14 Movies Like Get Out That Horror Fans Need To See

As we wait for the release of Jordan Peele's next film, "Nope," starring Steven Yeun and Keke Palmer and due out summer 2021, there's plenty of time to explore other horror films that share the mix of scares and smart commentary that makes "Get Out" so special. 

Not that politics or social awareness are rare or new in the horror genre, of course. Filmmakers have long told stories about the terrors lurking underneath so-called "respectable" society. Look at "Rosemary's Baby," "The Exorcist," and "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (both the remake and the original) — you don't have to turn to so-called "elevated horror" to find horror films that have something to say. 

But the films on this list are, above all, good, and will also take you on a brief tour of socially-conscious horror filmmaking from the '60s through the 21st century. (One film — see if you can find it — doesn't hit the "socially conscious" beat so much, but it's an entertaining film that shares some basic plot elements with "Get Out." We're sure Jordan Peele would approve.)

George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" is an obvious choice for this list, but no less of a fitting one for that, and no less worth of a first (and a second, third, fourth, fifth, or sixth) watch. The film was a direct influence on "Get Out," evidenced particularly in the similarities (and differences) in the two films' respective final scenes — no spoilers, because anyone who's still catching up on their classic horror should not be deprived of seeing one of cinema's most impactful endings with fresh eyes. 

Subsequent zombie films based on Romero's classic also exist as spiritual siblings to "Get Out" in many ways. "Dawn of Dead," "Day of the Dead," and "Land of the Dead" all of mix their zombie action with political statements about class, race, and the abuse of government authority. If you're going to pick one, watch "Night." If you're going to pick two, add "Dawn of the Dead," which sets its action in an abandoned mall.

But, hell, sometimes you don't want to watch a "stylish and experimental meditation." Sometimes you want to watch some grand, glorious schlock, and 1972's Blacula, directed by William Crain, fits the bill. Not that calling it "schlock" means that it doesn't deal with serious issues — the "Blacula" of the title, real name Mamuwalde, is an African prince who, back in the 1700s, asked Dracula to help him stop the slave trade and got turned into a vampire for his troubles. 

However, the number one reason to watch Blacula is lead actor William Marshall, who devours the role of Mamuwalde with the skill, intensity, and seriousness that you'd expect from someone playing Hamlet. Marshall might be starring in a movie whose name is literally a pun, but that doesn't mean he's not going to show up and do his job. William Marshall commits. It's an absolute triumph of a performance.

As a director, M. Night Shyamalan has had ... well, let's just say ups and downs. He faltered in the early '00s, turning in a string of critically-disliked (if not outright reviled) movies like "Lady in the Water," "The Happening," "The Last Airbender," and "After Earth." Then, he stripped down the spectacle, dialed down the budget, and turned in a tight, entertaining found-footage horror film in 2015's "The Visit." 

In the film, Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould play Becca and Tyler, two kids whose single mother has been estranged from her own parents for 15 years. When Becca and Tyler go to spend a weekend with their grandparents, it's a chance for the family to finally reconnect. 

Yes, something goes wrong. Yes, there's a twist. It's a pretty basic one — you can probably guess what it is without seeing the film — but really, that represents what's good about "The Visit." It's Shyamalan going back to basics, building on the same tried-and-true "protagonist(s) spend a weekend with people they're supposed to get close to, people aren't what they seem, insert horror" foundation that Jordan Peele used  to great effect in "Get Out" a few years later.

Let's go ahead and call this a Bong-Joon Ho vs. Capitalism Combo Special: "Parasite," "Okja," and "Snowpiercer" are all great choices for "Get Out" fans in search of a movie to pop into the queue (as are, for that matter, all of Bong Joon-Ho's films). All three films tackle the evils of capitalism and the wreckage it causes across class lines through different lenses. 

In "Parasite," the class difference is represented in two families: one rich, well-meaning, and naïve, the other hard-working, shrewd, and poor. The lower-class family infiltrates the lives of the rich one, with ultimately catastrophic results. In "Snowpiercer," all that's left of humanity after the climate-change apocalypse lives on a single train — the further back on the train you go, the poorer the people are. Revolution inevitably follows. For the villains of "Okja," money is more important than treating animals — in particular, the titular "super-pig" — humanely.

"'Okja,' 'Snowpiercer,' 'Parasite,' they're all stories about capitalism," Bong tells Vulture. "Before it's a massive, sociological term, capitalism is just our lives."

"In every neighborhood there is one house that adults whisper about and children cross the street to avoid," says the trailer for "The People Under the Stairs," Wes Craven's first film of the '90s. It's a sort of reverse "Home Alone" starring child actor Brandon Adams (who would later appear as one of the child ballplayers in "The Sandlot"). 

Brandon, as Poindexter "Fool" Williams, breaks into the house of his parents' landlords (played by "Twin Peaks'" stars Everett McGill and Wendy Robie) in the hopes of stealing a valuable coin collection that will help him pay for much-needed surgery for his mother. It's no spoiler to say that the landlords, in addition to being greedy, racist gentrifiers, aren't what they seem. Neither is the house itself. There's some powerhouse horror in this one, not to mention a supporting role from Ving Rhames — who doesn't want that?

A standout in the Blaxploitation genre is "J.D.'s Revenge," directed by Arthur Marks and starring Glynn Turman, who has had a long and successful career on TV ("Peyton Place," "A Different World," and "Fargo"). Turman plays Ike, a strait-laced, hard-working Black man who drives a cab to put himself through law school. 

Everyone around Ike is surprised when he starts acting like a '40s gangster, swinging around a switchblade and just generally acting like a jerk, but that's what happens when you're possessed by old-school hustler J.D. Walker, dead since 1942 and determined to wreak vengeance on the man who killed his sister and pinned the murder on him. Poor Ike was just in the wrong place in the wrong time, but his possession gives us an indispensable entry in the Black horror and Blaxploitation canon. (Also in the mix here is a young Louis Gossett Jr., playing a well-meaning preacher whose eyes are opened to the evil that he didn't know was lurking in his very own community.)

One of the more recent films on this list, Remi Weekes' Netflix release "His House" uses the plight of two South Sudanese refugees attempting to make a life for themselves in England to explore issues of immigration, cultural assimilation, and xenophobia in the contemporary UK. And, because this is a horror movie, some scary shenanigans affect our central couple, namely the ghosts of those they left behind in their harrowing flight to safety. 

Finding out what the ghosts want and whether they should fight back or attempt to co-exist — and reckoning with what they had to do to get to safety — provides a compelling metaphor for the plight of refugees today. Serving as a co-lead in "His House" is the always-excellent Wunmi Mosaku (above), who has turned in stellar supporting performances in such shows as "In the Flesh" and "Lovecraft Country," where she played Leti's sister, Ruby, as well as "Loki."