In 2017, comedian Jordan Peele made his directorial debut with Get Out, a horror movie with comedic undertones that was not only unsettling, but offered plenty of social commentary on race relations, also doubling as a pitch-perfect satire. The film skyrocketed Peele’s reputation as a filmmaker and made him a sought-after producer for other horror and sci-fi projects. Though one question lingered, and that was if Peele was a one-hit wonder or potentially a new master of horror. Audiences finally got their answer with Us, Peele’s second directorial outing. Unfortunately, while Us is another entertaining effort by Peele, it never quite reaches the same heights that Get Out reached.
The film follows Adelaide Wilson (Lupita Nyong’o), who heads to her summer beach house in Santa Cruz along with her husband (Winston Duke) and two children (newcomers Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex). As a child, Adelaide had an incident in a House of Mirrors on the beach near the summer home where she encountered a doppleganger of herself, which traumatized her. Adelaide begins to experience unsettling flashbacks to her traumatic experiences and expresses a desire to leave. Though before the family can take off, their home is invaded by a family who are all also dopplegangers of the Wilsons taking them hostage and subjecting them to a night of terror as they try to fend the intruders off.
The film can be creepy and atmospheric, with a haunting soundtrack that consists of cult-like chants that can cause the hairs on your body to really stand up. Like in Get Out, Peele focuses less on jump scares and more on frightening imagery. A lot of the suspense is built through character development, in particular Adelaide as she tries to fight off the trauma that she faced as a child.
However, the film doesn’t consistently feel like a horror movie. One thing that audiences loved about Get Out was the fact that it injected a good dose of comedy between some of its more frightening moments, offering some darkly comic moments that loosened the audience up before diving into the next big scare. Us takes this element and ups the ante, feeling a bit more like an action-comedy and downplaying some of the horror elements.
It isn’t necessarily a bad thing that the movie goes down this route. It’s still incredibly entertaining in these moments. Winston Duke’s Gabe is the biggest source of comedic relief, constantly popping off jokes in the midst of some of the more intense moments of the movie, though never losing focus on the situation in front of him, still taking the situation seriously but trying to ease the tension. Meanwhile, Tim Heidecker has an incredibly fun supporting role as one of the Wilsons’ friends who occupies a beach house of his own.
Music also plays a huge part in some of these more comedy-heavy moments. Peele abandons a more traditional horror soundtrack in certain key moments in favor of popular music such as The Beach Boys and N.W.A. Though these moments go on just a tad too long, for the most part, they work well, and give the movie an action-fueled adrenaline rush. While these moments are enjoyable, horror fanatics may be a bit displeased Peele goes down this route as the film is arguably less a consistently scary experience.
While the film can be very funny, it is also very much a character piece, focusing on the inner struggles that Adelaide faces, and her constant battles with her past traumatic experience. While we do get a story that involves several dopplegangers, both of the family and of many others, the film centrally revolves a lot of the conflict around one woman whose past comes back to haunt her in the worst way possible and the way in which she ties into a much larger picture.
Granted, there are moments where the film can tend to feel a bit aimless as it looks to expand its universe, which is mostly as it heads into its third act. There’s an extended period of time where the main family of dopplegangers aren’t seen, and while we are treated to some entertaining sequences, the main story feels like it comes to a complete halt for a bit, as the audience is left anxious as to where the main conflict is headed next. After a certain period of time, the lack of our main villains’ presence can be felt, though luckily they return to the fold before the movie completely loses steam.
With Adelaide and her doppleganger mostly at the center of the action, the film is Nyong’o’s, with her getting the most to do out of the entire cast by far. She plays two incredibly strong women, both dominating in their own unique way. While Adelaide has plenty of moments where she seemingly starts to unravel, she’s far from a scream queen who has to rely on others to save her, instead being the one guiding the family through the night of terror. Meanwhile, her role as the doppleganger Red, makes for an engaging villain, with skin-crawling gestures and a commanding presence each time she’s around, even if her raspy voice does tend to be a bit grating at times.
Adelaide and Red’s conflict allows the movie to touch upon many themes, with the biggest being an extremely literal representation of the fact that we are our own worst enemy. The idea of our own internal struggles manifesting itself into an alternate, evil personality makes for a great “good vs. evil” story though Peele doesn’t shy away from the fact that there is a lot of symbolism afoot. The film often feels heavy-handed, with moments such as a Bible verse constantly being referenced, as well as a brief spiel at the very beginning that felt placed to make it explicitly clear that there is a much deeper meaning behind this story. Peele is not subtle in his approach that he wants the audience to discuss this movie afterwards.
Which leads to the film’s biggest problem: The ending. I will not spoil the ending by any means. However, it’s absolutely worth mentioning as the last twenty or so minutes totally derails the experience. Up until this point, Us was a slightly uneven experience, but had plenty of positives that covered up immensely for its faults, and still managed to be quite a fun watch. However, the ending is a game-changer, and winds up skewing how one views the entire movie.
The last few minutes of the movie throws a lot the audience’s way, and only gives them a couple minutes or so to process the information they were just given. There’s a lot of exposition in this last bit of the movie, yet the film still manages to leave a lot open-ended. A bit too open-ended. While everything comes full circle, not everything is explained. And while it’s encouraged that a movie shouldn’t have to necessarily spell everything out for its audience - after all, film is a visual experience - the fact that it still leaves a lot out winds up being a problem.
The film winds up being more ambiguous rather than setting things up for a fun discussion afterwards. Many of the questions raised are more so questions regarding the film’s overall logic and character’s questionable motivations. One will leave the theater thinking about it for a while afterwards. But they’ll be pondering how certain scenes no longer make any logical sense rather than anything of positive substance. The film would have benefited had it cut some filler out of the middle, moved the ending up, and then kept going to flesh out some of the new ideas it introduced.
The ending can easily make or break this experience, but Us - despite its faults - is otherwise mostly a fun time, with the good just managing to outweigh the bad. It can be uneven at times, never consistently being as frightening or suspenseful as one would hope it could be, and it there are a few moments where the story begins to feel slightly aimless. However, it’s got a nice dark sense of humor, and when it does manage to be creepy, it’s very creepy. It’s incredibly well-shot, and has a solid soundtrack. Plus, it has a talented cast, with Lupita Nyong’o giving two great performances, while Winston Duke provides some excellent comic relief. It may not reach the same consistent thrills that Get Out reached, but at the very least, it’s very entertaining. A deeply flawed, but still enjoyable experience.
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