Jordan Peele may be a horror movie visionary —scoring the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for his 2017 hit “Get Out,” amongst other accolades — but the 43-year-old doesn’t want to be called one of the greatest fright filmmakers of our time.
The “Nope” director got into a Twitter war with comic book creator Adam Ellis on Wednesday regarding who is the GOAT of the horror genre.
“I know this is a hot take but at what point do we declare Jordan Peele the best horror director of all time?” Ellis tweeted yesterday.
He continued: “Can you think of another horror director that had 3 great films, let alone 3 in a row? I can’t.”
He also posted screenshots of the Rotten Tomatoes scores for Peele’s films, “Get Out” (98%), “Us” (93%) and “Nope” (89%).
“I’m open to discussion but if you’re coming into my mentions to say Get Out and Us are anything less than modern classics you might as well just show yourself out because I’m not open to that (wrong) opinion,” he concluded.
Peele was having none of it and jokingly shut down the statement.
“Sir, please put the phone down I beg you,” the “Mad TV” alum replied.
“Sorry. I love your enthusiasm but, I will just not tolerate any John Carpenter slander!!!” Peele wrote, adding a meme of himself dressed as Robert Redford.
Carpenter, 74, is known for directing iconic horror projects such as 1978’s “Halloween,” “The Fog” (1980) and “Escape from New York” in 1981.
Fans of thrillers and horror pictures also weighed in on the debate, noting the other filmmakers who made their mark on Hollywood.
“Art is not a competition. Ranking filmmakers is antithetical to the creative process,” a user noted.
Others explained that additional directors in the genre had more acclaim to their names, including Alfred Hitchcock, David Lynch, Wes Craven and David Cronenberg.
“Shut up. Jordan Peele is one of our most exciting contemporary filmmakers and he deserves respect, you philistine,” another said.