Jordan Peele: A Horror Icon for a Modern Generation
“Us” (Waxwork Records) by Edward Kinsella
The history of cinema is riddled with names who have come to define the cultural perception of the horror genre. Names that bear a heavy influence on the cinematic world. Terence Fisher, Alfred Hitchcock, David Cronenberg; there is an exploration by these filmmakers into what makes us inherently afraid, and what tests our capacity to endure as an audience. Perhaps there is no horror director today as stylistically his own, as popular in modern cinema, or as successful in his execution as the architect that has become Jordan Peele.
“How did Jordan Peele so masterfully capture the fear and intrigue of an entire generation of moviegoers? The answer seemingly lies in two words; relentless truth.”
By the end of 2016, Peele was already an established comedic presence with a three-year stint as co-creator, writer and star of the Peabody Award-winning sketch comedy show Key and Peele (2012-2015). His sense of what was happening in society and his ability to observe and comment on racial relations and stereotypes by leaning into them made his work stand out. Although heavily satirical, we laughed because we understood. Jordan Peele was already a master at holding the mirror to ourselves and showing us the comedy in it. It was 2017 when Peele held up a new mirror; one that didn’t reflect what we ought to laugh at, but instead, what we ought to fear.
When Jordan Peele stepped behind the camera, and into the director’s chair, many were unsure of what to expect from the comedy mainstay. There were doubts about his potential in the realm of horror, but if coming off the successes of Key and Peele and Keanu (2016) taught the audience anything, it was to expect something incredibly clever and thorough.
'“Jordan Peele” by Met Mangindaan
These two qualities were present in Get Out (2017), but not how many envisioned. Doused with metaphor, stunning visual elements, and narrative devices that encouraged multiple viewings; Get Out became an instant classic, proving to be a critical and financial success. The greatest question is, why? Or more importantly, how did Jordan Peele so masterfully capture the fear and intrigue of an entire generation of moviegoers? The answer seemingly lies in two words; relentless truth.
Peele’s form of horror is something that thrives off the truth, and Get Out presents the most horrific truth of the contemporary world; deep rooted racism. The world is not foreign to the horrors of racism, it’s been the struggle of humankind. But Peele refuses to allow the audience to feel as though racism is an evil for a former age. Peele presents racism in the modern day, in a way William Goldman and Bryan Forbes brought Ira Levin’s The Stepford Wives to life in 1975. In the same way Forbes captured the feminism crisis of a previous generation, Peele uses Get Out as a vehicle for his seeming frustration with race inequality in America. All while being unrelenting in his metaphorical exploration of such a delicate subject.
Centuries of mistreatment has bred a racism that exists at an almost subconscious level for the world we inhabit. The inability to separate a human being from their skin color is a present dilemma; one Peele puts front and center. From the second the film’s protagonist, Chris, is introduced to his girlfriend’s family, we witness these white individuals desperately wanting to overcompensate for the racial difference present between them. They view Chris, first and foremost, as a black man. This is where Peele seems to plant the film’s first proverbial seed; racism isn’t simply disliking someone for the color of their skin, it’s defining someone by it.
“Get Out” by Peter Strain
The mastery that Peele implores through the narrative is how he uses this theme to explore riveting and often uncomfortable truths of the modern world. One such reality being the issue of modern slavery. The entire film sees the Armitage family seeking to inhabit the bodies of colored people. They want to use Chris for his body. They want to use him for whatever gifts he may have. But it’s more than using him. The process for which this body takeover works is such that would make Chris a silent passenger in how the white conscious mind chooses to use him. Chris is admired for his eyes and talent, as Walter relishes in his newfound speed and agility. The entire film sees this desire for this privileged, and often white, class to take control of colored bodies.
Peele isn’t just presenting a fictional story in which a higher class takes over the bodies of the less fortunate. Peele is holding up a mirror to society and forcing us to observe what contemporary slavery is. Peele is forcing us to observe what it means to value black culture and contributions to society over the black life. Contemporary slavery is the hyper obsession with colored athletes in today’s sports world, for which colored people make up (if not the majority) of all participants, while still so lacking in our own responsibility for social injustice and a system that refuses to serve the vast majority that make up the colored community. Get Out pulls no punches and exposes the audience to Peele’s relentless truth. The methods of Peele’s work would only get more powerful for his sophomore piece.
Although Get Out was a highly impressive visual debut for the now highly respected director; Peele had no reason to stray from the path that made it the smashing hit it was. In his second outing, Peele gave audiences Us (2019); a film that is perhaps more layered, carefully crafted, and relentlessly truthful as his first directorial outing. With Us came the continued commitment for Peele to focus on injustice in the contemporary world, specifically, the undeniable inequality of American life.
The American dream has come to be practically defined by inequality. Us presents this in the simplest yet most poignant way possible; by first building off the premise that, true to the American way, no success or achievement gained should ever be guiltless. For every thriving person in the American system requires one to falter. For every Cinderella story, there is one with no happy ending; and this is the natural balance that is privilege.
Consider one of the most striking visual moments that Us has to offer. We follow Gabe, the head of his household, outside of this beautiful lakeside vacation home. We watch him engage these shadowy figures in an effort to protect his family. It is this moment that speaks to the impending doom of the film. The lighting hides these unidentifiable figures, we are lost in their faces, they have no identity in this moment. All we see are silhouettes and our own presumed bad intentions. In this moment, Peele symbolically presents us with the horrifying fruits of the American system. These shadows are the nameless, faceless class who will never have what the Wilson family have; not because they were anything but unlucky.
The Tethered represent the class of people who never had their chance. That will never have a chance. There exists a myth that we can all overcome our odds and make something of ourselves, that we can be anything; but for entire classes of people, this is but a myth. That inequality, that disparity, will only breed resentment. Us is the story of rebellion against the system. Rebellion against the constant pushing down by a privileged class. Peele presents this truth as horrifying and relentlessly as one can conceive. The acts of the Tethered in the film is the fictional depiction of actual resentment. Peele doesn’t pull punches, he doesn’t mince words, but he also doesn’t observe a happy ending. He does what he’s best at; speaking relentless truth.
“Get Out - Eyes Without a Face” - Jason Edmiston
Jordan Peele’s an architect of modern horror. He is a master filmmaker who has nearly perfected the art of tension and character building. What Peele does, perhaps better than anything else, is forcing his audience to observe the horrifying realities of our present age. What seems to scare Peele, what inspires his films, what makes them so unsettling, is that they are rooted in the world we live in; he speaks to a world we know. To our world. There is no boogeyman, there is no true abstract monster of a certain form; there are only ideas that perforate our world and haunt our culture. Peele makes us see ourselves in the horror; and there is nothing scarier than realising we’re the monsters in our own story.
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