Two years passed between Jordan Peele’s feature films projects – Get Out came in February of 2017, and Us premiered in March of 2019. After the runaway success of the former, there was a question of whether or not two years was enough time to really create something as intense and well-written. Would Us be able to stand alongside its predecessor, continue to give credit to Peele as the standout he was two years ago? Personally, I loved Get Out. I loved the details, the attention that Peele paid to every moment on screen, the lack of regular horror tropes (sure there were some, but not so many I got frustrated). All I wanted from Us, even more than a horror film that would actually scare me, was proof that Peele was not a one-hit wonder. I wanted to know that if he continued making movies, they would continue to impress me. The answer is yes – Get Out may still be my favorite of the two, but I see all of the same care and effort put into Us, and for me, that is a good start. It’s proof that Peele can be consistent, that he’s more than just a comedian, and if he keeps making movies like this, I will gladly keep giving him money. Probably more than once per movie.
Many years ago, Adelaide Wilson (Lupita Nyong’o) and her parents took a trip to the beach for her birthday. Adelaide wandered off into a house of mirrors and came face to face with her own doppelgänger, scarring her. Many years later, Adelaide and her family return to the beach for a relaxing summer. Her husband Gabe (Winston Duke), daughter Zora (Shahidi Wright Joseph) and son Jason (Evan Alex) have no idea why the beach frightens Adelaide so much, but she attempts to enjoy the trip for them. She chats with their family friends who have a summer home nearby and tries to forget about her childhood demons. Then that night, Adelaide’s doppelgänger, all grown up, arrives at the summer house with the doppelgängers of the rest of Adelaide’s family. Faced with the darkest parts of themselves, the Wilson family tries to make it through the night against their dark doubles, only to realize that there is a larger plan at work around them.
Because of the doppelgängers, each actor is given a wonderful opportunity to display a range of their talents – not only do they each get a chance to wow us as a “normal” person, but they can prove just how creepy they are capable of being. If we’re giving out prizes, the top would go to Nyong’o, if only because she is given the chance to speak in both roles. Though her three family members are able to emphasize their creepy Tethered nature well physically, there is something about the way that Nyong’o taps her fingers and allows a creak in her voice that grates, both on the ears and in the mind of the audience.Though she is the only one who uses a creepy voice, the rest are given their own little bits to make themselves stand out as their Tethered versions. Alex does perhaps the best job as the Tethered Pluto, grunting and crawling along like a character undergoing an exorcism, but the fact that it’s NOT an exorcism and it’s just a creepy little child moving naturally is the best part of it. The only actor who is better in his regular role than as his Tethered self is Duke, and that’s not to say that his Tethered self isn’t creepy – it’s just that he’s really goddamn funny as plain old Gabe. The family friends of the story, the Tylers, are not quite as interesting as the Wilsons, and they don’t need to be because their Tethered experiences are more to show us the intricacies of the Tethered themselves. We don’t need to learn about the Tylers – they are plot devices to learn more about the creepier aspects of the movie. If the plot was boring, they wouldn’t work as well, but thankfully we are kept entertained by other aspects.
The story of Us is a little more difficult to unpack than Get Out was, if only because the message is more subtle (don’t get me wrong, Get Out was great, but it was very clear about the point it wanted to make). It seems to me that the real sticking point with most people is the reference to Hands Across America, which is an event that not everyone is extremely familiar with. While it is visually creepy and adds to the tone of the film, it doesn’t always translate well in terms of story, making it a little harder for the audience to completely connect to it as a device. Us is also not interested in spoon-feeding its audience ‘hows’ or ‘whys’ – the true nature of the Tethered, while briefly discussed, is more up to fan theories than it is to the script, which can be a blessing or a curse. You can imagine anything you want, and you will constantly be confused and a little disturbed because of it, but you will never know for sure. Some people enjoy the unknown; some people want that satisfaction of knowledge. That’s part of the thrill; it’s why Peele is good at his job. This uncertainty is paired with some inspired shots and moments, such as the dance sequence near the climax of the film which was something I never knew I wanted to see in a horror movie but absolutely loved. That sequence pairs the physicality of dancing and fighting in a way that I’ve always imagined but never actually seen played out, and I want to give Peele, cinematographer Mike Gioulakis, and anyone else in charge of that dance sequence my highest praise for that moment. I will say this too – I did not guess the twist. I was fully prepared for there to be one, sure, and I was waiting for the twist to reveal itself, but until it was actually revealed, I had no idea what it would be.
Like Get Out before it, Us is a well-written, genuinely good movie. How you watch it, however, changes based on whether or not you’ve seen Get Out first, and vice versa. I saw Get Out when it hit theaters; a friend of mine saw it just a week ago, after he had already seen Us. Because of my experience with Get Out, I was used to Jordan Peele’s directorial style; the same was true for my friend watching Get Out for the first time. This doesn’t necessarily take away from your enjoyment of the film, but it does mean that you are able to recognize how Peele works, and the surprises in whichever film you watch next may not hit you as hard as the first one did because you can see where he’s going with it. The movie still works, however, because Peele is a master at what he does. While neither film could probably be classified as straight horror (despite Us leaning more towards it than Get Out), he creates tension in such a way that the audience cannot fully give themselves up to enjoyment, but must be constantly on edge throughout the film. Because of this, despite not relying on jump scares or other typical horror devices, Peele preys on the audience’s paranoia. They are constantly left waiting for something that may or may not arrive, and every move that Peele makes, between camera angle, actor direction, and storytelling is another way to get you on the edge of your seat. It’s a different kind of horror, and one that is frankly more difficult to effectively use than most scary movies nowadays seem to – it’s not something that can be achieved through gore alone, or through a minimal budget with off scene jump scares paired with the right musical cue. It’s a smarter horror, and sometimes that is less likely to sit well with audiences they want something easy and mindless – they want to be scared, but not so deeply scared that they can’t forget about the whole thing in the next half hour before they go to sleep. But for those who want a real paranoia, a real experience of fear and tension, well, Us is crafted for them.
4 / 5
Apparently Peele has a bit of a rabbit phobia. Kind of like James Wan with dolls – they’re EVERYWHERE.
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