Us (2019)

Directed by: Jordan Peele | 116 minutes | horror, thriller | Actors: Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Anna Diop, Cali Sheldon, Noelle Sheldon, Madison Curry

It’s 1986. A young girl watches a Hands Across America ad in which 6.5 million Americans form a human chain to draw attention to poverty alleviation. It is not necessarily your average opening scene of a horror film, but with the knowledge you have gained after seeing Jordan Peele’s ‘Us’, the choice for this (existing) commercial is completely appropriate. Just like the scene that follows, in which the same girl gets lost at a fair in a coastal town and ends up in a haunted house, with the ominous banner ‘Find Yourself’, where she encounters her ‘mirror image’. It should be clear: ‘Us’ is anything but a flat horror film, but it is bursting with ambiguities, whether subtle or not.

The silhouettes and reflections are numerous and already cast their shadows ahead of what is to come, in Jordan Peele’s second feature film (‘Get Out’). Without treading the slippery ice full of spoilers, ‘Us’ revolves around a family who one evening has a family dressed in red robes on the doorstep. Where father Gabe (a hilarious Winston Duke) – the type of film father that you can hardly rely on in times of horror and apocalypse – initially remains polite, he soon resorts to clearly forced macho behaviour: ‘If you wanna get grazy, we can get crazy!’ It doesn’t have much effect: the hostile family invades their house fairly easily. Then the family turns out to be their literal ‘mirror image’, in other words: ‘It’s us.’ Or as Mother Adelaide’s doppelganger (Lupita Nyong’o) replies: ‘We’re Americans’ – ha-llo ambiguity.

The moment the ‘mirror family’ makes its appearance, it is briefly questionable whether this won’t be a tiresome gimmick, but especially the doppelganger, played almost perfectly by Nyong’o, quickly removes all doubt. Terrifying, funny, and also tragic; especially with the knowledge gained at the end of the film, it’s impossible not to praise Nyong’o’s unparalleled, Oscar-worthy role. Where Daniel Kaluuya in ‘Get Out’ mainly functioned as the viewer’s alter ego, Nyong’o is a much less reliable protagonist here. To the extent that the concepts of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ seem meaningless towards the end of the film. It is unbelievable how Nyong’o effortlessly explores all the shades of gray of her character(s) here.

Constantly making a comparison with ‘Get Out’ – which Peele was the first African-American filmmaker to win an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay – is a bit silly, but also unavoidable at the same time. Because where Peele made no secret of his ‘agenda’ in ‘Get Out’, ‘Us’ is more ambivalent. Is it the silenced underclass that comes here to take revenge on the wealthy upper world? ‘While you were served a hot, tasty meal, we ate raw rabbit,’ one of the doppelganger says halfway through the film. The fact is that Peele’s message in ‘Us’ comes to the surface less conspicuously, and that more than helps with the guesswork afterwards.

Perhaps that’s why ‘Us’ can best be classified as a slightly philosophical horror: the film works both as a highly entertaining genre film (and offers enough gory), but can also drag the viewer into a labyrinth full of endless imaginations. The real fanatics can also indulge themselves with the countless references to other horror films: Peele again shows himself to be a great fan. Moreover, humor and horror are perfectly balanced again, best expressed in the over-spoiled couple Josh and Kitty (played with visible pleasure by Tim Heidecker and Elisabeth Moss).

With Peele, horror never becomes mere exploitation: beneath all the violence, something always gnaws beneath the surface. In addition, ‘Us’ with an African-American family in the lead role – unfortunately still unique – once again proves that the average movie viewer cannot be attracted only by white protagonists. In fact, the box office success of films like ‘Get Out’, ‘Black Panther’ and now also ‘Us’ demonstrates once again that the conservative adage that films with black actors in the lead sell less well is outdated nonsense.

And pay special attention to the masterful soundtrack. ‘Fuck the Police’ has never been used so wonderfully ironically, ‘The Beach Boys’ never came at such a bad time and a sublime remix of ‘I Got 5 On It’ serves as a crucial constant here. But the undisputed highlight is a beautifully choreographed and edited ‘ballet scene’, which comes close to the dance sequence in ‘Suspiria’ (2018) that has now become almost classic.

Here and there Peele is compared to Hitchcock, Spielberg and M. Night Shyamalan (if the latter still counts as an example). But a filmmaker who delivers two social-satirical horror masterpieces in three years no longer needs comparison with other great masters. Jordan Peele is Jordan Peele, and after two undisputed direct hits, that is now more than enough reason to go straight to the cinema.