And that’s something else these films have in common. Beyond their release dates and box office performances, they have a lot of social themes that have a huge impact. Get Out is more forthcoming about this intention as its entire story revolves around the perspective of being black in predominantly white spaces. He endures a range of prejudices at the Armitage’s home, starting with the awkward moments when he first enters their home. Things start to come to a head at the family’s party as he endures a series of micro-aggressions that vary from invasive questions to blatant sexual harassment. By the film’s end, Chris is experiencing full-out violence, based simply on his race. During it all, elements like costuming, staging, lighting, and cinematography are well designed by Peele and his crew to accent just how much Chris sticks out like a sore thumb in Rose’s home and what it feels like to always be the center of attention just for being different.

We experience otherness in The Silence of the Lambs as well, although it may not be the film’s main focus. Where Chris is a black man surrounded by white people, Clarice Starling is a young woman trying desperately to succeed in a man’s world. From the opening scenes, men ogle Clarice and tower over her at every turn in the FBI headquarters. Tak Fujimoto’s brilliant camera is planted right between Clarice and the men she encounters, forcing the audience to sit under their condemning stares. Her boss lies to her and manipulates her in their very first encounter into going to the asylum where her experience spirals even lower into complete depravity. Compared to this, the FBI is a cakewalk. The practically-fedora-wearing Dr. Chilton hassles and harasses Clarice constantly as he walks her to Hannibal Lecter’s cell. After nearly having to push Chilton away, Clarice is demeaned psychologically by Lecter’s brutal psychoanalysis and physically debased by his neighboring lunatic. For the most part, she, like Chris, is able to let the smaller hostilities roll off, but the heavier moments leave lasting damage behind.