Jordan Peele, the best horror director of all time? Nope!
The “Get Out” and “Us” auteur refused the title after Twitter user Adam Ellis asked his followers, “I know this is a hot take but at what point do we declare Jordan Peele the best horror director of all time? Can you think of another horror director that had 3 great films, let alone 3 in a row? I can’t.”
Well, Peele can. He chimed in, “Sir, please put the phone down I beg you.”
He went on to point out that John Carpenter is responsible for multiple horror classics, like “The Thing,” “Escape From New York” and “Halloween,” to name a few. “Sorry,” Peele continued. “I love your enthusiasm but, I will just not tolerate any John Carpenter slander!!!”
But, to be fair to Adam Ellis, it looks like Peele is one of the best horror directors of the last decade. His latest film has received rave reviews from critics, with the New York Times writing that “‘Nope’ gets a hell yes.”
Horror Movie Heroines
Peele credits his stars for the film’s success, telling E!’s Daily Pop that Daniel Kaluuya played his character perfectly. “Daniel is uniquely gifted,” he said, “and capable of portraying all the nuances of a character with very few words.”
And nuance is important to a film like “Nope,” which looks like a mere sci-fi Western, but like “Get Out” and “Us,” is rich with meaning. “I think this film, more than anything, is about the Hollywood mythology of the Wild West — and not only the sugarcoating of the barbarism of it, but the erasure of the Black cowboy,” Peele told Entertainment Weekly. “That’s all wrapped up in this movie. In a lot of ways, it’s about Hollywood.”
Nope premieres in theaters July 22.
(E!, this television station and Universal Pictures are all members of the NBCUniversal family.)
