[Review] Us: The Creative Horror of Jordan Peele Continues

Last year, director Jordan Peele won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Get Out. His new film, Us, recently premiered, and many viewers are curious if it can rival his previous work, once again delivering a highly creative horror film.

While his previous work, Get Out, explored racial issues from an innovative angle, this time in Us, he takes an innovative approach to a home invasion film, with its central theme being "invasion" itself. The film's basic premise is similar to typical home invasion movies: a house is invaded, and the occupants try to repel the attackers or escape. However, the film's biggest distinguishing feature, and its most crucial element, is that the invaders (hereafter referred to as "the Tethered") look identical to the occupants. The house's residents are seemingly fighting against themselves. This setup is particularly vital to the film's plot and themes. As the story unfolds, the film presents many unexpected twists, but ultimately, it always circles back to this core idea: we are our own worst enemies.

The film's structure primarily consists of three "confrontations." The first confrontation revolves around the protagonist, Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o), and her family encountering their "Tethered" in their home for the first time. They discover subtle similarities with these "Tethered," but these doppelgängers have lived in the shadows, without freedom, enduring harsh lives. Adelaide's "Tethered," Red, seems to be the only one among them who can speak, and she declares that they are "Americans." The second confrontation takes place at the home of the protagonist's friends, where they discover that their friends also have their own "Tethered" and have been killed and replaced. They also find out through TV news that "the Tethered" have invaded across the entire nation. The third confrontation occurs at the beach and amusement park that Adelaide visited as a child, a place that has haunted her dreams. In this confrontation, Adelaide's son, Jason, is captured by Red. Adelaide follows them back to the hall of mirrors where she got lost as a child and where she had previously encountered her "Tethered." Finally, Adelaide reaches the origin of "the Tethered"—a vast underground tunnel system. She learns from Red again about the Tethered's origin: they are byproducts of a failed US government experiment that created doppelgängers for every citizen in an attempt to control the surface population. After the experiment failed, the government left these "Tethered" in the underground tunnels; they were uneducated and therefore could not speak; their only food was white rabbits; and they were confined underground, mimicking every action of their surface counterparts. Ultimately, Adelaide kills Red, rescues Jason, and tries to escape with her family to safety. At this point, Adelaide remembers something from her childhood: she was not only met by Red in the hall of mirrors as a child but was also knocked unconscious and locked in the underground tunnels. Therefore, the Adelaide we see for most of the movie is actually "the Tethered," and the real Adelaide is Red, who led the other "Tethered" in their uprising.

Jordan Peele was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director last year for Get Out, and with him directing another horror film this time, many undoubtedly had extremely high expectations. As it turns out, he did not disappoint, continuing the style of his previous work to create a film that blends horror and humor, and is rich with social commentary. The film opens with Adelaide's childhood experience at the beach and amusement park. The park, typically a place of joy, becomes chilling in the film, capturing a strong sense of unease from Adelaide's perspective, as if something bad could happen at any moment. This opening sequence, and indeed the entire film, avoids typical horror jump scares, instead focusing on building an unsettling atmosphere, once again confirming the director's skill. The pace from the opening scene until Adelaide and her family successfully escape their first "confrontation" is very fast; in the middle section, starting with the second confrontation at Kitty's house, the pace slows down slightly, incorporating more humorous scenes, in line with the director's style; the third "confrontation" spends more time on explanation, further slowing the pace, and the climax might fall short of what audiences expect. Viewers seeking jump scares or a relentlessly tense horror atmosphere might be a little disappointed.

