GET OUT / US / NOPE: Jordan Peele - the new master of intellectual horror
(This text is originally to find here: https://www.filmmagasinet.no/2023/03/jordan-peele-skrekkens-nye-mester/)
Not every director is lucky enough to kick-start their directing career like Jordan Peele did back in 2017. He was the former actor, comedian, producer and writer who quickly established himself as an auteur and defining cinematic voice, right from the first film. His Get Out came as a slap from the side, against a horror genre that until then was mostly about blood and gore, scaring and being scared, but little more. The film won the Oscar for its original screenplay, which is quite unique for a horror film. It also says much about its qualities. With its distinctive film language, a very steady direction, surprising elements and plot twists, Get Out managed not only to scare, but also to stimulate us to think.
INTELLECTUAL HORROR
If we google the definition of what intellectual means, we get the answer that it is about us humans' ability to think independently, as well as acknowledge and reason. And that's exactly what Peele's films do to a large extent - they make us think, then acknowledge that the claims in his films are relevant and good, before finally reasoning about what is being portrayed in the films. In other words, it is intellectual film, set in a pop cultural framework, style and form.
Besides obvious aspects such as the fact that Peele has put actors of color in the front and uses clear racism-critical themes, there are also plenty of other and smaller aspects that characterize him as a director. Now, of course, many films before Get Out have also dealt with similar forms of "smart" tension with several layers, such as the classics The Shining (1980) and Scream (1996), or newer titles such as Hereditary (2018) and It Follows from 2014. In the latter, much of the tension and horror was linked to forces and dangers that could not be directly seen. Through sexual contact, one was infected and tormented by something undefinable, in sharp contrast to, for example, a scary knife killer who chases his victim. In Peele's three films, something of the same is consistent - we are presented with something we don't understand what is at first, and the horror subsequently becomes both diffuse, unexpected and less manageable. Eventually, however, we understand more, while at the same time being intellectually challenged to also try to tie the threads together, and find meanings in the many layers of the films.
So let's take a closer look at Peele's three films, and see what keeps repeating, what captivates and frightens about them, as well as what they reflect about ourselves and the times we live in.
GET OUT
The aforementioned directorial debut took the world by storm, largely due to its cleverness in story and theme, satirical layers, and the surprising narrative development. Here we make acquaintances with the loving couple Chris Washington and Rose Armitage, whose family has invited them for a weekend stay. Her parents live in a beautiful place, far away from the hustle and bustle of the city, and they both expect a nice weekend with the Armitage family. Chris, who has never met Rose's parents, is at first puzzled by their somewhat odd behavior, but first writes it off as insecurity about the fact that their daughter is coming home with a colored boyfriend. As time goes on, Chris begins to stumble upon more small and larger things, while intellect, shock and disbelief, and finally survival instinct become part of this horrifying and surreal weekend experience.
The blindingly white Armitage-family will prove to have a very special relationship with both skin colour, race, history, and in the view of characteristics associated with this. The fetishization of the black body repeats itself in the story, giving it an extra layer - the white people worship the blacks, instead of just hating or loathing them. They admire them, their characteristics and qualities, while demeaning them in parallel. This conspicuous racism has such a two-sidedness to it that is experienced as thought-provoking and interesting. The story then reveals that the whites try to connect their head and intellect to the blacks' physique and body, as the latter's physique is considered to be superior to the white's body. As sick as the plot turns out to be, the “superhuman” is in this sense a kind of goal for these white people.
Although the plot is drawn out reasonably far and exaggerated, it has a great footing and root in both real history and culture, even in our days. The polarized United States is still in a place where racial themes both engage and create major conflicts, and Get Out creates such powerful resonance even today. Just look at the race riots in the states in recent years, with a bunch of police killings and the like. Peele's film may use slave history and older attitudes for all it's worth, but he also mixes in related aspects that are unfortunately just as relevant today as before. And not least, the experience of racism is something that is portrayed very cleverly and well through Chris's ugly experiences here.
As it turns out that the Armitage family is running some really rotten businesses in their basement, the scale of the story also escalates, where sick worship, grotesque body horror, and super weird cult themes come into the picture. Scary depictions of sects and cults are nothing new in the horror genre either. Roman Polanski's classic Rosemary's Baby (1968) and Ti West's stylish but also creepy 80s portrait The House of the Devil (2009), have diabolical touches that create creepiness as long as it lasts. In Get Out, some of the same is brought in, but set to the present, in a modern and easily relatable framework, where the "shock" that comes a lot consists of the realization that these "ordinary" people are actually doing this sick stuff here, in our time.
