Us review: Jordan Peele delivers on horror classic
Us graphic. Illustration by: Jake Barnard
The natural question to ask after seeing Us directed by Jordan Peele is “how does it stack up against Get Out?” The answer is, who cares? They are both fantastic movies and need to be seen multiple times in order to fully connect the pieces.
Us is a fresh new take on the horror movie genre. Peele does an excellent job of being able to switch the tone of the movie from comedy to serious, sometimes with them interwoven. The comedy is never over-the-top, with the Wilson family reacting to the strangest of situations with laughter.
The movie starts in 1986 with a young girl at a beach side carnival with her family. While there she wanders off to the beach. On the beach there is a fun house with a sign that reads “find yourself.” Naturally she goes inside and comes across a hall-of-mirrors and gets lost. She begins to whistle the tune, “The Itsy Bitsy Spider,” when someone else whistles it back. This “who” is the question of the movie.
The character building in the beginning with the Wilson’s is a bit slow, but it gets by through Lupita Nyong’o performance. She is timid and nervous, while trying to stay positive on her family vacation.
The children Jason and Zora, played by Evan Alex and Shahadi Wright Joseph also had good performances. Alex and Joseph do a great job of balancing the comedic timing with coming back to reality with the situation that their family is in.
The movie picks back up with the arrival of “us,” the doppelgangers of the Wilson family dressed in red. From then on, you will be locked in with the impending thought of “what does Jordan Peele have happening next?” He creates suspense through great camera work and score. Peele uses quite a bit of tracking shots, especially around corners. The score, with the tight, biting strings, is just sinister in the playing.
Us doesn’t surpass Get Out, but deserves to be seen twice in the same respect. Once you leave the movie, you will immediately want to see it again.