Us
is the second film from Comedy Central alum Jordan Peele. Peele made major
headlines with his debut horror film, Get
Out, which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
In 2018, he co-produced BlacKkKlansman,
which also took home a screenwriting award at the Oscars. Most recently, he
wrote, produced, and directed Us, a
new horror film starring Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, and Elizabeth Moss.
The movie centers
around a woman named Adelaide (Nyong’o) and her family on their vacation to
Santa Cruz. Although the rest of the family quickly settles in, Adelaide has
trouble shaking an inexplicable sense of foreboding. When a group of
strangers—strangers who look exactly like Adelaide, her husband, and her two
children—appear in their driveway, her worst fears materialize.
photo courtesy of rollingstone.com
With Us, Peele delivers another exhilarating,
terrifying, all-around unsettling movie. Us
might not always know what to do with its frightening ideas, but boy does it
have frightening ideas. And the movie works not only because it’s scary—it’s
actually a good deal less scary than
I was expecting—but because the well-roundedness of its characters and world
demonstrate a careful attention to detail. Perhaps most importantly, Us further establishes Peele as a major
voice in modern horror. Unlike so many directors for whom the genre has become
a stepping stone to something else, Peele and his must-see films are here to
stay.
photo courtesy of vanityfair.com
Us
has all kinds of impressive, standout characteristics to compliment. It features
fantastic music, thoughtful shot composition from Peele, a few very creative scares, realistic
dialogue, and meaningful character development. It also benefits greatly from
the lead performances. Nyong’o is tremendous in both of her roles but
especially as the terrifying doppelganger Red. Winston Duke and Elizabeth Moss
provide some welcome levity, mostly in the earlier scenes.
Peele has incredible
talent creating and sustaining tension. He doesn’t rely overmuch on jump scares
or gore (though you can expect dashes of both in Us). Instead, he lets his scenes simmer, building until the
characters find themselves in imminent danger. The approach makes his horror
sequences feel refreshing and old-fashioned, a much-needed break from the
flashier style of the Conjuring universe and other modern horror franchises.
photo courtesy of bustle.com
And like any worthy
horror film, Us has more on its mind
than scaring the audience. People will be discussing and debating Us for a while, but Peele leaves the
thematic import of the film appropriately understated. Even so, Peele doesn’t
seem to be entirely in command of the ideas he’s working with. Some threads
fail to be developed, others are repeated, others disappoint. By the time the movie
ends, it becomes clear that some key ingredient—something exciting to escalate
the tension into that glorious, resounding next level—is absent, which leaves
the movie’s final confrontation feeling a bit anticlimactic. So although Us excels at crafting nightmare fuel, it
has only limited success creating something more profound.
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