Actors Lupita Nyong’o, Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex in a scene from “Us” (2019). Photo courtesy of IMDB
By Catherine Engstrom-Hadley
Staff Writer
“Us” is Jordan Peele’s second horror movie after 2017’s “Get Out,” the Oscar winner of best screenplay. Peele shot “Us” in under a year.
“It turns out I can make a movie from start to finish in about a year, although a lifetime of imagery was tapped for it,” said Peele, in an interview with Polygon.
For being made in such a short span of time, the movie delivers a lifetime of nightmares for its viewers.
The film opens with a commercial for the “Hands Across America” benefit event of the 80s. It’s young Adelaide’s birthday (Madison Curry), and later in the day she heads to the beach with her parents. As a storm rolls in at sundown, Adelaide finds herself drawn to a house of mirrors called “shaman’s vision quest.”
When Adelaide is inside the house of mirrors, she runs into a familiar face—her own.
Years later, Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o) has grown up. She has a husband, Gabe (Winston Duke), and two kids Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and Jason (Evan Alex).
As a family, they return to the beach from Adelaide’s childhood. Adelaide seems uneasy being in the house, and even more terrified of a simple trip to the beach where she saw herself all those years ago.
At the beach, Evan is distracted by a character near the same house of mirrors Adelaide went to years back, but now it’s called “Merlyn’s Forest.” Adelaide rushes the family home, only to have her worst fears come true when she sees that same familiar face from the shaman’s vision quest standing in her driveway. Suddenly, the family has to fight for survival against themselves.
Winston Duke deserves full credit for absolutely nailing his role as Gabe, and for bringing great humor during some of the darkest moments. The child actors were all very convincing in their roles. They took the characters and made them so familiar. They could be your kids; your niece and nephew.
The true star, however, was Lupita Nyong’o. She played both her characters with such amazing duality, such flawless transition and delivery between the two. This is the performance that will win her a second Oscar.
Special shout out to Elizabeth Moss and Tim Hidecker for being the funniest parts of this movie. Without including major spoilers, keep eyes peeled for the lipstick scene with Moss. Truly hilarious.
The sound—not just the soundtrack, but the sound design of this movie—is one of the major elements that you can’t capture if you don’t see it in the theater. It’s nauseating, haunting and for sure a bop. Overall, the cinematography is beautiful and purposeful.
If you love hunting for Easter eggs, the shots give away just enough to keep your eyes dancing for clues on the screen. Moviegoers would benefit from paying attention to details like the names “shaman’s vision quest” and “Merlyn’s Forest.”
Traditionally associated with indigenous cultures as a coming of age ritual, a shaman’s vision quest is said to reveal visions of the sacred world and allows the practitioner to manifest reality to “heal them and make them whole,” according to the website “Path of the Feather” run by shaman Michael Samuels. And in the film, homage is also paid to other tales of Merlyn’s Forest, also called Brocéliande, where Merlin the wizard is reduced to a babbling infant by the fountain of youth.
Peele gives plenty of nods to the greats, like “Nightmare on Elm Street,” “The Shining,” “Goonies,” “The Lost Boys,” and more.
This movie grabs you, takes you on a wild ride and is over before you even know what hit you. It is worthy of a trip to the theater once, if not twice.
Jordan Peele has revived a dead genre of horror and put a completely new and horrifying spin on it.
