IT RELEASED IN THE US less than a month ago, it has already grossed $87 million (€82 million) worldwide, inspired the latest viral craze and reached a near-perfect rating on Rotten Tomatoes of 99%.

The directorial debut of Jordan Peele, half of Comedy Central cult comedy show Key and Peele, the film stars Daniel Kaluuya (Black Mirror) and Allison Williams (Girls), in a chilling plot that at first is a little reminiscent Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner.

Bringing her boyfriend Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) home to her parents’ mysterious estate, Rose (Allison Williams) assures that all will be fine when Chris expresses concern that she hasn’t yet told her parents that he is black.

Even before they arrive into the town, Chris is stopped and told to produce ID in an encounter with a local cop that is creepily alike to recent dash-cam footage that has emerged from the United States in the last year.

While there, Chris begins to notice some extremely strange behaviour from people in the town that he soon realises is racially-motivated, while the film gradually builds on some of the fears for the safety of the African American community in the United States.

So what’s all the buzz about?

In a recent interview with Forbes, Peele explains how the film addresses particularly important issues facing the US right now:

As with comedy, I feel like horror and the thriller genre is [...] one of the few ways that we can address real life horrors and social injustices in an entertaining way. We go to the theatre to be entertained, but if what is left after you watch the movie is a sort of eye-opening perspective on some social issues, then it can be a really powerful piece of art.

Peele hoped the film would depict the fear that African American men can feel for their safety within racist communities – something that was close to his own experience:

It is a very personal story. It’s a horror movie that is from an African American’s perspective. It very quickly veers off from anything autobiographical, but I think what interested me most about this movie was dealing with racism, really everything from the subtle racism that many people may not know exists on a day to day basis, or for a lot of people.

The film has been so iconic so far that it has already inspired the latest viral internet craze, #GetOutChallenge, a hashtag that has already inspired almost 7,000 posts on Instagram and that at the time of writing, had 42,000 tweets in the last 24 hours, according to Trendsmap.

Want to see whether the film lives up to its hype? Get Out is on general release from Universal from St Patrick’s Day.