As well as directing, Peele has made a name for himself producing under his production company, Monkeypaw Productions. His company has been responsible for many other projects, including the recent Candyman, The Twilight Zone and Spike Lee’s BlackKklansman.

Get Out

Peele’s directorial debut propelled him into a household name, alongside its star Daniel Kaluuya. A horror/ thriller focusing on racial tensions, the film follows Chris (Kaluuya) as he meets his white girlfriend’s family. Despite some initial reservations, it turns out Chris has a lot more to be worried about than he first thought. The film was a massive hit, earning over $255 million and becoming the tenth most profitable film of 2017. It was nominated for 3 Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Kaluuya, it won the award for Best Orginal Screenplay. Critics have cited it as one of the best films of the 21st Century, and it has remained in the public conversation, thanks to its themes of racial tension.

Us

For his second feature, Peele once again turned to the horror genre. This time leaning fully into the genre as a response to the “genre confusion” of his previous effort. It follows a family who, while on a beach house vacation, are stalked by their doppelgangers. Peele was inspired by an episode of The Twilight Zone and a dark underpass he used to cross as a teenager. Us was also a huge success, bringing in around $255 million and earning praise from critics and audiences, with praise for the direction and Nyong’o’s performance.

Nope

Branching out into science fiction for his third outing, Peele stated that the title was a reference to the reaction he wanted from audiences. Partly inspired by the Covid-19 lockdowns and barrage of negative news headlines in 2020, it follows two siblings who attempt to capture evidence of a UFO. It opened to positive reviews and around $19.5 million on the first day of release. With some reviews noting the Speilbergian feel. Nope has divided some audiences over its story and is unlikely to do as well as his previous efforts due to cinemas still recovering from the pandemic.

What’s Next?

Peele hasn’t given any hints as to his next film, as it’s likely a few years away. It will probably be horror mixed with another genre, although he could feel like moving away from horror, as Nope feels more like an ode to exploratory science fiction films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Whatever Peele’s next project ends up being, it is likely to have something to say and reflect modern life, and something wholly unique.

Also Read: Inside the Mind of Jordan Peele

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Consider this your spoiler warning!

Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

Based on the stage musical of the same name, the theatrical ending sees Seymour (Rick Moranis) survive his encounter with the carnivorous plant Audrey II, and whisk Audrey away to an idyllic suburban life, with a small Audrey II plant in the garden. This ending differs from both the original musical and intended ending, where the plant eats the leads, and, along with other Audrey II’s, goes on a War of the Worlds style rampage. Despite being beloved by theatre-goers, test audiences were not as keen on the segment, which reportedly cost around $5 million. Although long since thought lost, it was eventually restored and can be viewed on the blu-ray version, as originally planned

Army of Darkness

The third Evil Dead film sees Ash trapped in the Middle Ages. After defeating the evil dead once again, Ash is given a potion that will allow him to travel home. After reciting an incantation, he arrives back in the present day and tells his story to a fellow S-Mart employee. In the original ending, it is explained that the potion allows him to sleep for a hundred years for every drop he consumes. While Ash needs six to return home, he accidentally consumes seven and wakes up in a post-apocalyptic future where humanity has been destroyed. The studio found this ending to be too negative and dark, so the ending was changed for the theatrical release.

I Am Legend

Based on the book of the same name, it follows Robert Neville as he tries to find a cure for an infection that has turned most of the population into vampire-like monsters. In the theatrical ending, Neville sacrifices himself to allow two other humans to escape with the cure, in the hopes they may eventually create one. The alternate ending is slightly closer to the book, which reveals that the monsters are intelligent, and have come looking for him in revenge for all of the ones he has kidnapped or killed, viewing Neville as the monster. With the announcement of a sequel, this may now become the canon ending.

Clue

One of the great things about the board game is that the ending changes every game. This means that you don’t know who the answer is just because you’ve played it before. When Clue was originally released in theatres in 1985, it actually had three different endings, so neither did the audience! A fourth ending was also filmed, in which the butler Wadsworth was behind all the murders, but it was removed.

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World

One of the challenges of adapting a story that is still ongoing is not knowing how it ends. While the graphic novel series had started in 2004, the final volume was still being written while the film was being made. In the original ending, Scott let Ramona go, instead of getting back together with Knives. Creator Bryan Lee O’Malley disliked this ending, as he felt it wasn’t right for Knives. After the release of the final graphic novel, which has Scott end up with Ramona, the ending was redone to match this change. Ellen Wong, who plays Knives, approved of the change, with the character pointing out “I’m too cool for you anyway” in the final film.

Get Out

While not exactly cheerful, the original ending is cathartic. As Daniel is choking Rose, a police car shows up, and Chris realises how this looks, resigning himself to his fate. In the theatrical cut, Rod gets out of the car, and Chris (as well as the audience) breathes a sigh of relief. In the alternate ending, it’s the actual police that turns up, and Chris is promptly arrested. When Rod visits him in prison, trying to help release him, Chris is resigned to his fate, content that he stopped the family. Peele later decided that the film needed a happier ending, but wanted to preserve that initial moment where the car pulls up.