And when Get Out is to be summed up as a thriller, it is not as horror in the traditional sense that the film and the story frighten the most. It is in its depiction of everyday racism that we experience the horror through Chris, as his fear escalates step by step throughout the story. Similar themes can be seen in a film like Antebellum from 2020, perhaps not quite as well-directed and multifaceted a film, but where racial and slave history is portrayed even more clearly, and with a real plot twist at the end.
Get Out feels uncomfortable right from the start, like when Chris has to show his certificate to a policeman, even if he is not the one driving. Furthermore, also through the social unpleasantness that arises when Chris meets the white Armitage family, who then only have dark-skinned servants in the house. The classic meeting with one's new in-laws, which in itself is often unpleasant for most people, becomes extra unpleasant in this setting and the film. Then further things happen that intensify the discomfort, followed by directly shocking and unbelievable events, where the horror of the story is added with even more layers and nuances.
In other words, the film is perhaps more unpleasant and morally and ethically disgusting and provocative, than outright scary. As social and satirical commentary, Peele's way of evoking tension and discomfort here is eminently stitched together and impressively rich in a way that allows the film to be watched over and over again, still giving us new discoveries, realizations and aha-moments. It may not be as easy to reason around for us Norwegians, thanks in large part to the fact that racism is not as overwhelming as part of Norwegian society, but nevertheless - Get Out is a stinging and solid cinematic work that becomes impossible not to recognize as a solid film in so many ways.
US
The difficult second film may not have become as much of a talking point and a film that received as much coverage as Get Out, but Us (2019), which was supposed to try to "jump after Wirkola", actually made the undersigned become more engaged and captivated, than by Get Out. This was possibly due to several reasons. Firstly, Us was perceived more like a horror film, both in what the jump-scares and directly terrifying single scenes entailed. The action also spans several places, in time and space, and there are several characters involved, which makes the film possibly feel richer and more multifaceted.
The plot here revolves around the Wilson family of mother, father and two children, who are on summer holiday in Santa Cruz, California, where they will also share the holiday with some friends. One night, a menacing family breaks into their vacation home, only to reveal themselves as exact replicas of themselves! For us viewers, the Intrusion at the Wilson family quickly becomes very uncomfortable, and illustrates something that is among our greatest fears - that the private and personal, including our children, are attacked by something frightening from the outside. The fact that the intruders are again like the family's doppelgängers adds a surreal twist to the story which means that you really get something to chew on!
In the story, Peele draws large and small lines between archetypal American markers and phenomena, such as poverty, homelessness, music and culture, famous resorts and settings, and pop cultural phenomena. Like "Hands across America" - a fundraiser which in 1986 collected money to fight famine and poverty in Africa and among the homeless in the USA. This action repeats itself in the story, and also ends the film, albeit with a small new twist.
The doppelganger family claims that they are bound to the Wilson family through having the same soul, and will therefore try to break away from them, which leads to a bloody confrontation. The Wilsons then discover that doppelgangers are killing their corresponding families all over the place in the city, and that they then try to form a chain of hands, so that no one can leave or enter the city. The plot then moves into even more layers, where we learn, among other things, that the clones in the doppelgangers were originally constructed by the US government to control the originals. But when this went wrong, the clones were banished to a world below ground, among miles of underground canals, rooms, passageways and roads. A further plot element is revealed when we realize that the one main character (played by Lupita Nyong'o) was actually kidnapped and swapped with a clone back in her childhood. In revenge, and anger, she has spent years underground organizing this attack on the surface.
Peele often uses metaphors and allegories in his films. In this film it is "Us against Them", so to speak, and in more ways than one. The sci-fi classic Them! from 1954 is precisely about giant ants that attack from underground tunnels, something Peele obviously knows very well and has used deliberately. We also have the two families who are pitted against each other. It's the rich vs. the poor, white vs. black, etc. And you can also read the title 'Us' as US (United States), and voila, the title takes on another dimension - it becomes a bit like the individual against the state, David against Goliath.
The title can also tell us directly that we as viewers should look ourselves in the mirror. Because the action in Us has been claimed by many to be a self-portrait of the United States and Americans, how they destroy themselves, preferably from within, both literally, through the clones underground, and more metaphorically, through racism and conflicts between people. And just like the ever-recurring and ever-present racism in the United States, one never learns from history, from repeated tragedies, events and human behavior, which Us portrays to a great extent in several ways.
