'Us' Unpacks a Bag of Stimulating Psychological Horror

Us film poster.

Us, writer/director Jordan Peele's follow up to Oscar-winning Get Out, puts the middle class black family in peril twice. It starts with a small television playing a commercial, a hands across America campaign to fight hunger. The charts are red and blue. Red and blue figures joining hands to bring peace and harmony.

Circa 1986, at the amusement park on the beach of Santa Cruz, Adelaide "Adele" is a silent child who wanders off from her father. She holds onto a red apple-- a red apple so deliciously enticing that it dominates the scene with rich, intense purpose. As thunder and lightning strike and the rain falls, she stumbles into a fun house and the madness begins. Although all the mirrors show her reflection, she is stunned to find someone else, an exact replica. Afterwards, she is even more withdrawn.

Young Adele (Madison Curry) puts on a scare worthy acting display that is mostly unspoken. 

It is important to note how young Adele studied her parents, studied the world around her as if plotting to mimic everything. The childlike desire to do this is a natural inclination. In young Adele, however, there certainly appears to be a newness in how she stares, how she interacts. At the therapy office, she is absent of affection, quite robotic and distant when her father pats her shoulder. This behavior further demonstrates how much the environment affects the individual.

In present day, Adele has married a man much like her father-- tall, dark skinned Gabe Wilson. They have two children--Zora and Jason, the youngest a keen, observant boy who dons a mask throughout. Again, masks portray a sense of wanting to hide true self, to retain a mystery.

Gabe (Winston Duke), Adele (Lupita Nyong'o), and Jason (Evan Alex) look out at danger.

The family are at their vacation home for the summer in Santa Cruz. Whilst enjoying a lusciously red strawberry, as inviting as the red apple yet symbolically conveying an adult persona, Adele refuses going to the beach or socializing. They do so at Gabe's urging. At night, after 11:11 PM, The Tethered arrive and the real fright begins. The Tethered are human clones dressed in matching red jumpsuits holding gold surgical scissors, shadows living underground, living beneath the house of mirrors, abandoned and left to fend for themselves, all stark, raving mad and hungry. At the same time, they are able to replicate the activities their human counterparts possess. Interesting too, The Tethered communicate through grunts and sounds, but Adele's, Red, is the only one that can speak.

"It's us," Jason says of the family in their driveway.

The twist sheds compelling light. Adele is actually Red, The Tethered living among humans, having cruelly pulled real Adele inside the mirror as a child. Red just wanted a normal life and decided to take over Adele's. The Tethered can procreate, meaning Zora and Jason are half human, half clone. Adele seeks revenge for the cruel switch. At the same time, she has masterminded the whole entire scheme of world domination with the educated mentality of a child growing up angry and malnourished. She has ultimately become evil. Still, it's not quite clear on how Adele became trapped in the underworld or why it took long for her to rise to the surface with the others. Why this particular summer to wreak havoc? Adele also knew how The Tethered came to being without no one uttering a word to her. Red has always known that Adele would come, but appears flabbergasted that her human half orchestrated a whole plot that stemmed mostly from hatred with beings that are not her species. Moreover, the switcheroo has affected them: Adele's rage manifested beyond her feelings for Red and Red's insertion into humanity gave a false sense of security.

Finally, Lupita is given the freedom to unleash her craft.

Red (Lupita Nyong'o) and her scissors.

The performances are absolutely stellar. Every actor channels believable emotional complexities with or without dialogue, using facial expressions and body motions to pull this narrative forward. Standout Lupita Nyong'o puts on an incredible double performance full of complex range from frightening and vulnerable to sinister and twisted. In her animated eyes, the significant tears are eerily reminiscent of Daniel Kaluuya's Chris in Get Out. Yet the creepy, raspy voice of Red downright cements the phenomenal depth of Nyong'o's talent as an actress, that avidly speaks on her finessing all methods acting allows. After winning an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2012, this is her first starring role. Us definitely showcases why she should have been leading films for years.