Terminator: Salvation

Although this ending hasn’t officially been released (if it was ever filmed) the leaked original ending has been confirmed several times. During the final battle with the T-800, John Connor is mortally wounded. In the final version, Marcus sacrifices himself to keep Connor alive with his cybernetic body. However, the original plan was for Connor to die of his injuries, and the resistance would graft his skin onto Marcus so that he could live on as John Connor and lead the resistance as a reformed terminator in disguise. Another version had the now Terminator John Connor call his closest allies, including his wife and Kyle Reese, to his bedside before killing them all. While it may not have improved the film, it would certainly have been an interesting twist

Also Read: Netflix and The Science of Recommendations

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What’s Going On?

A family holiday back to the beach she visisted as a child brings back unsettling memories for Adelaide and triggers a sense of something truly terrible coming. Unfortunately, her feelings are proven right when late at night a group of four people, a family, are spotted hanging around outside their holiday home. As Gabe, husband and father, confronts the group things quickly escalate and soon it’s a house invasion at which point Adelaide, Gabe and their children realise their attackers look exactly like them.

Behind The Scenes

This is the second film by Jordan Peele after 2017’s Oscar-winning Get Out and expectations are high. Peele was known primarily for many years as one half of comedy sketch group Key and Peele, who while not well known in the UK were a big deal in America. After two films Peele is already making a name for himself as a master of horror and he seems like the perfect person to present the rebooted Twilight Zone. As someone who is not a huge horror fan Peele’s films have had a big impact on me.

In Front Of The Camera

Most of the cast play two characters so Winston Duke has to be both reassuring father Gabe and violent brute, Abraham. While the focus is on the whole family Lupita Nyong’o is undoubtedly the star of the movie with two amazing performances as Adelaide and her doppelganger, Red. The children, Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex, are both great and are especially creepy when being the doppelgangers.

Does It Work?

As I said, expectations were high after Get Out and this film met those high expectations. As soon as the doppelgangers arrive the film is a non-stop terrifying ride. Each doppelganger is their own unique brand of horrifying: Adelaide’s speaking in a rasping voice about what horror she has been through and what awaits, Gabe’s is a brute dishing out violence at any opportunity, Zora (the daughter) has an unsettling manic look to her and Jason (the son) acts more like an animal, scuttling around the room with a very creepy mask. Each doppelganger takes on the original in an apt way (e.g. Zora is told to run and is chased by her double as Zora had recently discussed quitting Track and Field events) which suggests an in-depth knowledge of the family.

The film has many twists and turns and unexpected events so I won’t go too much into the plot so as to avoid spoilers. The normalcy of the family at the beginning sets up a wonderful family life. Gabe is such a “Dad” character making stupid jokes, telling off the children and insisting on planning activities none of the others wanted to do – I assure you, Gabe, nobody wanted to go fishing. There are problems that are hinted at such as Adelaide’s possibly traumatic past and how Jason seems to always wear a mask (I couldn’t work out whether it was meant to be Chewbacca or just a generic creature) but overall they seemed a very happy family. The film also manages to be funny, especially before the horror gets going, it’s a rather nice comedy of a happy family and is a gentle reminder that for a long time Jordan Peele was primarily a comedian.

Adelaide’s character goes on a harrowing journey that begins with her as a terrified mother, relying on her husband or the curiously missing police to save them to a truly formidable presence. It is hard to overstate just how brilliant Lupita Nyong’o is in the film, playing the fragile Adelaide or giving intense monologue’s as Red to Adelaide finding her strength.

The film primarily seems to be about identity and the feeling of how if things had been different you could be a completely different person. What connection does a genuine doppelganger have with you? Who has the greater claim to “your” identity? Does undergoing horror make you horrific? Are we only good because we live in a pleasant society where you can make a life without being bad? The viewer is left to make up their own mind about most of this.

Of course this isn’t just a philosophical film about identity but a brutal horror movie. The violence feels awfully real and a great deal of convincing blood is shed. The sheer oddity of battling a mirror image of yourself increases the disturbing nature and surely everyone watching would be imagining how they would have handled their own evil doppelganger.

The films looks great. The doppelgangers have a very distinct look, wearing identical red boilersuits and a single leather glove and all are armed with very sharp scissors (at the cinema I saw the film at the staff wore the same red boilersuits). The image of the doppelgangers standing outside in the darkness, barely illuminated, is very disturbing and memorable. Jason, the first to spot them, instantly identifies them as a family and I think that is exactly how they appear. The beach town is a beautiful backdrop to the horrors than unfold, a favourite touch of mine was the carnival attraction that young Adelaide gets lost in, in the 1980s its a cultural appropriating Native American “spirit journey” but in the present a more generic, and less offensive, Wizard Forest.

The film also uses music really well. I don’t know if I’ll ever listen to Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys without getting a chill down my spine. But there is a trade-off that because of this film I might laugh at Fuck The Police by N.W.A. The original soundtrack is positively chilling with the song “Anthem” bringing dread, fear and auditory flashbacks to many other great horror film soundtracks.

This film is a success on every level and I’m surprised to say that I might have actually enjoyed this film more than Get Out. If you’re a fan of horror or not go and see this film – albeit it might be too much for the very squeamish or easily creeped out.

Verdict: (4 / 5)

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