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Scare Tactics' Jordan Peele Explains the Surprisingly Thin Line Between Horror & Comedy
Scare Tactics is here for both the screams and the laughs, so it only made sense for Jordan Peele to reboot the series for USA Network.
If there's anyone working today in Hollywood who knows a thing or two about both horror and comedy, it's Jordan Peele. That's why it makes so much sense that he and his Monkeypaw Productions group are the team behind USA Network's upcoming Scare Tactics reboot.
The series rides the perfect line between horror and comedy. Who doesn't love to be in on the joke as you watch unsuspecting strangers find themselves in a real-life horror movie?
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When Peele was promoting his lauded 2022 horror movie Nope, starring Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, and Brandon Perea, he did an interview on the set of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah to discuss all things horror.
Jordan Peele's move from comedy to horror
Noah started the interview off by setting up Peele's background: purely comedy, specifically beloved sketch comedy on Key & Peele alongside his friend and longtime collaborator Keegan-Michael Key.
"You're one of the funniest people out there. You were for a very long time putting out some of the funniest content, and now it's just like scary s***. What happened?" Noah asked. "Is this for balance? What happened?"
Peele's answer was pitch-perfect: "Is it weird that I think it’s funny?" he responded.
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"I think the comedy part of my career is still going. I think it’s still active," he continued. "And part of that — I talk about it as sort of like the difference between comedy and horror is the music. And it really does feel like that.
"I love comedy," he added. "It became very complex, somehow, making comedy in this world — as it is making anything or getting anything accomplished in this world."
Are comedy and horror really that different?
Noah commented that everyone else seemed surprised by "the kind of filmmaker [Peele] would turn into," but that Peele threaded the needle between comedy and horror so effortlessly. Perhaps with good reason. Because at the end of the day, horror and comedy are arguably the genres that play with an audience's expectations the most.
Peele detailed how much love and respect he has for his audience, but that he couldn't have predicted this level of love and respect.
"When I wrote Get Out, I didn’t even know if they would let me direct it," he said. "That’s how much has changed in my life." When given the reigns of a big movie like Nope, Peele said there's a "responsibility there" to deliver for the audience.
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Peele is interested, he said, in the "things that are so entertaining that we're blinded to the danger of them. I wanted to make a film about the human response to these things."
And while he's talking about Nope there, Scare Tactics is going to feature plenty of the "human response" to fear. Who hasn't been so scared that they couldn't help but laugh?
Scare Tactics will turn unsuspecting individuals into the main characters of their very own horror movies. This heart-pounding show offers a cinematic approach to the hidden camera concept. Set up by their friends and family, these unwitting participants are put in hilariously twisted scenarios with fully immersive stories that blur the lines of reality, horror, and comedy. As they navigate one unreal decision after another, audiences will laugh, jump, and be left breathless for more.
Scare Tactics will premiere on USA Network Friday, October 4 at 10 p.m. ET. The debut episode will simultaneously air on Bravo, SYFY, and E!.
