PEELING AWAY THE FUN

With Nope, Jordan Peele burnishes his horror credentials and pulls the curtain on comedy

- NAVIN J. ANTONY

Ten years ago, while he was still finding his feet as a comedian, Jordan Peele gave away a solid clue about his well-concealed fondness for horror. He named his new production company after the famous horror story The Monkey’s Paw by the Englishman W.W. Jacobs, published 1902.

In the story, a British Army sergeant from India visits an elderly couple, Mr and Mrs White, in their country home in England. After a fireside chat and supper, the sergeant reluctantly passes on to the couple a mummified monkey’s paw. The thing is ugly, but also magical—a fakir has cast a spell on it. Anyone can make three wishes come true by holding it up and saying a prayer. But before he leaves, the sergeant warns the couple not to play the wishing game, because the wishes would tamper with fate and have grim consequences. But Mr and Mrs White try their luck anyway.

Thanks to Monkeypaw Productions, Peele’s many wishes have come true. His first project under the banner, a series of sketches for which he teamed up with fellow comedian Keegan-Michael Key, was wildly successful for its inventive, situational humour. Called Key & Peele, the sketches ran from 2012 to 2015, winning awards and garnering nearly two billion YouTube views.

Peele hit pay dirt in 2017, when he wrote and directed Get Out—a horror film in which a black man is trapped by his white girlfriend’s family, taken control of by her hypnotist mother, and imprisoned in a psychological purgatory.