Over the course of the past decade, the cultural perception of Jordan Peele has gone from him being an insanely talented improv comedian with ambitions of becoming a horror filmmaker to being one of the most widely celebrated, acclaimed, and definitive horror filmmakers of a generation. Though he has only written and directed three films within that time period (with a fourth allegedly gearing up for production in the near future), they have been three absolute bangers, each of which has had monumental effects on the entire industry.
2017’s Get Out became a cultural touchstone and a monolith of influence for the modern horror genre and won Peele an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. 2019’s Us became an instant blockbuster smash and cemented him as one of the most audacious new voices in filmmaking, period, regardless of genre. And then, 2022’s Nope saw him further developing as a filmmaker and straight up delivering his best film to date. All of this to say, Peele is a modern-day horror legend at this point, which is why it's so wonderful to see him post a picture on social media of himself spending time with an all-time horror legend, John Carpenter.
John Carpenter is one of the most essential players in all of cinematic horror history, a truth that has become increasingly evident in the past decade, thanks to the sheer amount of films and TV shows that have come out that so obviously wear their adoration for him and influences from him on their sleeve. The man had a ridiculous run of films throughout the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s, from Assault on Precinct 13 to Halloween to The Fog to Escape from New York to The Thing to Star Man to Prince of Darkness to In the Mouth of Madness and beyond.
Aside from a few rogue ventures here and there, Carpenter is predominantly retired as a director, instead spending his time pursuing his other passion: music. The filmmaker famously created iconic scores himself for the vast majority of his own films and now releases concept albums, goes on tours, and even provides scores for other filmmakers. Recently, Carpenter returned to score the most recent trilogy of Halloween films, marking his first official return to that franchise in decades. Then, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Bong Joon Ho (director of The Host, Parasite, and Mickey 17) publicly asked Carpenter to score his next project, and Carpenter heartily agreed.
Peele himself has been strongly influenced by Carpenter and been passionate about admitting as much. The entire opening shot of Get Out is basically Peele riffing on Carpenter and cinematographer Dean Cundey’s Panaglide camera system from Halloween. So it’s awesome enough to see Peele and Carpenter together, two generational talents of the genre in a single picture, both clearly having an absolute blast. And there’s every chance that the filmmakers were simply hanging out and decided to grab a picture to commemorate it. But if we’re putting on our tinfoil hats for a second, I’d like to propose a different answer; perhaps Peele was similarly imploring Carpenter to score his new film?
Peele has been prepping his fourth film for years now, and recent rumors suggest casting and production is preparing to really gain traction, so there’s a chance that Peele was following in Bong Joon Ho’s footsteps and seeking to ask for a musical collaboration with the master of the macabre before filming begins. Here’s hoping, because a Peele film scored by Carpenter sounds like a horror fan’s greatest nightmare come true.
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