Movie Review: ‘Us’

After his extremely successful, Oscar winning ‘Get Out’, writer-director Jordan Peele is back with his second horror outing – ‘Us’. For those expecting an intelligent horror movie with a lot of underlying themes like his first movie, ‘Us’ would deliver – however, it should be noted that this one is not as straight forward in its storytelling as ‘Get Out’. The social commentary here is anything but direct – and most viewers (myself included) would scratch their heads trying to figure out what exactly Jordan Peele wants to say. This is evident from the amount of breakdown and exploratory videos on YouTube, which try to decode what the movie is all about.  

‘Us’ follows the Wilson family comprising of Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o), her husband Gabe (Winston Duke) and their two children (Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex) who go for a vacation to their beach house in Santa Cruz. Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o) is apprehensive of the trip as it reminds her of a traumatic incident in the past, while her husband Gabe (Winston Duke) is trying to compete with his more affluent friend Josh Tyler (Tim Heidecker). Soon enough, the family are attacked by a family of doppelgängers, each of them wearing identical clothes and wielding scissors. Who are these doppelgangers, what do they want, and will the family escape them forms the plot of the movie.

As I mentioned, ‘Us’ is much more obtuse than ‘Get Out’, which seems to have disappointed a lot of the viewers. That is not to say that ‘Us’ doesn’t work – on the contrary, ‘Us’ probably is more effective as a straight up horror movie than ‘Get Out’, where the key theme of liberal racism was central to understanding the movie and was instrumental in creating a lot of the discomfort. Here, however, while the subtle meaning and the themes of classism, rise of the have-nots and how our circumstances define who we are would enhance the viewing experience, the movie is plenty scary even if you don’t really connect with the themes.

Jordan Peele is already establishing himself as a brilliant creative voice, and his direction is top notch here as well. He creates an eerie sense of discomfort and tension, more akin to something like ‘The Shining’ rather than relying on jump scares. And his liberal use of humour to undercut the tension is brilliant. It also helps that he has a stellar cast who play both the roles very well – Lupita Nyong’o is a treat to watch, and is the highlight here. But full credit to the other cast, including Winston Duke and especially the children, who give amazing performances as well.

‘Us’ is by no means an easy watch – even fans of classic horror may be put off by the movie’s ambiguous tone, open ending and indirect messages. That being said, the movie is not something you can forget easily – it would make you want to revisit it and peel off the many layers to understand the hidden meaning. I have spent quite some time researching the movie after I saw it. And any movie that is capable of generating that interest is definitely a recommendation from me (Shame that it had such a limited theatrical run in India, but would definitely recommend watching it once it is out on streaming).