Chris (Daniel Kaluuya), a black man, accompanies Rose (Allison Williams), his white partner, on a weekend trip to meet her family.
Released in 2017, Get Out is a film that I have been wanting to feature on food & a film for quite some time, especially considering it’s easily one of my favorite horror films to come out in the past two decades. The film has a couple of rather iconic food and drink moments and seeing as I prefer to feature horror during Halloween month, I thought Get Out would be the perfect choice for the October feature.

The very first food moment in the film occurs in minute five with a shot of pastries in the glass case of a bakery. As the camera tracks to the left, we see a bevy of baked goods including croissants, pain au chocolat, and glazed donuts with sprinkles. Through the glass we see Rose surveying the inventory, deciding what to get. Less than a minute later, we see Rose arrive at Chris’ apartment carrying takeout coffee and a bag presumably containing pastries.

Following this pastry moment, the next appearance of food or drink onscreen comes about twenty minutes in when Chris is seated outside at a table with Rose and her parents Missy (Catherine Keener) and Dean (Bradley Whitford). The foursome all have glasses of iced tea in front of them while they talk out on the patio. Georgina (Betty Gabriel), the Armitage’s housekeeper, comes to refill everyone’s glass with a pitcher of iced tea, and while she is refilling Chris’ glass, she spaces out for a moment and accidentally overfills his glass.

After the afternoon iced tea scene, we cut to a scene in the Armitage’s dining room, which picks up directly after everyone has finished eating dinner. Chris, Rose, Missy, and Dean and now joined by Rose’s brother, Jeremy (Caleb Landry Jones), and they are all seated around the table with their dinner plates in front of them, which are mostly empty, making it difficult to decipher what their meal consisted of. Missy then gets up from the table and declares, “I’m gonna go get dessert.” As Missy opens the swinging door to the kitchen we can see Georgina in the background holding a serving plate topped with what looks like a cake as she is staring into space. The cake is then more prominently featured on screen when Missy re-enters the room with the dessert, announcing, “Carrot cake!.”

The next food or drink moment following the carrot cake feature occurs later in the evening when Chris happens upon Missy on his way back from sneaking a midnight cigarette. Missy invites Chris to join her in the library, and as he sits down, she retrieves a tea cup and saucer from the side table next to her. Missy does not take a sip from her teacup, but instead she methodically stirs her tea with a silver spoon as she talks to Chris. We soon realize that Missy is not stirring sugar in her tea, but instead is using this spinning spoon as a tool to place Chris under hypnosis, and as we later learn, to keep Chris under the Armitages’ control.

Following what is undoubtedly one of the most iconic tea moments onscreen, the next scene to feature food or drink occurs the following day during the Armitages’ party. During the party we see everyone walking around with drinks in their hand, and while there is presumably at least a little food being served as well, we do not see any of it prominently featured in these party scenes. When Chris then takes a break from the party to call his friend Rod (Lil Rel Howery), we see Rod holding a Chinese takeout box while seated on the couch. Then in a later scene, we see Rod drinking scotch from a rocks glass and there is a decanter with brown liquor on counter. In addition to this scotch moment, there is also a reappearance of Missy’s teacup further into the film.
There is also a mixed nuts moment when Rod goes to speak with a detective about Chris’ disappearance. Upon greeting Rod, the detective pours herself a handful of nuts from a bag and proceeds to eat them while Rod explains the crisis at hand.
Lastly, the final food/drink moment in the film occurs when Rose is enjoying a bowl of Froot Loops® and milk. However, instead of eating the cereal and milk together with a spoon like most people would, Rose has a bowl of dry fruit loops and next to it, a glass of milk with a straw. We see Rose take a single fruit loop and nibble on it rather squirrel-like before picking up the glass of milk and taking a couple of short, aggressive sips through the straw.

For my Get Out-inspired vegan menu, I decided to prepare a breakfast that incorporates most of the food and drink moments from the film. Regrettably, the classic Froot Loops® cereal is not vegan, nor are many of the off-brand versions; however, I was able to find a vegan version and while the colors are not nearly the saturated vibrant rainbow of the original cereal, these fruit loops are at least a bit healthier and offer an autumnal color palette, fitting for the current season. Of course I also had to accompany the bowl of dry fruit loops with a large glass of milk, complete with a straw for sipping.

In addition to recreating the cereal and milk moment from the film, I knew I wanted to include carrot cake in the menu so I chose to make mini carrot cake muffins iced with vegan cream cheese frosting. And of course, no Get Out-inspired menu would be complete without a cup of tea, preferably served in a blue willow teacup and saucer, and accompanied by a silver teaspoon.

And finally for the table setting, I chose a fabric inspired by the color palette and tone of the film to use as a tablecloth.

And that does it for October’s installment of food & a film! Thank you so much for tuning in, and be sure to check back next month for another new entry!
Love this. Now I definitely have to see this film! P