There are few genres in film as revealing of the human mind as that of horror. Horror forces the audience and director alike to ask, “What is it that really frightens us?”
It is a highly pertinent question for the modern movie-goer. When you have had your share of films about zombies, haunted houses and shark-filled-tornados, you are left with asking yourself what is it that remains to frighten you; buried within your psyche, what are you really afraid of when simple monster displays can no longer do the trick?
The answer is in the title of Jordan Peele’s latest and greatest film, Us.
The story begins with a flashback to the 1970s, when a young Adelaide Thomas separates from her parents while on vacation in sunny Santa Cruz. While lost in a house of mirrors, she sees her own reflection turn around and smile at her. She runs away, but that smile would haunt her for the rest of her life. The movie fast forwards to the present day, where Adelaide (now played by Lupita Nyong'o) has built a family comprising her husband Gabe (Winston Duke), her daughter Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and her little son Jason “Pluto” Wilson (Evan Alex). As they move into a quintessentially Californian vacation home, they are greeted with a family of four in their driveway. Four terrifying doppelgängers—known in the film as “tethers”—of the main characters. Naturally, played by the same actors.
The tethers serve as deranged opposites of the main cast; matching them physically though as completely distorted versions of them. Adelaide’s tether, “Red”, is essentially the same person albeit raised under immensely-poorer circumstances. Pluto’s tether is a speechless manic version of himself who moves on all fours. The tethers hate their counterparts with a visceral fury and seek out a highly-performative revenge from them. This forms the primary conflict of the story.
Red’s character is fantastically-acted and one of the highlights of the show. Lupita Nyong'o delivers an iconic and researched performance both for Adelaide and for her tether. In an era of increasing mental health awareness, her depiction of Anxiety or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder will stand out as accurate and empathetic. When she first speaks, it is through a terrifying raspy voice that sounds as if she hadn’t had a sip of water in years. It is a voice that comes from effort, as Lupita researched spasmodic dysphonia with a team of specialists to get it down right.
The film is a testimony to great film-making and has all the makings of an iconic classic. The cinematography is paced, deliberate, and elegant to a fault. Some of the tensest moments on screen are just extreme close-ups of Zora’s tether – a little girl whose smile is easily the most frightening thing about the entire film. The shots are almost always perfect compositions, with a deceptively simple two-shot in the film’s climax demonstrating the stark differences between Adelaide and her Tether. A powerful soundtrack backs the pace, blending the Beach Boys with N.W.A. and some R&B Soul for the art of it all.
The technical mastery of the process is just a prop to an overall fantastic performance by the main crew. Duke—of Black Panther fame—is a jovial comedic relief who plays the essential American dad. Refreshingly, he does not end up playing the role of rescuer-of-all (despite his enormous build) – Lupita and her children are firmly in charge of being the film’s key badasses. For a very tense and serious film, there are moments where the family betray the writer’s sitcom roots, as they crack jokes and find humour in situations that are anything but funny.
Unlike many films, Us is not big on really explaining its setup and how the larger world came to be. Once you have finished watching the film, you will want to explore the world of fan theories (trust me you won’t be disappointed) and the numerous small Easter Eggs buried within the text. The movie stands by itself but you won’t necessarily have all the answers you seek by just watching it.
Jordan Peele, best known for Key & Peele and of course for the Oscar-winning Get Out (2017), has created a deeply “woke” film that explores the underlying tale of privilege and denial that defines contemporary American society. In a world where we take comfort in the narrative of “us” vs “them”, the truest horror is to be put face-to-face with a “them” who are none other than “us”. Us will age well and is a healthy study for any student of horror cinema. This is one film that gets it right on almost every count.
Film: Us
Director: Jordan Peele
Starring: Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker, Evan Alex, Shahadi Wright Joseph
Rating: 4.5/5
