With only two movies to his name, Jordan Peele is young in his career as a feature filmmaker, but so far he has remained fairly entrenched in the realm of horror. His 2017 Best Picture nominee Get Out and this year’s Us have both seen the director deliver some thought-provoking scares to audiences. So with two horror movies under his belt, will Jordan Peele be leaving the genre in the near future? Not so fast, because according to the director:
I don't see myself moving far from horror anytime soon.
Horror fans rejoice! It seems that, for the time being, Jordan Peele is content to remain in the genre. That means we can expect more horror films from the director sometime in the future, and that whatever his Us follow-up is, there’s a good chance it’ll be designed to scare you. We know Jordan Peele loves horror and he must really enjoy making horror movies if he doesn’t plan on moving from the genre anytime soon.
It’s a good thing he likes making horror movies because Jordan Peele is darn good at it. It’s a great thing for the genre that he’s going to stick around for a while. Filmmakers like Jordan Peele drive the horror genre’s ongoing renaissance, and he has already drawn more attention to it from both critics and wider audiences, as evidenced by Us’ box office returns. He even received the notoriously genre-averse Academy to nominate a horror-type film for Best Picture with Get Out.
Furthermore, Jordan Peele is keeping horror healthy by making new and wholly original films. Remakes, rebootquels and adaptations like Child’s Play, Halloween and IT are great, but for horror to keep people interested and excited, it can’t just play the hits, a lesson blockbuster filmmaking could also stand to learn.
I’m sure there are many people that like what Jordan Peele has done in horror, but would prefer to see him branch out some more and do something different in another genre. Personally, I’d like to see him do a pure science fiction film, but just because he’s going to continue making horror movies for the time being doesn’t mean there won’t be plenty of variety.
As Jordan Peele said on the special features of the Us Blu-ray, he doesn’t see himself “moving far from horror,” which still allows for plenty of creative latitude. He won’t necessarily be making pure horror each time out. Us was fairly straightforward horror, an active choice on his part after Get Out turned out to be more of a ‘social thriller’ as it was dubbed.
Each Jordan Peele film has also had elements of science fiction, so it will be cool to see what permutation of horror he puts out next. A horror comedy from the Key and Peele co-creator would be fun, but perhaps that’s a bit too easy. My vote is for some close quarters space horror in the vein of Alien or Event Horizon.
We don’t know what Jordan Peele’s next film will be, but just don’t expect a light romantic comedy. Jordan Peele is still busy at the moment. He’s the co-creator and executive producer on the new iteration of The Twilight Zone, as well as a couple other TV series, in addition to producing the upcoming Candyman rebootquel.
We’ll keep you updated on whatever horror movie Jordan Peele does next. In the meantime, check out our guide to see the rest of the horror movies coming this summer.
