what happened with jordan peele that after years of comedy he just casually stepped into the role of The horror auteur of the decade
like i understand there’s a lot of overlap in the genres and in his work but i mean this guy was a sketch comedy person for years and then switched over to horror for his directorial debut and that one movie was so well done and struck such a chord with people (even winning for screenplay and being nominated for best picture despite being a low budget, black led film of the least award grabbing genre) that he’s already one of the respected auteurs of horror by the time the trailers for his next projects drop
in my brief experience in theater I learned that comedic acting is wayy harder to do than acting in dramas. In comedies, usually the characters ACT very seriously and it’s often the context that makes it funny. It’s why comedic actors can usually do serious roles pretty well but dramatic actors often have harder times with comedies
It’s worth noting that his TV show Key & Peele may technicality have been sketch comedy but each episode was basically a collection of short films, many using Horror and Race as subjects. I’d wager almost all of them having heavy involvement by Peele as a writer, actor, producer, and probably director too. That’s five seasons worth of crash course filmmaking on top of any other experience he may already have.
Get Out was also produced by Blumhouse, which is a production company that will give a very small budget worth of money and a wide release to basically anyone who asks. It’s kinda great because it means anyone from first time directors to people who want to use themes big studios would scoff at (both of which apply to Peele) can get stuff made.
To sum up: Peele is an incredibly smart and talented guy with way more film making experience that people give him credit for who saw a way to make a mark and took it.
I’m not an actor but among writers it’s a known adage that “horror is comedy without a punchline”. The audience usually doesn’t notice this because the punchline usually provides relief too quickly to consciously notice, but structurally, it’s true. Comedy is harder, because you have to sell the horror AND THEN the punchline.
So anytime people want to talk about Jordan Peele’s switch from comedy to horror, I always want to bring up this sketch, which is basically horror – but with a few key things that transition it to comedy.
Thing that makes it comedy: Absurdity.
- The juxtaposition of the bad news with ‘80s competitive aerobics
- The overly long cue cards that were nonetheless written in apparently under a minute, for at most a one cue-card message, just to apparently unnecessarily draw out things out
- The apologetic look on the card holder’s face, while the director mimes a little dance that in no way matches the choreography
- The idea that somehow the main character is supposed to answer these questions while he’s dancing? Live on air?
- Imagine sitting at home and what these guys would’ve looked like – the one dude looking off camera and mouthing “motive??”, etc. Without knowing the story, that’s a pretty funny visual
- The idea that anyone would go to these lengths to win, again, ‘80s competitive aerobics
However, note the horror elements:
- The tension of more and more revealed information, changing from accident to not-an-accident to suspicion to revenge
- The music starts as funny (and sets the scene), but it’s on an unending loop, again raising the tension as we wait for it to resolve – and it doesn’t
- Actually, the music cues in general, along with the switch back and forth between the grainy ‘80s video recording and the more slick and dark “real time” camerawork, are both very horror-tastic
- “Keep dancing”
- The dancers’ smiles are really interesting – they start very fake and open-mouthed, with a lot of teeth, and then the main character’s transitions to a grimace, which maintains the open mouth with lots of teeth, but has a very different meaning. Then, as the scene progresses, the other character’s smile – while looking essentially the same as it started at the top of the scene – appears suddenly sinister
- The idea that someone you’ve worked with for potentially months – talked to, choreographed with, probably stayed at the same hotels, bonded over the bagels on the craft table – has been planning to kill your entire family
- Alternately: What if it really was an accident? So instead we’re watching the total breakdown of a man into paranoia and undeserved murderous rage
You can do this with a lot of Key and Peele sketches – there are a ton of horror elements, and what tips them toward comedy are the levels of absurdity and, to a degree, the resolutions (i.e., the punchlines described previously). “Turbulence” is another good example of this, I think, along with “Black People Telepathy”, “Weird Playlist”, and “The Telemarketer”.
