“Who are you?”
“We. Are. Americans.”
Indeed, we are. This one line cuts to the heart of Us. We have become obsessed with that which we don’t have, never satisfied with our own lives. Social media, in particular, has led to a never-ending competition with others. This dissatisfaction with life choices, whether our possessions are good enough, whether we look good enough, has all led to an underlying unhappiness just below the surface, threatening to destroy our society. These themes are wholly prevalent in Jordan Peele’s latest offering.
Loaded with symbolism and hidden meanings, Peele’s follow-up to his 2016 directorial debut Get Out is not your typical horror film. It may be light on genuine scares, but make no mistake, it IS a horror film (and not a “thriller”, despite the *wink-wink* Michael Jackson shirt). It can certainly be enjoyed on a surface level, but there is a lot more there if you are looking for it.
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Kicking things off in 1986, Us begins with a trip to the Santa Cruz boardwalk (the setting for the fictional town of Santa Carla in The Lost Boys) by a young girl, Adelaide, and her parents. After wandering off from her parents, Adelaide is drawn, almost by force, to a house of mirrors. It is here that she suffers a traumatic event that forever alters her life.
Cut to present day, when an adult Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave) is returning to Santa Cruz with her husband (Winston Duke, Black Panther) and two children (Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex). It becomes clear early on that Adelaide is still suffering PTSD from her childhood incident and her paranoia at being back in Santa Cruz soon proves to be well-founded. Almost immediately after revealing what happened to her as a child to her husband Gabe, a mysterious family shrouded in shadows soon shows up in the driveway of her family’s vacation home. As you can probably guess, this doppelgänger family soon wreaks havoc on the Wilson family. But we soon learn that the chaos isn’t solely confined to Adelaide and her clan.
Peele does an outstanding job of building tension throughout the film, punctuated by moments of extreme violence and brutality, sometimes seen and sometimes only heard. His use of color and lighting (or lack thereof), along with a tremendous Hitchcockian score, creates an uneasiness and sense of dread that permeates nearly every scene. The theme of dualism also creates a great deal of unease for viewers, as it brings up questions of fate and individualism. Early on, we see a man holding a sign reading “Jeremiah 11:11”. This serves as a foreshadowing of the events to come with the scripture (basically that an unstoppable evil is coming), the numerological meaning of self-manifestation of thoughts, and of course the mirroring/dualism represented by the number 11 (or 1 1).
Initially, one recalls other invasion horror films, such as Funny Games, The Strangers, or Hush. But those comparisons end rather quickly. Peele mixes ingredients from those films with elements from Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Through the Looking-Glass, and even the 1984 horror classic C.H.U.D. to create something wholly original.
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The performances throughout the film are quite remarkable, particularly Nyong’o. Her emotional journey anchors the film and gives it a powerful resonance not normally seen in horror films. Winston Duke brings levity to the rather dark proceedings while also providing a vulnerability that many can relate to. And the two child actors, Joseph and Alex, get a chance to show real range by playing dual roles with very different motivations.
The surrealism of Us is certainly reminiscent of Peele’s previous effort, Get Out, only here it is even more pervasive throughout. In a lot of ways, it is the perfect bridge between Get Out and his next creative endeavor, the rebooted Twilight Zone series debuting next month on CBS All Access. Peele has demonstrated a strong horror sensibility while mixing in underlying social commentary, which really shouldn’t be too surprising given his work on his highly successful Comedy Central series Key & Peele. With two films as evidence now, Peele’s greatest contribution to the horror genre may in fact be re-defining what true horror really is. That is something for which we can all be grateful.
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