Lisbeth recovers her senses and gives chase in an unmarked Police car. After a high speed car chase involving hand brake turns, wheel spins and jumps she eventually rescues the young lad from the clutches of them pesky no good Russians and leaves them high and dry on an elevated snow covered bridge, with Lisbeth on one side glaring at her evil long lost believed dead sister Camilla (Sylvia Hoeks).

Decamping to a secret hideaway on the outskirts of the city, Lisbeth and August make off in a hacked Lamborghini. They meet up with Blomkvist there, but within 24 hours Camilla and her Spider cohorts arrive and take back August. In the meantime, Needham has been arrested at the scene of the crime at the Balder household and Grane promptly orders that he be shipped back to 'Disneyland' post haste. Lisbeth goes to the airport to retrieve Needham from his heavy security entourage and does so by hacking into every surveillance camera, every electronic door locking device and every possible security measure to make his exit from there as easy and as fast as possible.

Arriving back afterwards with Needham safe elsewhere, Lisbeth is greeted by Camilla and her henchmen, and an unconscious Blomkvist. Once again there is a scuffle as Lisbeth and Blomkvist's lives are threatened, but she is able to escape, but not before the Spiders make off with August. With Blomkvist, Lisbeth visits Plague (Cameron Britton) a close associate of hers and a computer expert, where Needham is also holed out. Lisbeth is instantly able to trace August's location through a tracking device she planted on him earlier in the day.

Camilla and crew make for her childhood home, which now sits empty and run down. Inside, Camilla has set up camp with all the hi-tech gadgetry and computer screens necessary to unleash FireFall on an unsuspecting world. August is bound and tied in a separate room. She sneaks her way in, hacking the security cameras for Plague who is parked in his surveillance van down the road. Lisbeth makes reasonable progress through the house thwarting various bad dudes, but Camilla has anticipated her arrival and has set a trap for Lisbeth, which she falls into but not before putting up a fight.

When Lisbeth comes around she is kneeling on the floor with her hands tied behind her back, and in front of her sits August. Camilla orders Lisbeth to command August to reveal the access code to his fathers FireFall question. Seeing the situation as being hopeless and with a particularly nasty injection aimed squarely at a now also captive Blomkvist, Lisbeth says to August to release the code. And this he does, and within a few minutes FireFall goes live. Camilla then promptly wraps up Lisbeth in a black latex sack and sucks all the air out of it, so slowly suffocating her sister who by now resembles a vacuum packed bag of chicken portions. Meanwhile Needham has set up a sniper position with a high powered long range rifle and is dependant on Plague giving him the coordinates of the henchmen within the house. One by one Needham with a carefully trained eye takes out the unsuspecting henchmen through windows, walls and doors. Camilla, leaves her sister to suffocate slowly in her vacuum sealed confines, as she makes a fast exit.

Driving out of there at speed in a Maserati but with her computer at her side, Camilla believes she is in the clear, when the car hits a blinded Jan Holster (Claes Bang), Camilla's trusted accomplice and deliverer of very bad deeds. The car spins out of control, veers off the road and crashes into the trees. Lisbeth arrives having made her escape from the confines of her latex wrapping to find the driver dead, and Camilla's bloodied hand print on the back seat, but the door open and no sign of her.

Not before long Lisbeth has caught up with Camilla limping through the forest clutching her computer and bleeding heavily from her side. She veers up a rocky outcrop with the house in the distance. The pair exchange words, as tears well in both their eyes. As Lisbeth lowers her gun, Camilla throws down the computer onto the snow and steps back off the cliff edge falling to her death below. Needham arrives to find no sigh of Lisbeth, but the computer lying still in the snow. He opens the laptop to reveal a message from Lisbeth, that she has moved the FireFall programme as it is what Balder wanted. Mission : Accomplished! Needham makes good on his promise to Lisbeth for engineering his escape from the authorities by returning August safely to his mother in San Francisco.