Us also features a flurry of typical American pop cultural references and hints, as conspiracy directed at the state, music, celebrities, TV programmes, films, etc., and where nothing is of course accidental. These largely create the "Americanness", and nail the story to a specific place, time and setting, which makes Us such a thematic and reference-rich film in so many ways. In the end, you are left with an insane number of thoughts in your head, while at the same time realizing that you have just seen yet another demanding, content-rich and admirable Peele film. This is actually a film that is so packed, that you can study it for hours, and constantly discover new things!
NOPE
Peele's third film went back and focused even more on the downright mysterious and supernatural. In Nope (2022) it is again largely the typical American that is in focus, such as in horse and ranch business, hip dialogue between central characters, conspiracy theories, superstition and UFO themes. The layers, details and interpretation possibilities are again many, but Nope is also a particularly beautiful film, with extensive use of large, broad and stunningly beautiful images from the enormous valley where this ranch is located. With the renowned photographer Hoyte van Hoytema behind the camera, the film is given extra qualities with shots that suit the particularly grandiose, huge and ugly "monster" in the story perfectly.
Nope is a story about Otis Jr. and sister Emerald who are left alone to run the huge Haywood Ranch after their father dies in a strange accident. One day, metal parts rain from the sky, and he dies from the injuries from a coin that enters his head. Otis and Emerald are left behind, trying to maintain the family business which consists of lending horses to the Hollywood film industry. Suddenly, one day they discover strange events in the sky above the ranch, and set up camera surveillance on the property. Eventually it will turn out that a huge UFO-like creature lives behind a cloud nearby, and that comes out from time to time to eat people, horses and other living creatures. Metal and scrap, on the other hand, the creature does not like, so this is spewed out again, and hence the death of their father at the beginning of the story.
Despite this surreal and sci-fi-like story - Nope is also a human drama, and again the family constellation is central. Here, it is about survival, about work, and making a living from nature. But if you are greedy, voracious and mess with nature, it will bite and fight back, yes it may even eat you up, literally!
This use of nature repeats itself in several ways. The film starts with a chimpanzee hitting actors to death in a television studio. A survivor from the same TV-show later in life tries to milk money out of people with a museum about the show. He also starts an outdoor show to "conjure up" the big "UFO" in the sky. And also Otis and Emerald support themselves from horses, while at the same time they see the opportunity to make money from the "impossible photo" - a picture of this UFO. Because then people can finally believe in them, and they can become rich. So they also hire a skilled documentary filmmaker - all to get this flash shot, and maybe they'll be lucky enough to be on The Oprah-show?!
Peele's homage to older monster and sci-fi films is also striking, but at the same time also done in a modern way. It is a story of the pursuit of fame, of being seen and admired, of greed and exploitation. Much of this is reflected in the fact that Otis and Emerald eventually realize that if you don't look directly at the UFO/monster, then they won't be eaten either. If you stop staring, literally, then you escape.
THE MASTER OF MODERN HORROR
From 70s/80s slasher violence, 90s parodies and humor, via 2000s torture porn, to today's intellectual horror. Jordan Peele places himself in horror history by largely adding countless layers of satire, contemporary criticism, racial and cultural themes, as well as baking in a form of cinematic tension that is often linked to the familiar and close, where the safe is torn away under our feet, and surreal elements are added to the stories.
And just to make it crystal clear - you're neither stupid nor necessarily completely distant if you can't get hold of Peele's films like that during the course, or immediately after seeing them. The undersigned had heaps of questions swirling around in his head after watching all the films. But as is often the case with just such good, multi-faceted, multi-layered films, they therefore invite intellectual stimulation both during and after the film screening. The films therefore have an extended experience and effect - you take them with you, out of the cinema hall or the sofa, and think about things long afterwards. And this is also part of the meaning, one can believe, that Peele wants to provoke and frighten, in order to engage and create debate, for example about everyday racism, attitude and culture, among us.
Jordan Peele is a master at handling many layers, dimensions and metaphors, made so detailed, subtly and impressively written and composed, that his films become like cakes with countless layers. The experience for us viewers is therefore correspondingly - an experience that persists, and does not just leave us when the film’s credits starts. I wonder what our time's intellectual horror master has up his sleeve in the future?!