February 21st celebrates the birthday of comedy/horror powerhouse Jordan Peele, one of the most unique and promising horror filmmakers in the last decade. His directorial debut, Get Out (2017), follows Chris (Daniel Kaluuya), a young black man, who after meeting the family of his white girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams), uncovers a horrifying secret underneath their privileged façade.
Astounding commercial audiences and critics alike, Get Out swept the award circuit, earning Peele the title of first black Oscar winner for Best Original Screenplay. His second venture Us (2019), follows Adelaide Wilson (Lupita Nyong’o) and her family hunted by maniacal doppelgängers. Garnering universal critical acclaim, Us was "spill-your-soda scary" (Rolling Stone) and cemented Peele among the ranks of horror virtuosos.
Peele was raised in Manhattan’s Upper West Side by a single white mother who influenced much of his unique perspective on racial issues. Talking to NPR, Peele was open about being teased in his early years due to his speech patterns: "The world has wanted me to speak differently than I speak. I speak like my mom; I speak like the whitest white dude; I speak like a Def Comedy Jam comedian doing an impression of a white guy ... It cannot be a coincidence that I decided to go into a career where my whole purpose is altering the way I speak and experiencing these different characters."
This practice in code-switching permeated his comedy and contributes an interesting spin on his work in horror. He went on to study at the Sarah Lawrence College in a major that may surprise you – puppetry. An unusual beginning, he had his sights set on a career in puppetry before becoming enamored with improv. Briefly a member of an improv troupe, Peele dropped out of college to form a comedy duo with roommate Rebecca Drysdale, who would go on to become a writer for Key & Peele.
Some may wonder how such a successful proponent of elevated horror arose from the unexpected place of sketch comedy. In fact, the development of Peele’s comedic style in his early career paved the way for his seamless transition into horror storytelling (Peele consistently reiterates the similarities between comedy and horror – they are more like ‘conjoined twins’ than sisters!).
His breakout role in the Fox sketch show MadTV led to the enormously successful Key & Peele, which saw him collaborate with MadTV co-star Keegan Michael Key. Produced by Peele’s budding production company, Monkeypaw Productions, Key & Peele presented tongue-in-cheek skits often revolving around race, providing insightful (and hilarious) commentary on the black experience in America.
Covering everything from ethnic stereotypes, to popular culture, to race relations, the sketches use comedic personas, satire, and observational humor to encourage laughs and provoke thought. A popular character spoof, Obama’s Anger Translator (2012) sees Luther (Key) as the ‘anger translator,' who raucously communicates the true feeling behind Obama’s (Peele) diplomatic discourse. The comedy neatly packages deeper commentary on the expectation befalling a black president: do not reveal your true emotion or be unjustly marred by the stereotype of the 'angry black man.'
Peele’s transition into horror was so seamless because both genres operate on similar terms. They seek to elicit visceral responses through tensions and release, pulling audiences to the edge of their seats, ramping up the tension, and drawing out laughter or screams.
These genres exploit our existential fear of the unknown and our constant need to know what's next. Just when the audience is clawing for the tension release valve, the questions are answered.
Get Out is a brilliant example of Peele’s ability to manipulate these tensions. He generates a distinct sense of unease through the unusual interactions between Chris, the Armitage family, and their guests. The garden party scene for example, is rampant with racial microaggressions—the stereotyping of black sexuality, unsolicited physical contact, and a brazen statement of how “black is in fashion."
The white characters harbor a peculiar and specific interest in Chris’s physical body such as whether he can play golf, how he is in bed, and his photographic eye. Chris and the only other black characters have strange interactions, eliciting an increasing agitation in Chris and the audience alike.
Similarly, in Us, the appearance of the family on the driveway holding hands, ominously silhouetted, is unsettling. The tension is amplified by the panicked reaction from Adelaide (we realize later that this is a trauma response) who can sense their malicious intent. Who are they? What do they want? What will happen if they get into the house? Peele tends to unsettle his viewer in a skin-crawling, dread-inducing panic rather than throw frivolous jump scares or gratuitous gore.
The revelation of the bizarre white-to-black brain transplant motive in Get Out or the murderous doppelgängers in Us wouldn’t be quite so affective without applying these “absurd stories to reality” in Peele’s own words. The potentially ridiculous extremes these genres play with need a solid grounding in reality to avoid tipping over the edge into parody. Just as in his comedy, In an interview with Forbes, Peele suggests horror becomes a way to “address real-life horrors and social injustices in an entertaining way."
Peele’s centering of black voices takes potentially sketchy ‘B-movie material’ to something socially relevant and – let’s face it – radical in horror filmmaking: a story where the black people survive and the white savior is forgone. Every white person in Get Out is evil, including Rose, who had the potential to fulfill the role of white savior. It's an innovative tactic that somehow manages to side-step divisiveness in its audience. We all experience the film through the same set of eyes – Chris’.
Us tells a story through the eyes of a middle-class black family – a virtually unheard-of perspective in horror cinema. The terrifying doppelgängers signify that “we are our own worst enemies as a nation” (Peele in an Essence.com interview). When Adelaide asks the doubles who they are, Red – Adelaide’s double – responds in a guttural, haunting tone “We’re Americans”. Us (perhaps not so coincidentally doubling as the U.S.) suggests the doppelgängers, or the suburbanites in Get Out, aren’t the true villain but “the system itself is the monster”.
Peele’s films are terrifying, not least because they are about the atrocious depths of human depravity. He has cemented himself among the horror greats, finding his own inspiration from the likes of horror classics Rosemary’s Baby (1968), The Shining (1980), and The Birds (1963). July 2022 will see the release of the so-far tantalizingly vague and highly anticipated third horror foray from Peele. Do we know what on earth the film is about? Nope! The teaser poster, displaying stormy skies and a menacing cloud hanging above a mountain village, reveals little, but if Peele’s track record is anything to go by we should expect a ‘social thriller’ full of sophisticated scares, existential dread, and perhaps a little nervous laughter. Whatever he may bring, may he continue to revolutionize the face of horror filmmaking as we know it.
Get your copy of the Get Out 4K on Blu-ray by clicking here.
Get your copy of the Us 4K on Blu-ray by clicking here.