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”.
Agree wholeheartedly with the above analysis.
The premise of “Aerobics Meltdown” is also inspired by a very popular meme of the time, even using the same music as the original meme-ified video.
“Key & Peele” photo courtesy of Comedy Central. “Broady City” photo by Lane Savage. Deep-frying photo by Paul Sancya (AP). Spatchcocking photo by Bill O'Leary (The Washington Post).
While writing today’s review I found myself stealing so heavily from Mike D'Angelo’s review from the A.V. Club that I figured I’ll let you take a look at it and then we’ll talk a bit more about it? Okay? Okay.
The problem with sketch comics making feature-length movies is pretty basic: They’ve been trained to think in five-minute bursts. Establish the premise, escalate it quickly, find a punchline, move along. The State alumni Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon would seem to be exceptions, since they’ve written multiple traditional comedies (Night At The Museum, The Pacifier), as well as a book about screenwriting. And yet Hell Baby, their joint directorial debut (Garant previously directed Balls Of Fury solo), functions exactly like a sketch movie, using its meager, essentially irrelevant plot as a clothesline upon which to string a series of self-contained bits. At least half of the bits are pretty damn funny, though, and that’s arguably all that matters.
Given all the tired Paranormal Activity parodies out there, Hell Baby gets bonus points for not riffing on any specific horror movie, though a Rosemary’s Baby vibe comes with the premise. While Leslie Bibb is the hugely pregnant mother, it’s expectant dad Rob Corddry who does most of the fretting after the couple move into a scarily dilapidated house (dubbed “House Of Blood,” among other cheery epithets, by the locals) and weird shit begins happening, starting with mood swings by Bibb that clearly go well beyond any hormonal imbalance. Eventually, a couple of priests (Garant and Lennon) drop by to perform an exorcism, though not before the house has been spiritually cleansed by Bibb’s New Age sister (Riki Lindhome) and repeatedly invaded by a creepy homeless dude (Keegan Michael Key) with zero sense of social propriety.
Garant and Lennon have an affinity for lowbrow, gross-out humor, and a tendency to beat jokes into the ground, both of which are embodied here in gags involving naked women—one a misshapen granny (Alex Berg—yes, a man) who wanders into Corddry’s bed to blow him; the other, Lindhome’s kooky sister, who doesn’t cover up after Corddry accidentally barges in on her in the shower. Lindhome deserves credit for making this scene blithely hilarious, but the entire gag exhausts itself long before it’s over. And that pretty much sums up Hell Baby, which is evenly divided, joke-wise, between complete non-starters and uproarious setpieces that overstay their welcome. There are blissful exceptions: A montage of characters scarfing down po’ boys improves with repetition, and Key, as the omnipresent “neighbor,” somehow transforms a single sublime note of amiable obliviousness into a silly symphony. His character is so tangentially related to the story that he’d arguably fit in just about any movie—or any sketch, for that matter—but so long as viewers are laughing, who cares?
You can’t really expect much from a movie titled “Hell Baby”. Now throw in some sketch comedy heavyweights like Rob Cordry and Keegan-Michael Key and things start looking up. Now consider the fact it’s written and directed by the juggernaut duo behind Reno 911, Night at the Museum, and Writing Movies for Fun and Profit, Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon you might start thinking that there’s something to this little spoof. Well that would be your first mistake. Going into this movie with any kind of expectations of its quality or comedy will certainly ruin it for you. But if, for a couple of hours, you can clear your mind, accept what’s happening, take the good, and leave the bad then Hell Baby might just be worth a little of your time.
So many parts of this crappy little movie are pee you pants hilarious while just as many are things I wish I could unsee. Keegan-Michael Key is as genuinely funny as I’ve ever seen him and Rob Corddry is inspired as the straight man (for once) to the rest of the ensemble’s insanity. The gross out low brow stuff Garant and Lennon are so fond of are perhaps the least rewarding parts of the movie. It’s unfortunate because there are so many good parts that it feels like with a little extra effort it could have been a legitimately good spoof.
But I have a sneaking suspicion about Hell Baby: It wasn’t made for us. There is so much improvisation, so much chemistry, and so much that looks like a total blast to shoot. With the wide range of comedy muscle, sheer size of the ensemble, and minuscule budget you can be certain no one did this for the money. And well… come on, anyone who watches the movie knew it wasn’t going to be a commercial success. But who cares? Because this is the kind of movie that my friends and I would totally make just for the fun of making it. If a few of those friends happen to have wildly successful TV shows, and the writer/directors other films have grossed half a billion dollars in theaters, then so be it. We’re just going to have that much more wiggle room to have that much more fun. Ultimately I can’t recommend that anyone should actually see this movie, despite how much I loved it and how often I almost threw up from laughing. But I can tell you that if anyone else wants to make a Hell Baby 2, I’ll be first in line to help.