The opening credits sequence of 'The Girl in the Spiders Web' reminded me a lot of the opening titles sequence in just about every Bond movie, which kinda set the tone for the rest of the film. Here Lisbeth Salander is a mash up of a feminine hard hitting Bond or Bourne, and a black clad superhero who gets kicked, punched, drugged, stabbed, gassed, blown up, shot at and vacuum packed but every time manages to bounce right back and kick more ass in the process. And the relative ease with which Lisbeth is able to hack into the seemingly most advanced computer systems with just a couple of clicks and faster that you can say 'computer hacker extraordinare' seems completely incongruous. The plot is repetitive in places and therefore becomes a tad predictable, but all that said Claire Foy makes for a respectable Lisbeth in her third big screen outing this year after 'Unsane' and 'First Man'. The action set pieces are delivered with imagination, but the character of Blomkvist is here sidelined as is his Millennium publication, and in penning this story the writer/screenwriters seem to have lost their way compared to the set up that Larsson so expertly and emotionally charged his character with. This is a good movie, but its not a great movie. On the strength of this instalment however, I would be easily persuaded to venture back to my local Odeon for the next Lagercrantz instalment 'The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye', which hopefully Claire Foy will return for.

'The Girl in the Spiders Web' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, from a  potential five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

GET OUT : Tuesday 9th May 2017.

'GET OUT', made for just US$4.5M this comedy horror film is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Jordan Peele in his debut in the Directors chair, and has so far grossed US$207M and has received much critical acclaim. Jordan Peele is one half of the Comedy Central sketch series pairing of Key & Peele. His film, seen as a satire on racism in the United States in the present day, points at the underbelly of middle class conservatives interwoven with an effective horror story, stands now as the highest grossing film Directed by a black film maker, and has also claimed the spot previously occupied by 1999's 'The Blair Witch Project' as the highest grossing debut film based on an original screenplay in Hollywood history. Not bad credentials at all!

The film opens up with a black guy, Andre Hayworth (LaKeith Stanfield) speaking on his mobile phone while walking down a leafy suburban street late at night. A white car approaches him, with loud music blaring out of the window, and an unseen driver. The car circles around and approaches from behind a nervous looking Andre, who is clearly out of his comfort zone. Andre crosses the street keen to avoid any confrontation, and is then beaten over the head by an unknown assailant and dragged back towards the white car - drivers side door and rear boot open. Bundled up, unconscious in the boot of the car, it speeds off into the night.

Some months later, we are introduced to black photographer Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) and his white girlfriend Rose Armitage (Allison Williams). They have been together for five months now, and they are preparing to visit Allison's parents at their country estate for the weekend. Chris expresses some concern that Allison has not yet told her parents that he is black, but quickly dismisses his concerns when she reassures him that they are non-racial progressive thinking types who would have voted for Obama a third time given the chance. They load up the car and head on out driving in the clear light of day, chatting, laughing and joking most of the way.

Upon arriving at the country estate of parents Dean Armitage (Bradley Whitford) a retired neurosurgeon and Missy Armitage (Catherine Keener) a psychiatrist and hypnotherapist and brother Jeremy (Caleb Landry Jones) the family  attempt to allay any fears that Chris may have about their concerns of an inter-racial relationship. Pretty soon, however, Chris notices the black groundsman Walter (Marcus Henderson) and black housekeeper Georgina (Betty Gabriel) and how their behaviour seems very strange and distant, let alone the fact that an all white family have black servants about the place, in this day and age!

Later that night when Chris can't sleep, and craving a cigarette, he ventures outside. Upon re-entering the house, attempting to be quiet, he walks past a lounge room in which Missy is sitting drinking tea. She invites Chris in to sit down opposite him, holding her cup and saucer in one hand and stirring it with a teaspoon with the other. The sound of the spoon stirring is repetitive and Missy keeps on stirring, while she questions Chris about his mother who was killed in a hit and run accident when he was just eleven.

While they talk, although Chris doesn't realise it, he is hypnotised by Missy to the rhythmic sounds of a spoon stirring a tea cup. He is paralysed to the chair, and Missy orders his conscious mind to a place she refers to as 'the sunken place'. Chris wakes up the next morning from a deep sleep, not knowing how he got fully clothed into bed, realising that Missy had hypnotised him to get him off the cigarettes, or so he at first believes.

