Jordan Peele, the creator of 2017 horror film and breakout hit ‘Get Out’, has released the highly anticipated film ‘Us’. ‘Us’ is a horror film about main character/protagonist Adelaide Wilson (Lupita Nyong’o) and her family encountering doppelgänger-like visitors during their trip to their beach house in Santa Cruz. Adelaide also has to confront the feelings from a traumatic experience from her childhood.

Released in America March 22, 2019, ‘Us‘ has a lot of symbolism, a tie in with a real world event and a plot twist ending which has led viewers looking for answers and wanting to rewatch the film more than once: including me.

In the first half, the movie opens up with a bunny’s eye staring straight into the camera, panning out to multiple bunnies in cages underground. The movie then opens to the year 1986 with a young version of Adelaide flipping through her living room tv when a commercial promoting ‘Hands Across America’ flashes across the screen. While it seemed like a normal commercial, something struck me as odd when the announcer said “America will be tethered together!”. I thought the wording was strange, however, I realized how brilliant the word “tethered” was and how the word played a part into a lot of symbolism in the film.

I enjoyed all the main character’s performances, what made everyone shine in my opinion were the performances of Adelaide, her husband Gabe (Winston Duke) and kids Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and Jason’s (Evan Alex) doppelgängers. With evil smirks, and stares, Zora and Evan’s doppelgängers Umbrae and Pluto were able to differentiate themselves from their more normal counterparts. Neither Umbrae not Pluto said a word: their body language and actions were enough for a good performance. I also liked the cinematography, and the color palette.

So far, Peele has started to gain a reputation of having films with deeper meanings, which is a good thing. In my opinion, it’s good to have films with plots that are not always what is seems. However, I did feel a little disappointed because the movie was not as scary as the trailers had made it out to be. However, the film’s use of music and lighting kept you on edge. I also have to honest with myself: a part of me was happy it was not too scary so I wouldn’t have to hide under my blanket I had brought with me the whole time.

I may have had some gripes with this movie but I am happy about the representation of black people, especially darker skinned people playing main roles in a horror film. The characters were fully fleshed out and were not in the background, just a supporting role, or comic relief for a protagonist.

Overall, ‘US‘ is a great film and everyone should see it.

Rating: 7/10

‘Us‘ is now in the theaters worldwide.