Winston Duke brings humor and light to an otherwise dark and dreary story. His bespectacled, Howard educated Gabe is quite the opposite of Black Panther's M'Baku. Gabe evokes the typical middle class father personality, articulating the proper accent to a tee. Gabe is envious of Tony (whose similar to Iron Man/Tony Stark-- in terms of arrogance and wealth)-- his larger house, his high tech Ophelia (aka an advanced Suri), his larger boat, his flare fun. Gabe doesn't covet Tony's white wife, Kitty, always seen to be the idealized trophy of status quo black men like him. He is also infallible, wounded early on, walking with a makeshift crutch during the later parts. With the temporary physical loss, his resourcefulness becomes a reliable strength.

Spoiled, self-absorbed, Kitty (Elizabeth Moss) is shot with such intensity, as though her blue-eyed, blond-haired presence is a thing to marvel and idolize.  

From Virgin to Mad Men to Top of the Lake to The Handmaid's Tale, Golden Globe and Emmy award winning Elizabeth Moss continues delivering exceptional work with a pretty juicy supporting part. Kitty's first appearance voices white women's obsession with youthfulness and their envy of black women's agelessness. Kitty has gotten work done (funny considering that Moss and Nyong'o are the same age). Kitty's doppelganger's scissors can't cut Adele's face because either the struggle to destroy such flawless beauty seems wasted or she knows that Adele is not human, but is confused by Adele speaking. Moss exhibits fine acting elements particularly when Kitty's tethered puts on lipstick and stares at her grotesque reflection.

Jason and his doppelganger both have a fascination with fire. Strangely, however, his double is dog like, a family pet. 

The child actors are undeniably brilliant-- Madison Curry as young Adele, Shahadi Wright Joseph as Zora, and Evan Alex as Jason showed that up and coming Black talent have champions to future thrones. The perfect young Adele adjacent to Nyong'o, Curry's giant eyes, wide opened mouth, and braided hair with white ball barrettes hued in blue cleverly frames a new horror aesthetic. Her passive silence stirs and electrifies. She is able to convey a quietness stemmed from shy, vulnerability and a quietness that is vacant, almost inhuman. Joseph's Zora has the modern teenager attitude to a science. She then grows up overnight, killing any clone endangering her family and it is a bloody, dangerous business. Now this is a black girl heroine. Alex as Jason exemplifies the plight of the little Black boy, often misunderstood, the especially precious child to Adele. He likes to tease and frighten his sister as brothers often do. When he disappears and leaves Adele frantic, he returns and later asks her if she thought he was dead. That question spoken softly from Alex's young child's voice, poignantly addresses that though the Wilsons are privileged, they're still Black and not immune to the brutalities racism provokes.

Other cast highlights: Anna Diop-- a solid choice in playing Adele's worrisome mother who misses her daughter's voice. Howard alum Napiera Groves of As The World Turns makes a small cameo as the therapist pushing Adele into pursuing a creative outlet.

Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) shoulders her father, Gabe (Winston Duke) through an apocalyptic morning.

Us shows Black people surviving a massacre, shows white people dying first, dying many times, and no dead black casualties-- an opposition to the history of horror films and real life situations. And the police never showed up! Again, the law enforcement role in Peele's films are an imperative detail in both Get Out and Us. Whereas Chris is frightened when he sees those flashing red and blue lights, the police don't come to the Wilson family's aide and Kitty's request to Ophelia to call them is denied by a specific N.W.A. song. Peele has recently come under fire for acknowledging Black talent and commitment to having that Black talent (which goes virtually unnoticed for years and years) lead his films. He is performing a commendable service that upsets others so much because his passionate words actively followed through on those words.

The gorgeous cinematography-- an appreciative kudos to noir and nostalgic horror with Hitchcockian repetitive rabbits and bird flocks-- operates well alongside Michael Abel's heartstopping score. The excellent music choices heighten scenes to petrifying degrees, especially that profoundly epic The Tethered Vs. Human fight with the haunting, pronounced "I Got Five On It" piano keys. Lord. Even the opening "Anthem" theme (featuring a haunting, harmonious choir) pleases and forces the head to bop shamelessly.

Red in red and Adele in white asks the audience who is truly good and villainous in the scenario. Red wanted to kill Adele of course. Yet she has killed nobody in the film.

Like the hypnotic, lilting sounds silver spoons make against the rim of tea cups, the quick flicking scissors ignites a refreshingly unique source of terror. By bringing in Black Renaissance and Black capabilities in this contemporary age of filmmaking, entering specifically through the horror genre, Peele and Monkeypaw Productions created another great work with Us.