Jordan Peele gave his own thoughts on the “elevated horror” title, and how he feels about it being applied to his work. His comments echo similar sentiments that horror fans have been saying about labeling horror films in this way.
Peele has directedGet Out,Us,and, most recently,Nope. He also expanded onto television when he briefly worked onThe Twilight Zonereboot before its cancellation. It’s safe to say that Peele is both a fan of horror and one of its biggest advocates on film. The genre has historically gone unrecognized by the Academy at large (Terrifier 2was recently jokingly submitted for Oscars considerationto highlight this). Recently, a trend of calling more cerebral horror movies “elevated horror” has emerged, seemingly to differentiate more “high art” films that prioritize metaphor and craftsmanship over horror films with jump scares and other such twists.
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Peele andNopestar Keke Palmer were interviewed byThe Vergeabout their recent collaboration, and while he was present, Peele spoke about his own films being labeled with that title. “I don’t want people to think that I’m trying to make ‘elevated’ films,” Peele said. “I think that’s a trap that I don’t quite appreciate because I, you know, I like making fucked-up films. I like making weird movies that I’m really just not supposed to make - and sometimes challenge people on the other side of things as well.”
Peele’s remarks show that he balks at labeling his films as prestige films simply because they contain some nuance. Peele, as a fan of horror, seems to echo the sentiments of many other fans: “elevated horror” is a bit of a trap that denigrates other films in the genre. For instance, whileNopehas had its true meaningdissected over and over again, some of the most groundbreaking horror films of all time have been excluded from serious discussion because of their subject matter. For instance, Stanley Kubrick’s own classicThe Shiningwas not considered at the Oscars, only being nominated at the Razzies.
WithNopepossibly getting a sequel, and with Peele in high demand, Peele has plenty of time to address this kind of thinking. His horror films may be mired in metaphor and subtext and other nuanced takes, but Peele doesn’t want his films to be regarded as prestige films. It seems he wants them to be regarded as horror films first and foremost.
And his films do deliver on the promise of making some “weird movies.“GameRant’s ownNopereviewlabels it as a 4.5star film, and it truly is crafted with care and precision. At its core, though, it’s still a film about a possibly alien cowboy-hat-shaped predator preying on the denizens of the rural American west.
