Day 4 of a horror movie every night of October! This time I watched Us, the 2019 movie from writer, producer, and director Jordan Peele. Peele established himself in the horror genre with his 2017 offering Get Out, a movie that became an instant favorite of mine, so you can imagine how hyped I was to see Us last night. However, despite being a creative story with stellar acting performances, Us fails to live up to the horror standards of its predecessor.
First, the positives: Lupita Nyong’o is quickly becoming my favorite actress. She gives an excellent performance in Us, and her intensity and emotion are probably the best parts of the movie. Us also features excellent child actors, Shahadi Joseph and Evan Alex, who give terrific performances that are especially impressive given the bizarre material they had to work with. Winston Duke also plays his part well, but about halfway through his character begins to feel like a goofy caricature and takes away from the tone of the movie. The plot of Us is quite creative, and I would love to see more exploration of the world it builds. However, this also lends itself to some of the weaker qualities of the movie.
Us is a movie that never quite feels like it knows what it wants to be. There are elements of suspense, comedy, and sci-fi present, but each tone overtakes the other in a cyclical nature throughout the movie that it never really gives itself the chance to establish an identity. The audience is kept in the dark for most of the movie, but we receive a total lore dump with about 20 minutes left that, in my opinion, not only asks more questions than it answers but breaks several of its own rules within the same breath that they’re introduced in. I can’t talk specifics because I do believe Us is a movie best experienced with as little information as possible, but in the climax of a horror movie I should be on the edge of my seat rather than focusing on questions like “Wait, but I thought…” and “But how does that work?” Peele’s work is definitely thought-provoking, and that is a good thing! In Us, the thought-provoking takes place at the wrong time and gets in the way of any horror you may have experienced.
Which brings me to my big takeaway from Us: I could never pin down what exactly I was supposed to find scary. As a horror movie veteran, movies rarely ever scare me, but I can always appreciate the thinking behind the intended horror. Yep, I would be pretty scared of that 6’5″ man in a hockey mask murdering my friends. Absolutely I’d be pooping myself at a little girl spider-crawling toward me with an upside-down head. But throughout Us, a plethora of things stop me from really resting in the scariness of the situation, whether it be bizarre mannerisms, confusing sci-fi theory, or out-of-place jokes that upset the tone. I believe horror is a genre that can force us to consider uncomfortable ideas and ask ourselves important questions, but I don’t believe it should be doing that to the point that we forget there’s something to be scared of.
