Jordan Peele is one of the most esteemed horror directors of the 21st century, and he has a particularly unique grasp on horror concepts, always producing original and inventive content.
Speaking to IndieWire, Peele touched on the fundamentals of producing a worthwhile horror flick, mentioning the morbid curiosity that the general public adheres to without even thinking twice about it.
“When you’re on a road, and there’s an accident [and people are rubbernecking], what you’re talking about [is] trauma as entertainment. It’s intrinsic enough in our DNA that traffic slows down when there’s a spectacle to be seen, a bad spectacle. … Everyone likes some form of horror or darkness. We need it. We need to contend with these things, whether it’s coming to see my movies or your procedural television that just goes to the darkest place of all time every night, but somehow you go to sleep OK. We need this. Horror [films] and the people who try to capture their nightmares and show it, I have to think and hope that it provides some catharsis for some people.”
Peele started out on several television series such as Mad TV (1995), Fargo (2014), and a self-conceived collaboration with Keegan-Michael Key, the sketch comedy series Key & Peele (2012). Before dipping his toes into the feature pool, Peele dabbled in voice acting, landing the role of Duke Ellington in Big Mouth (2017), Melvin Sneedly in Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017), and Bunny in Toy Story 4 (2019). He is also the founder of the independent film company Monkeypaw Productions.
It wasn’t until 2017 that Peele made his directorial debut with Get Out (2017), a feature film written, co-produced, and directed by himself. Get Out follows a black photographer from New York (Daniel Kaluuya) named Chris, who feels immediately unwelcome and unnerved when he meets the family of his white girlfriend (Allison Williams) Rose, and they begin to make disconcerting comments about Black people. Chris also noticed the Black housekeeper Georgina and groundskeeper Walter acting strangely upon his arrival.
After the resounding success from Get Out (for which Peele won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay at the 90th Academy Awards), Peele went on to direct, write, and produce the critically acclaimed Us (2019). Peele’s second horror outing stars Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss, and Tim Heidecker, but mainly follows Adelaide Wilson (Nyong’o) and her family, who are pursued by lethal doppelgängers that seek to murder their counterparts and live in their place after suffering extreme solitude and dejection.
Recently, Peele completed Nope, a science-fiction horror that sees Daniel Kaluuya return to the lead role alongside Keke Palmer and Steven Yeun. Nope focuses on residents of an isolated town who begin to suspect the presence of extraterrestrials after witnessing an abnormal event and attempt to capture video footage of UFOs. Scheduled for release on July 22, 2022, Nope has already received praise for Peele’s direction and the performances of Kaluuya and Palmer.
We, for one, can’t wait to see what other tricks Peele has up his sleeve.