The Louder You Scream the Deeper You Sink

“Get Out", a 2017 Jordan Peele film uses repetition, patterns, and sounds in a mesmerizing scene that is evocative and representative of a metaphoric place: “The Sunken Place”. The movie personifies the racial divide in America: the main character, Chris is an African-American male that is brought to his white girlfriend’s estate, where he is lured to be kidnapped and sold into slavery by the form of hypnosis.

A 5 minute scene that is 30 minutes into the Jordan Peele movie, encapsulates the horror of hypnosis and the 21st version of enslavement. Peele uses the use of repetition in dialogue and character sequence to illustrate this main point of the movie.

The use of hypnosis puts Chris into a deep trance.; The scene opens with the step-mom, Missy, catching Chris outside for a smoke break. Immediately, the audience feels the tension. Missy is shot at Chris’s point of view. The use of light is leveraged to create contrast in every frame. The sound of Missy’s tea cup paralyzes Chris. “Ting, Ting”

“Ting, Ting” The sound of him scratching the chair is repeated and takes him to the sunken place where his consciousness is dissolved and he no longer has control over his body. Missy closes his eyes, and the camera follows him as he sinks deeper into the sunken place. We see Chris sink into the floor.

“Ting, Ting”

The repetition of this sequence involves Chris breathing in slow motion which matches the next frame: he tries to leave the sunken place but Chris is floating under the trans and the camera zooms out further and further away, representing how disconnected Chris has become from reality and himself: an out-of body experience.The camera inches further and further away from Missy and she is the only object in the frame surrounded by darkness.

Chris repeats: “take me back, take me back, take me back”.

No matter how loud Chris screams, the audience hears his voice becoming fainter and fainter, until he is muted. Missy is still audible. The Sunken Place is an allegory for the silence of Black Americans. This short scene illustrates White ownership of “Black bodies”. Chris can open his eyes, but he can’t break the trans. Left at Missy’s mercy: the metaphor extends throughout the movie. Will Chris break the trans or will the cyclic oppression continue? Maybe I am under hypnosis right now. If I am, then how will I get out?

Scene Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBwVWrBk_uo