How Jordan Peele pays tribute to horror masters in his movies
Anyone who could have predicted that Jordan Peele would become one of the most potent voices in modern horror when he made the jump into filmmaking either needs to start buying lottery tickets or admit they’re a liar.
Before his feature-length directorial debut was announced, he was best known for being one-half of a sketch duo alongside Keegan-Michael Key, and at no point were there any signs his future lay in scary stories. He’d never acted in a horror film, written anything remotely frightening, or produced a solitary shred of spooky fare before Get Out immediately marked him out as a force to be reckoned with.
His first movie netted him an Academy Award win for ‘Best Original Screenplay’ alongside further nominations for ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’, with his follow-ups Us and Nope carrying on a rich vein of using spine-tingling genre pieces as a means to craft socially conscious and societally relevant narratives that didn’t skimp on the entertainment value.
As a result, he’s quickly become one of the most exciting and dynamic creative talents in Hollywood, but Peele has always found a way to pay tribute to the horrors that inspired him. Befitting its status as one of the greatest ever made, Peele has dropped several overt references to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.
When Daniel Kaluuya’s Chris is talking on the phone to TSA agent Rod, the flight being announced in the background is numbered 237, a nod towards the most infamous room in the Overlook Hotel. The sweeping shots of scenic forestry accompanied by eerie music in Get Out‘s title sequence is a nod to The Shining, too, while the twins who meet their grisly demise in Us are positioned exactly the same way post-mortem as the Grady twins.
The Armitage family carry the same name and medical titles as Dr. Henry Armitage, one of the protagonists from H.P. Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror, while the unsettling first introduction Chris has with housekeeper Georgina was intended to invoke the first meeting between Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, with Peele seeking to emulate how “the whole vibe of coming up on somebody waiting for you patiently is creepy.”
The opening scenes of Us unfolding at the boardwalk take place in the exact same location as The Lost Boys, something Peele confirmed to Uproxx was hardly a coincidence by admitting, “It’s the same beach, it’s the same amusement park, and it’s even 1986.” The single glove worn by Lupita Nyong’o’s Red isn’t just a wink to Freddy Krueger, either, but a nod towards O.J. Simpson’s infamous defence and ‘King of Pop’ Michael Jackson.
Nope is also full of subtle Steven Spielberg references, whether it’s Brandon Perea’s Angel quoting Poltergeist‘s “they’re here,” or Evan Alex’s young Jason wearing a Jaws t-shirt, never mind the legendary director being thanked in the credits. Peele clearly appreciates the greats who came before, and he’s been doing a tremendous job so far following in their footsteps.