TERROR VISION
A true horror master knows how to put his audience on edge with just a simple image. In the case of Jordan Peele and the upcoming Nope, his third feature as writer-director, all it takes is a lonely ranch standing against a vast night sky, its lights flickering before the house is plunged into darkness. Feel those chills as three little words crawl onto the screen: “From Jordan Peele”.
It’s been five years since Peele’s feature debut Get Out made a star of Daniel Kaluuya, earned hundreds of millions of dollars at the worldwide box office, and nabbed Peele a Best Original Screenplay Oscar. It was a huge win for Blumhouse Productions’ business model, whereby directors are afforded modest budgets and generous creative freedom. In the case of Peele, then famous as a sketch performer, it involved gambling that his comedy talents would translate across genres. No one could have expected that the gamble would pay off quite so handsomely.
Becoming a modern-day master of suspense and a horror icon hadn’t been the plan for Peele, in 2015. So much of his talent for comedy was rooted in being multivocal, which he attributed to a childhood anxiety of speaking in the wrong voice.
