In recent years, the horror genre has entered a renaissance, and Jordan Peele’s stunning directorial debut, 2017’s Get Out, certainly played a part in getting audiences captivated to see more terrors and frights on screen. The sketch comedian-turned-critically acclaimed filmmaker is a huge horror fan, who recently revealed one icon he sees as the scariest villain. Here’s what he said:
I'm gonna say Michael Myers. He's not even evil, he's just curious. You know you can't talk him out of whatever he wants to do and he'd always do that thing where he'd stab somebody and he's sort of turn his head like that, which is the international symbol for 'fascinating.'
It looks like the star of the Halloween franchise, Michael Myers (a.k.a. The Shape), caught Jordan Peele’s eyes as the creepiest horror antagonist of them all, per a WSJ Magazine interview. It’s for a good reason too – his motivations behind that his wrongdoings seem to simply stem from curiosity above anything else. Cue the chills!
Jordan Peele brings up a good point here. While many villains have evil intentions because of their nature (maybe they’re a demon or a wicked doll) or are inspired by power or revenge, the Halloween villain is purely kills out of fascination and enjoyment of the chase. When a killer such as Michael Myers is getting pleasure out of murder, there is no changing their mind. It's truly horrifying!
The Halloween films has had 40 years of staying power, as eleven films have been made starring Jordan Peele’s pick for favorite villain. Michael Myers recently saw a comeback with the 2018 direct sequel to the original Halloween starring Jamie Lee Curtis back as Laurie Strode. 2018’s Halloween made over $253 million worldwide at the box office, becoming one of the most successful films for the franchise.
The Get Out writer and director certainly brought a new definition of “horror” to the big screen when its exploration of liberal racism in America today was the centerpiece jump scare. Get Out went on to be nominated for four Oscars and score one win for Jordan Peele’s original screenplay.
Jordan Peele is gearing up for the release of his second film Us this month, which will be full-on horror and promises to be way scarier than Get Out. The upcoming movie is about a family of four (played by Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex) who become terrorized by doppelgängers of themselves during a summer getaway. Us also stars Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II.
Us will premiere at SXSW in Austin, Texas on Friday, March 8 and hit theaters on March 22, with early tracking at a $35 million opening weekend. The movie’s monsters seem to be about ourselves being our worst enemies… I’d say that’s up there as far as scary premises.
