There’s no denying that Jordan Peele is one of the best horror directors of the modern era, with Get Out becoming a critical, commercial, cultural, and awards season phenomenon, while Us found no shortage of success at the box office and among audiences. However, his third movie hasn’t even been released yet, but some fans are operating under the assumption that he’s already the greatest of all-time.
Sure, the early reactions to NOPE have been overwhelmingly enthusiastic, and it looks as though Peele is still yet to put a foot wrong when it comes to his feature film output, but those calling him the best of the best are jumping the gun by quite some distance, especially when Wes Craven, George A. Romero, Sam Raimi, Dario Argento, Mike Flanagan, James Wan, and countless others have all been churning (or churned) out terrifying tales for a lot longer.
While it’s fine to state the case for Peele leading the pack, one person who vehemently disagrees with the burgeoning online sentiment is… well, Jordan Peele. After catching wind of the debate that was sweeping Twitter last night, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker stepped in to offer his own two cents on the matter.
The former sketch show comic is evidently a Carpenter ride-or-die, which is fair enough when he definitely ranks among the top tier of those who know how to tell stories about things that go bump in the night. Maybe in a decade or two when Peele has more uniquely engaging exercises in existential dread under his belt we can circle back, but even the man himself doesn’t believe he’s worthy of being part of the conversation just yet.