Why Spirals Queer Horror Is 2020s Answer To Get Out

Why Spiral’s Queer Horror Is 2020’s Answer To Get Out

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Kurtis David Harder’s 2020 movie Spiral features a queer horror story that expands on the importance of Jordan Peele’s social commentary in Get Out.

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Why Spirals Queer Horror Is 2020s Answer To Get Out

WARNING! Spoilers for Spiral ahead

Kurtis David Harder’s thriller Spiral showcases a queer horror story that is reminiscent of Jordan Peele’s 2017 movie Get Out. Both movies are considered to be apart of the genre of social horror due to their commentary on society, culture, and politics based on the actual occurrence of hate crimes nationwide. In 2020, Spiral provides the perspective of what it means historically to be LGBTQIA+ and Black in America when whiteness and heterosexuality are the presumed ideal.

Spiral follows Malik (Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman) and Aaron (Ari Cohen), a gay couple who’ve just moved into a new house in the Chicago suburbs. Upon moving in, Malik discovers someone has spray painted a derogatory term for homosexuals above their fireplace. As tensions between the couple continue to rise, the vastly different experiences of Black men and white men are showcased through Malik and Aaron, as well as the intersections of identity that impact the horrors they experience individually. Spiral joins the growing collection of contemporary social horror movies that include Jordan Peele’s Get Out, Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz’s Antebellum, Stewart Thorndike’s Lyle, and Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night. These movies and others like them have proven to be a successful means of using the genre as an active force to confront ongoing racism and homophobia.

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While Get Out centers around the horrors of being Black in the United States, Spiral primarily tackles the experiences of gay Black men while briefly featuring a lesbian relationship as well as other families who are not white. When Jordan Peele’s 2017 movie premiered, it was often heralded as one of the most important movies in horror history, and continues to receive the same accolades in 2020. Get Out was a pivotal moment that changed the way horror movies are consumed and created, as well as the definition of what horror can be. This resulted in Spiral’s queer horror story expanding the conversation on racism in America to include how homophobia can be terrifying as well.

How Spiral Compares To Get Out

Get Out stars Daniel Kaluuya as Chris Washington; Peele discovered Kaluuya through his role on Black Mirror. When Chris sets out to meet his girlfriend’s family for the first time, he discovers that the Armitage family has been kidnapping Black people and replace their consciousness with that of a white person. It depicts a contemporary slave auction, the exoticizing of Black people, and white privilege, among other elements attributed to racist behavior. Also similarly to Spiral, the two movies occur in a suburban setting where an unassuming Black man is placed into a situation where he is mentally tormented by white antagonists. As Malik begins to believe he is losing his mind, Aaron asserts that they are safe in white suburbia but, as a Black man, he insists that it is a familiar façade.

While the foundation of both movies are very similar, they begin to diverge as their stories unfold mid-way. For instance, Chris discovers that the Armitage family has done this horrifying procedure for decades while Malik uncovers a satanic cult that sacrifices anyone who isn’t white or straight in order to remain immortal. However, the biggest difference is Malik’s sexuality. As a gay Black man, he has been the victim and witness of violence against his race and sexuality. This suburban cult represents the demonizing of gay men, Black men, and the intersection of these two identities.

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Since the 1980s, the cult has displayed their desire to sacrifice anyone who is not straight or white. Therefore, they are the epitome of the dangers associated with different hate groups across the nation. While Get Out features the threat of racism in America, Spiral’s queer horror elements take it beyond this point and establishes that the United States is full of covert hate groups, just like the cult Malik discovers. Both movies use horror as a social force to provoke deeper conversations on their respective contents, as their stories are reminiscent of historical and contemporary events across the nation that speak to the country’s history with racism and homophobia, which still endure in 2020.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/spiral-2020-queer-horror-movie-connection-get-out/

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