ladbible logo

To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders

Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications

People Reckon ‘Get Out’ Nailed This Freudian Theory

People Reckon ‘Get Out’ Nailed This Freudian Theory

Stay with me here...it gets pretty deep into sociology and psychology

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

A filmmaker's dream would be to release a movie that's so ground breaking, that people talk about it and study it years after its debut.

While Jordan Peele's Get Out was only released last year, it's well on its way to becoming one of those pieces of art that English students will probably have to do essays about in 2030.

It followed Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya), a black photographer visiting his white girlfriend's parents for the first time in upstate New York.

What starts out as an awkward weekend away turns into a sadistic, racist, nearly lobotomising experience.

But what made Get Out stand out was the multiple layers writer and director Jordan Peele used to tell his story of racism in America. Critics praised it for showcasing the overt and subtle forms of discrimination that people endure every day - however other fans are going deeper, so, so much deeper than that.

One guy with a 'PhD In Film Criticism No One Asked For' has made an interesting observation about the similarities between Get Out and Sigmund Freud's ideas.

Kyle A B started two threads worthy of investigation and they focused on the characters Jim Hudson (Stephen Root) and Georgina (Betty Gabriel).

Hudson is the blind art dealer who ends up successfully bidding to buy Chris so that he could not only get a younger body, but one with eyes that fully work.

Kyle drew comparisons with the actor who also played a blind man in O Brother, Where Art Thou and how both characters have 'colour blind racism'.

That sociology term refers to the idea that people should be lauded for their skills and abilities regardless of their skin colour.

In Get Out, Hudson wants Christopher not because of his blackness (which some other characters in the film did) but because he had good eyes and a good vision for photography - something worth having if you're an art dealer.

In O Brother, Root played a blind radio station who gives a black guitarist a chance to record a song.

Kyle, however, says that while in sociological terms, racial colour blindess is something worth striving for, these two films act in the negative, as Stephen Root's characters simply just want to profit off their skills.

He then draws comparisons with Freud's opinion that losing your eyesight would be the equivalent of being castrated and to 'lack eyesight is a form of impotency'.

But the real Freudian link is saved for Georgina's character, who's the maid who seems sincere and warm until she acts like a malfunctioning robot.

Sigmund produced writings on 'unheimlich', the German word for creepy.

The neurologist says that for something to be truly creepy, it has to balance along the fine line of weird yet familiar.

He worked off the writings of German psychiatrist Ernst Jentsch, who said: "In telling a story, one of the most successful devices for easily creating uncanny effects is to leave the reader in uncertainty whether a particular figure in the story is a human being or automaton."

Georgina was the perfect embodiment of this idea because until the big reveal happened at the end of Get Out, it was hard to really understand what was wrong with her.

Kyle A B likened this to the way we feel about human-looking robots - while they try hard to look like us, there's an underlying feeling of creepiness attached to them.

The bloke's viral discussion about the Freudian aspects of Get Out have even been endorsed by Monkeypaw Productions - one of the production companies that brought the film to the big screen and Moonlight director Barry Jenkins.

Featured Image Credit: Universal Pictures

Topics: Entertainment, TV and Film, get out, Interesting