The next day at the Armitage household is an annual lawn party held for all white close friends to attend. The guests are all mostly elderly and they take more than an active interest in Chris, asking blatant questions about his ethnicity, race, culture, which needless to say uneases Chris. He notices a black guest who introduces himself as Logan King and who is accompanied by an elderly white lady. Chris notices some bizarre behaviour by Logan and senses that the two have met before, but chooses to say nothing. He secretly attempts to take a photograph of Logan with his mobile phone but the flash from the camera sets Logan off with a nosebleed and then a hysterical confrontation at which Logan yells 'get out' at Chris. Dean shrugs off the episode as a epileptic seizure and when Logan re-emerges from a room with Missy, it is as though nothing ever happened! Chris however, is not so sure.

As the afternoon wears on, Chris and Rose walk the grounds away from the party guests. Chris has become concerned about the strange goings on and persuades Rose that they should leave that night. Meanwhile, Dean holds an auction in their absence, with a large framed portrait sized picture of  Chris by his side. The winning bid for Chris goes to Jim Hudson (Stephen Root) a blind art dealer who is aware of Chris' keen eye for photography. Meanwhile Chris has been able to reach out to his good friend Rod Williams (Lil Rel Howery) who works for the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) and who is also dog minding and house sitting for Chris and Rose while they are away.  Chris tells Rod of his observations and sends the photograph of Logan over for Rod to do some investigative work.

While packing up in readiness to leave, Rod advises Chris that Logan (LaKeith Stanfield) is in fact Andre Hayworth who vanished mysteriously six months ago, and who is both known to them. While Rose's back is turned, Chris notices a closet door left ajar and sticks his head inside to investigate. Inside he uncovers a shoe box of photographs of Rose up close and personal with what appear to black boyfriends - lots of individual pictures of her and black men. Chris's need to leave takes on a new sense of urgency. As he attempts to do so and Rose seems to fumble for her missing car keys, so his exit from the house is blocked by Dean, Missy, Jeremy, and Rose. Missy gives a simple command and Chris crashes to the floor totally incapacitated.

Chris comes round strapped to a chair, in front of a old television screen, which blurts out a video explaining why he is tied to the chair and the next steps for him. It seems that the family have developed a method of transplanting the brains of their older family and friends into the bodies of younger black people, that are pre-selected by Rose and prepared by hypnosis by Missy. Hence Walter, Georgina and Logan's strange behaviours. Jim Hudson purchased Chris for this purpose, so that he can be the host and regain his sight.

Whilst Dean is prepping Jim Hudson for the brain transplant in his own private home surgery, Jeremy is sent to collect Chris. Chris however, has an ace up his sleeve and is able to out fox Missy's hypnotic commands when Jeremy least expected it and is able to effect his escape, but not before dispensing with several family members. As Chris exists the house in Jeremy's car, he mows down Georgina, and in his childhood guilt over the death of his mother in a hit and run accident, goes back to check on the downed housekeeper. He loads her into the car, and she quickly comes round turning on Chris, causing him to crash the car into a tree, so killing Georgina on impact.

Rose who has been locked way in her bedroom, surfing the internet for her next unsuspecting black boyfriend, hears the commotion and appears at the front door brandishing a shotgun as she and Walter go in pursuit of an already injured, shaken and unhinged Chris. For what happens next, you'll just have to watch the film.

It's easy to see why this film has garnered so much positive press and the record breaking Box Office receipts it has. The film is at once a smart and relevant satire coupled with sharp wit and a modern horror story that delivers a thought provoking, effective and entertaining package. The first half of the film slowly sets the tone amidst racial jibes and effective hints that something may be amiss at the Armitage Estate, or maybe Chris is just over reacting being the minority in the room and therefore on edge anyhow. But the second half lets loose with the nightmare that awaits Chris as the tension builds to its bloody, brutal and emotional climax, at which point the comedy drops away to full blown horror, ending with a comedic note as the screen fades to black. A clever film, very well told, that sets Jordan Peele up there as a Writer/Director to watch out for based on the calibre of this inaugural offering.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-