DIRECTOR Jordan Peele certainly showed his mettle in the horror genre with Get Out back in 2017, which received four nominations in major categories at the Academy Awards and won for Best Original Screenplay. Pretty great for a directorial debut.
Peele, who is also a producer and screenwriter, proves that his foray into horror territory wasn’t a fluke as he certainly kills it again with Us.
The premise is simple enough with a mother, played by Lupita Nyong’o, and father (Winston Duke), who take their two kids (Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex) on a holiday to their beach house.
Things start to unravel for Nyong’o’s character Adelaide, who had a bad childhood experience there. Seemingly paranoid at first to her husband Gabe, things really get seriously bad when a family of visitors arrives uninvited to their beach house one night.
The really perplexing aspect of it is that the creepy clan resembles each member of Adelaide’s family including herself.
Us is a very unique horror movie that will appeal to fans who want something fresh and different from the well worn genre. It’s got a very Alfred Hitchcock vibe to it and Peele has said that it was inspired by an old Twilight Zone episode.
Peele who wrote and produced this gem mixes a multitude of different tropes into the dark brew, like the psychological aspects of duality and mirror image, as well as the slasher and home invasion subgenres.
There’s plenty of gore, blood, tension, dread and atmospheric buildup in this movie that starts off small but gradually opens up to a bigger scope. Suffice to say, it has a few twists and turns along the way to its ambitious finale.
Not many horror movies offer smart and intelligent ideas that are told in engaging ways, in addition to its mandatory purpose of making audiences squirm in their seats. And this movie certainly delivers.
Although Us has its own faults, the movie is certainly filled with many well executed scenes and filmmaking techniques that will surely compensate for the little stumbles in logic.
The music by Michael Abels certainly works here and from the very beginning sets a foreboding and creepy tone to the eventual proceedings.
Oscar winner Nyong’o does an excellent job here playing two vastly different characters who share the same face and body. She pulls it off so seamlessly that you won’t even realise its the same person playing the two roles.
In fact, the rest of the cast are also convincing, especially Adelaide’s core family members who completely sell the movie with their portrayals.
Us is the type of movie that will get much better and clearer with repeated watching as viewers catch more things along the way and figure it out for themselves. Fans of horror must see this at least once!
Whether viewers eventually like it or not, the movie itself will surely get them talking about and discussing on the various
abstract themes and social commentary or messages incorporated into the movie that’s open to individual interpretations.
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US
Directed by Jordan Peele
Starring Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex, Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker, Cali Sheldon, Noelle Sheldon
Duration 117 minutes
Rating 18