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Get Out is a satirical thriller/horror film from US writer director Jordan Peele. It follows Chris, a young black man invited back to his girlfriend Rose's parents' house for a weekend getaway. At first, Chris reads the family's overly accommodating behaviour as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter's interracial relationship. However, as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he could never have imagined.

A team of BBFC Compliance Officers viewed the film, recorded the key classification issues, and discussed the most suitable category. To reach a decision, they used the BBFC's Classification Guidelines, a list of criteria for each classification category from U up to 18. The Guidelines document also details what classification issues the BBFC considers when making age rating decisions, together with overriding considerations such as a film's theme, tone, genre and likely impact on an audience.

The film contains several scenes in which characters express racist opinions, and endorse or celebrate racist myths and stereotypes; however, the film itself does not endorse discriminatory attitudes or behaviour.

The BBFC rated Get Out 15 for 'strong violence, gore, sex references, language'. The strong violence escalates in the latter half of the film as characters are stabbed, shot and gored. There are several scenes of personalised violence, often as a character tries to escape captors. The film also includes some gory surgical scenes, including the removal of the top of a skull, exposing the brain. The gore is relatively arresting but carries impact as it is a shock moment, and one of the lead characters is in danger.

There are also some sex references, such as a character making a passing reference to murder victims who thought they would have to perform sexual acts.

Both issues were strong enough to suggest a 15 rating rather than 12A, where only moderate violence, gore and sex references are permitted.

In addition, there are several uses of strong language throughout, including 'f**k' and 'motherf**ker', as well as milder bad language such as 'bitch', 'asshole' and 'shit'. There are also some peer-to-peer uses of the strong racist term 'nigga'. The frequency and strength of the language, goes beyond the 12A level where only infrequent uses of strong language are permitted and is therefore rated 15.

The viewing team also noted in the BBFCinsight – the succinct information about the classification issues in a film which is published with each BBFC decisions on the main BBFC website and the free BBFC app – that there is moderate threat throughout, and a sequence in which a character is hypnotised against his will and abducted. You can read the BBFCinsight for Get Out here.

Here's some more information about BBFCinsight and the BBFC Classification Guidelines.

The BBFC Education team selected Get Out as a film for discussion at the 2017 Into Film Festival.