This movie is quite funny. It’s in a line of horror films or perhaps thrillers that spend a lot of time poking fun at character’s ridiculous tendencies, like their self-defeating neuroticism. It’s not the white woman running from the killer and then oops she tripped, it’s the white woman who’s so obsessed with the discrepancy between how the world ought to be and how it is that she gets killed. Speaking of white women, it does play on race a bit, but doesn’t obsess: it recognizes and calls out racism without having to rely on it as the underlying antagonist, or ascribe all interpersonal problems between black and white characters as black and white racism.

I’m curious if the Obamas produced this film because it reflects their own genuine fears of a realistic path to America’s societal breakdown. Or maybe it’s just like most horror movies, product of audience’s own contemporary anxieties. Either way, like anything with Mahershala Ali, I recommend this film.