Whatever your opinion is on Jordan Peele’s movies, you can’t deny that he isn’t an experimental creator. Such is the extent of his wild imagination when it comes to making horror that you could be forgiven for forgetting his comedic roots as one half of the Key and Peele comedy duo, instead replacing that time in his career with vaguely amusing ideas of him cobbling together dark, twisted and unique horror stories like some crazed scientist. I enjoyed Get Out very much, and with Us, Peele manages to exceed himself once again, as he continues his staggering transformation from occasionally hilarious sketch comedian to Hitchcockian master of suspense.

Us (not the most convenient name for constant reference in a written review) is a horror movie produced, written and directed by Jordan Peele. The movie features a brilliant cast, including Lupita NYong’o (and her harrowing evil laugh which will haunt my dreams and spawn relentless impressions from me doing her creepy voice to my friends, but more on that later), Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker, and young actors Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex. The plot centres around an ordinary family, who are confronted by murderous doppelgangers of themselves. What follows is a tense and suspenseful fight for survival, one which will see N’Yongo’s character in particular face themes such as identity and duality in nature (my word, I feel like I’m writing a Jekyll and Hyde essay. Seeing as that brings up the glaringly terrifying truth of my upcoming exams, I’m just going to move on to my thoughts on the movie and be happy in blissful ignorance 🙂 ).

This movie is, cutting any pretences, excellent. Us is, in my humble opinion, one of the deepest, most complex and tense horror movies to come out of Hollywood in quite a while. However, my opinion will likely be contrasted by those who disliked the movie, which is something I could definitely understand. It might be that you’re not a, ‘horror person’, or the bleak, reflective, and often ambiguous nature of the film. That being said, I’ll provide my genuine impression of Us, and then if you see it, you can develop your own opinion and understanding of the movie. It’s really hard not to give anything away: ultimately, you’re best going in completely blind. Just know that I loved it.

Peele has constructed a movie which stands alone as an original story, but is still open to interpretation. People will go into this to see a brutal and suspense-heavy, frightening horror movie, and whilst there is a good deal of this to satisfy on that front in the first half of the film, Us evolves in its second and third Acts into a very different beast. So rare is it that we get a movie in this genre which interweaves various little narrative moments and character ticks into the story in meaningful ways, something that Peele experimented with in Get Out. But Us delivers, intelligently compiling story elements in engaging ways. I literally couldn’t be any more vague, but I feel it’s important that if you’re considering seeing the movie, you get that ‘surprise factor’ from the developments, specifically in Act three. Hence the reason for my irritating vagueness (if I haven’t already annoyed you enough with my terrible puns).

Peele liberally draws inspiration from past horror classics, paying homage with references dotted throughout the movie, and largely, he stays away from clichés. What I will say is that there is a lot of people walking through dark rooms at a very slow pace, and aesthetically in those scenes it can feel almost too shadowy (obviously the desired effect is mystery, but some of those scenes are dragged out for tension). Still, that’s only a little nit-pick, because Peele puts a very personal spin on this movie. His shooting style is varied and interesting, and he’s fantastic at creating tension, something a variety of great strong choices allows him to do, as a bizarrely chilling ‘I’ve got Five on it’ accompanies say, the scene of a brutal murder (not to get into specifics). Just to add to that, the score by Michael Abels is very atmospheric too, being justly reminiscent of the one used on Get Out.

Let’s talk about the cast. Lupita NYong’o is terrific, able to broadly play emotional extremes as she handles dual characters. In scenes where she’s essentially having a conversation with herself (all of which are extremely creepy), she makes the cuts feel authentic, and she brings an emotion and vulnerability to her character that the Oscars would recognise… if this wasn’t a horror movie. Winston Duke also has a challenging role, having to come across as both boisterous and charming, but also as a father struggling with this frankly bizarre turn of events, and I feel he did really well at conveying this. NYong’o plays the main and most layered character in the film, but Duke provides the charisma which keeps the energy going in the family dynamic going on in the movie. The child actors are all talented (I won’t be to ruthless – I do have a heart, contrary to popular belief), and whilst the ensemble isn’t large, everyone is convincing. There isn’t really a moment in the movie where you question the characters, the suspense built or the believability of it all. Us is only elevated further by its stellar cast.

If I was going to nit-pick, whilst I do like that the movie is open to interpretation thanks to its plentiful themes and metaphors, some aspects of it are perhaps a little too ambiguous. This was something I discovered after I’d got back from seeing Us, and I was telling my Dad the plot of the movie, unable to answer some of his questions due to the ambiguity utilised at length by Peele. However, I’m really just over-indulging my critical license: Us is thoroughly entertaining, refreshingly unique from other movies I’ve seen with similar ideas to it in the past, and even if it proves to be divisive, I think it’s the best movie I’ve seen this year at the cinema. Although seeing as we’re only in March at the time of writing, that’s subject to change…

VERDICT: EXCELLENT

I apologise that I haven’t gone into depth, but to anyone reading this who has seen the movie, I hope you can see what I’m referring to in some of my more ambiguous points. If you liked this review, please follow me on Twitter (@IamtheSenate18), and feel free to share this post across mediums if you enjoyed it. Other than that, thanks for reading, and I bid you adieu! 🙂