Horror Movie Review: Us (2019)

After a very impressive debut with Get Out, a movie that most loved (including us – read our review here) there is expectation on director Jordan Peele with his second effort, Us.

Could he catch lightning twice and continue to change the face of modern horror?

The short answer is unfortunately no. Us is a clunky and flawed miss. However it is not a bad movie by any means. A great turn from lead Lupita Nyong’o, an intriguing idea and some inventive moments makes it a worthwhile watch. Just don’t be surprised if you’re left with a little gnawing disappointment by time the credits roll.

The movie begins in 1986 where we are introduced to Adelaide Thomas, a young girl on vacation with her parents. While her parents are busy at the fairground she wanders off to the beach and comes across a funhouse. She goes in and when the lights go off finds herself face to face with a doppelgänger.

Later she is found but the whole experience has traumatised her and left her unable to speak.

Fast forward to present day and a now-adult Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o) is having a holiday away with her husband, Gabe (Winston Duke) and two children, Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and Jason (Evan Alex). The beach house they are staying at is situated near the beach where she had her traumatic experience as a child so she isn’t exactly over the moon about the trip.

She goes along with it including going on a day out to the same beach. There, she has a panic moment when it seems as though Jason has disappeared but the boy had just wandered off. Strangely coming across a man in a red jumpsuit standing with his arms outstretched, blood dripping from his hand.

This is the beginning of the nightmare that is about to befall the family. That night, while getting ready for bed, Jason announces that there is a family outside standing in the driveway.

The foursome are holding hands and in the shadows. They don’t respond to Gabe’s request for them to leave. Only when he gets a baseball bat and threatens them do they move and it’s enough to see Gabe and his family try to barricade themselves inside.

Nothing is keeping the mystery intruders out though and once in, they take the family hostage revealing who they are.

They are doppelgängers of the family.

Adelaide’s other-self is known as Red, who is the only one who can speak. She reveals that they are shadows of the family and are here to kill them. Their happiness has caused suffering for the shadows and they wish to become ‘untethered’.

There’s more to the story of course but we’d be veering into spoilers territory. Let’s just say what we get is a catch and mouse style horror. Leading to a reveal that would be more impactful if it wasn’t signposted so heavily along the way.

A mix of home invasion, slasher horror and an episode of The Twilight Zone, Us works hard at trying to keep you guessing as to what might come next. Sadly, it fails and instead jumps from sequence to sequence with a fair amount of filler in between. Filler that involves a whole lot of talking and horror movie tropes.

Peele’s writing is not great here. Many times you’ll scratch your head wondering why a certain thing happens. For example, Adelaide doesn’t feel comfortable at the beach house so why even go?

His character work is flawed also. We really don’t know that much about Adelaide and her family but when compared to others they are walking encyclopaedias. The most disappointing of this is the ‘us’ in question lacking personalities and turned into nothing but basic-genre killers. The intrigue quickly disappears and the movie slows down to a painful crawl at times.

Great acting can’t fix flawed writing and there are several moments where the dialogue just misses. Such as the attempts to inject humour. These moments just feel off, referencing Home Alone’s traps while the bodies of your friends lie inches from your feet or gleefully getting to take their car because they’re dead. It just feels off.

As we said at the start, it’s Lupita Nyong’o who stands out in her duel role. Red is creepy and her voice, a croaked whisper of someone who rarely uses it, is excellent. As Adelaide, she leaves you feeling uncomfortable. Something is not quite right with her but you just can’t put your finger on it.

Another one who excels in the duel role is the young Evan Alex. Jason is an innocent pre-teen but his double, Pluto wears a mask and is almost feral. Their scenes together are really compelling.

Us is filled with moments that you’ll remember and spend ages analysing long afterwards. Enhanced by a score that is really memorable.

However, once you start pulling the threads you start to notice more and more issues. Even a lengthy monologue at the end can’t clear up all of them, instead coming across as audience insulting as if it wasn’t possible to follow along without it. It’s a lazy trope.

The big reveal is something that will divide viewers. On the one hand it is clever but on the other it didn’t need to be shown. There’s a strong argument for leaving what happens up to audience interpretation but instead, it might as well have put flashing arrows up saying ‘this is the twist’.