‘Nope‘ director Jordan Peele was called the ‘best horror director of all time’ by a fan on Twitter, but the filmmaker clarified that this was taking things too far and he wouldn’t “tolerate any John Carpenter slander”. 

Comicbook creator Adam Ellis wrote, “I know this is a hot take but at what point do we declare Jordan Peele the best horror director of all time?”, adding, “Can you think of another horror director that had 3 great films, let alone 3 in a row? I can’t.”

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Carpenter is a veteran of the genre with films like ‘The Thing’, ‘Christine’, and ‘Halloween’ to his name. Peele objected to being placed ahead of the master of the craft, saying “Sir, please put the phone down I beg you”, and added, “Sorry. I love your enthusiasm but I will just not tolerate any John Carpenter slander!” 

Ellis had also added ratings of Peele’s movies from Rotten Tomatoes, the review aggregator site. 

Many on the Twitter thread were quick to point out that the horror genre had several stalwarts like Alfred Hitchcock, Wes Craven, David Lynch, and David Cronenberg, among others. While Peele, along with Robert Eggers and Ari Aster, is a director to watch out for in the horror genre, he has only three films to his name yet and is far from cementing his place as one of the all-time greats. 

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That said, Peele’s directorial debut ‘Get Out’ made all the right noises in 2017 winning him an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. The film stars Daniel Kaluuya who’s also the protagonist in Peele’s latest.

The director merges social issues with themes of horror, but ‘Us’ didn’t find quite the same footing as his first movie, and early reviews of ‘Nope’ suggest that though enjoyable, the film didn’t match the standards Peele has set for himself with ‘Get Out’.