Jordan Peele nerds out about Tremors' Graboids and his favorite horror movie final girl

You know you’re in good hands, obscure horror movie-wise, when a director can bust out 1995's Tales From The Crypt Presents Demon Knight on a whim. But such is the slasher acumen of Us director Jordan Peele, who promoted his latest entry in the horror movie canon by fielding some questions about the genre from WSJ Magazine this week. In the process he ends up riffing on graboids, Critters, and that thing Michael Myers does where he tilts his head curiously right after he stabs you, and it’s all pretty great.

Demon Knight, for instance, comes up in a discussion of the old “final girl” trope, with Peele highlighting Jada Pinkett’s character—she becomes a sort of immortal angel with a magical, Billy Zane-killing key, in case you somehow hadn’t seen it—as one of the first instances of a black woman serving in the role in a major studio release. He also talks about his least favorite horror tropes, his “Avengers” line-up of classic baddies, and just generally reminds us all that his money is very much where his mouth is when it comes to his love of this kind of messy, bloody stuff.