A major element of the film is the characters' "Tethered." The actors had to portray not only the main characters but also their doppelgängers. Apart from Red, the other "Tethered" have no dialogue, relying solely on expression and movement to create a terrifying feeling, posing considerable challenges for the actors. However, the most outstanding performer throughout the film is undoubtedly the protagonist, Lupita Nyong’o. Her portrayal of Adelaide is already on edge about everything. With the appearance of "the Tethered," she must use every means to protect her family, revealing a fierce side. Simultaneously, though her role as Red has limited dialogue, her raspy voice, every expression, and every movement are enough to make one uneasy. These diverse interpretations truly showcase her versatile acting. On the other hand, Winston Duke, who plays Adelaide's husband Gabe, though with less screen time, perfectly embodies Gabe's simple-minded character, providing abundant humorous moments for the film. Additionally, the design of the "Tethered" costumes and the underground tunnels in the film bear a strong resemblance to prison uniforms and prisons themselves, seemingly showing considerable thought in connecting with the film's theme.

As mentioned earlier, the film involves elements like "the Tethered" and government experiments, whose concepts and practical workings raise further questions, essentially making it a sci-fi premise. However, the director doesn't seem to intend to answer all the questions raised in the film; instead, he focuses on using these elements and the plot to convey the film's theme. This might dissatisfy many viewers, who might feel the film has a weak ending, lacking a complete story and explanation. The director's previous work, Get Out, centered on the issue of Black identity. Many viewers, knowing that the protagonists of Us are Black actors—Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave) and Black Panther star Winston Duke—might immediately assume this film is also about Black issues, even presuming that Elisabeth Moss, the Golden Globe and Emmy winner for The Handmaid’s Tale, who plays their wealthy white friend Kitty, would be the film's villain. However, when Kitty and her family are killed by their "Tethered" in the middle of the film, the movie seemingly tells us: this film's focus is not on race or class.

The film centers on the protagonists fighting invaders, and these invaders are precisely themselves. We are our own worst enemies, but what exactly is "us"? For most people, "us" refers to a group sharing common values, traits, and connections; therefore, "them"—those attempting to invade "us"—are the groups that are different, that possess disparities. These disparities typically include gender, race, culture, sexual orientation, ideology, etc. However, if the film were merely about an invasion by outsiders, then the film's proposition would be "they are our greatest enemies." The film's most ingenious point lies in the final explanation regarding the swapped identities of Adelaide and Red. Some might find this to be superfluous, not significantly aiding the plot itself, or even overturning everything that came before. But from the film's theme, this detail makes the entire film's theme more complete and further solidifies the director's discourse within the film. Most of the film seems to emphasize the differences between the protagonists and "the Tethered," and how brutal and terrifying "the Tethered" are, creating an image of "the Tethered" as enemies. However, when we learn that Adelaide and Red swapped places as children, and then look at their current personalities and behaviors, we understand that the biggest difference between "us" and "them" lies in the environment they grew up in, and the freedom and opportunities "we" received. Given the same environment, freedom, and opportunities, "they" could also become "us." If "we" and "they" are the same, then "they are our enemies" is a false proposition. Therefore, our fear and hostility towards "them" are our greatest enemies, and the truth we try to bury, along with the lies we constantly tell, are also our greatest enemies on the path to achieving justice and equality.

Trailer:

Synopsis:

Set in present day along the iconic Northern California coastline, Us, from Monkeypaw Productions, stars Oscar® winner Lupita Nyong’o as Adelaide Wilson, a woman returning to her beachside childhood home with her husband, Gabe (Black Panther’s Winston Duke), and their two children (Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex) for an idyllic summer getaway. Haunted by an unexplainable and unresolved trauma from her past and compounded by a string of eerie coincidences, Adelaide feels her paranoia elevate to high-alert as she grows increasingly certain that something bad is going to befall her family. After spending a tense beach day with their friends, the Tylers (Emmy winner Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker, Cali Sheldon, Noelle Sheldon), Adelaide and her family return to their vacation home. When darkness falls, the Wilsons discover the silhouette of four figures holding hands as they stand in the driveway. Us pits an endearing American family against a terrifying and uncanny opponent: doppelgängers of themselves.

Photo and Source: Universal Pictures